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In a battle of the NAIA's top programs, third-ranked Missouri Baptist defeated fourth-ranked Lourdes 25-21, 25-18, 25-20 on Saturday afternoon inside the Russell J. Ebeid Recreation Center to wrap up the Lourdes Invitational.
 
"We showed today we have a whole lot of work to do," head coach Greg Reitz said following the match.  "We didn't pass as well as we needed to and didn't distribute the offense the way we wanted.  Our block needs to get better.  It seemed like we were just guessing at times today."
 
The opening set was tight throughout, with 16 ties.  Missouri Baptist broke the final deadlock, which came at 18, with four of the next five points to take the early lead in the match.
 
The Spartans led just 14-13 in the second set before scoring the next eight points on the way to the win. Lourdes struggled offensively in the stanza, hitting -.120 with just five kills.
 
Missouri Baptist swung well in the third, connecting at a .458 clip, and broke the set open early.  An 8-2 run allowed the Spartans to build an 11-5 advantage and the Gray Wolves were never able to close the gap until late.  Lourdes used an 8-3 spurt to pull within three, 19-16, but could not get closer the rest of the way.
 
Evan Gebert (Fort Wayne, Ind./Snider H.S.) led Lourdes with 11 kills as the Gray Wolves hit just .049 as a team on the afternoon.  Henrique Gehrke (Blumenau, Brazil/Escola Barao Do Rio Branco H.S.) handed out a team-high 14 assists while Jeff Lam (Richmond, B.C./Hugh McRoberts H.S.) paced the defense with seven digs.
 
Luka Cajic led Missouri Baptist (3-0) with 17 kills and hit .351 while adding 10 digs defensively.  The Spartans hit .309 for the match and outblocked the Gray Wolves 10-6 for the day.
 
Lourdes (1-2) will remain home on Wednesday afternoon, as the Gray Wolves host NCAA Division I foe Fort Wayne.  First serve is set for 7 p.m. inside the Ebeid Rec Center.