Lourdes suffered a pair of setbacks to NAIA top-10 foes on Friday as the Gray Wolves began play at the Grand View Moulten Invitational held in the Charles S. Johnson Wellness Center in Des Moines, Iowa.  Lourdes fell in five sets, 25-16, 25-23, 22-25, 16-25, 15-10 to fourth-ranked Missouri Baptist in the afternoon before suffering a four set loss, 24-26, 28-26, 26-24, 25-23 to 10^th-ranked Hope International to close the night.
 
In the opener against Missouri Baptist (5-1), Lourdes managed just six kills in the opening set and allowed the Spartans to swing at a .393 and .368 clip over the first two sets respectively to build a 2-0 lead in the match.  The Gray Wolves battled back, hitting a blistering .722 with 15 kills on just 18 swings in the fourth, to tie the match, but Missouri Baptist tallied 10 kills on 15 swings with just one error in the finale to pull out the win.
 
We started off slowly, and looked like we were not quite ready to compete," head coach Greg Reitz said between matches.  "Our play changed in the third and fourth, and we played very well in the fourth.  We did not play as efficiently in the fifth set and it cost us the match.  The positive was that we battled well after being down to force the fifth set though."
 
Lourdes hit .224 for the match, with Colby Magorien (Agoura Hills, Calif./Westlake H.S.) leading the way with 14 kills.  Ryan Maune (Washington, Mio./Saint Francis Borgia H.S.) added 12 kills while hitting at a .444 clip and Zachary Hawkins (Dickinson, Texas/Dickinson H.S.) added 11 kills for the Gray Wolves.
 
Lourdes outdug the Spartans 39-35 for the match, led by eight from Ryan Ferkel (Kimberly, Wis./Kimberly H.S.), who also had a team-high 25 assists.  The Gray Wolves committed 13 service errors though.
 
Mico Janicijevic led Missouri Baptist with 19 kills while Robert Hall had 11 digs for the Spartans.  Missouri Baptist swung at a .287 rate for the match and outblocked the Gray Wolves 13-10.
 
The evening match against Hope International (8-4) was tight throughout, with all four sets decided by just two points, three of which were extended into extra points.
 
Lourdes hit .344 and .378 over the first two sets and finished the night swinging at a .272 clip.  The Royals were equally as successful, posting hitting marks of .350 and .333 in the second and fourth sets respectively as part of a .262 offensive night.
 
"We played a pretty solid match overall and battled well, but came up just short" Reitz said afterwards.  "We missed too many serves to pressure them and score enough points to win.  We also gave them too many blocks."
 
The Gray Wolves committed 13 more service errors in the nightcap and were outblocked 12-5 by Hope International.
 
Zachary Hawkins (Dickinson, Texas/Dickinson H.S.) led Lourdes with 17 kills and hit .536 while Magorien added 15 kills.  Maune swung at a .500 clip with 11 kills for the Gray Wolves while Ferkel handed out 33 assists to lead the team.
 
Defensively, CJ Rilveria (Kula, Hawaii/Kekaulike H.S.) had a match-high 20 digs while Eric Ubior (Guaynabo, P.R./Wesleyan Academy) added 14 more as Lourdes held a 58-50 dig advantage on the evening.
 
Nicolas Bilinski led Hope International with 13 kills while Jared Shirai had 15 digs for the Royals.
 
Lourdes (3-3) will close out play in the Moulten Invitational on Saturday with two more matches.  The Gray Wolves will face Benedictine at Mesa in an 11 a.m. EST contest before facing Culver-Stockton in a 3 p.m. EST contest.