Lourdes hosted the first day of the Lourdes Invitational on Friday evening, and swept Charleston (W. Va.) 25-21, 25-17, 25-15 inside the Russell J. Ebeid Recreation Center in the Gray Wolves' opening match of the weekend event.
 
"It's always great to get a win over a Division II team," head coach Greg Reitz said afterwards.  "I thought we hit very efficiently and distributed the ball well to all of our hitters.  Our serving wasn't the best tonight, but we fought off some tough serves from them."
 
The Gray Wolves hit .393 for the match with 43 kills in the three stanza while outdigging the Golden Eagles 41-24.  Evan Gebert (Fort Wayne, Ind./Snider H.S.) put down a match-high 14 kills and hit .370 while Ricardo Gehrke (Blumenau, Brazil/Escola Barao Do Rio Branco H.S.) added 11 more.  Henrique Gehrke (Blumenau, Brazil/Escola Barao Do Rio Branco H.S.) dished out 33 assists.
 
Defensively, Matheus Andrade (Coronel Fabriciano, Brazil/Alberto Giovanni H.S.) tallied 11 digs and Jeff Lam (Richmond, B.C./Hugh McRoberts H.S.) added 10 while Brendan Brown (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny H.S.) registered four blocks, including three solos.
 
Trailing 5-4 early, Ricardo Gehrke served up a 5-0 run to put the Gray Wolves in front for good in the opening stanza.  Lourdes never trailed in the second set, using a 6-1 run to build an 18-11 advantage on the way to building a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
In the third set, Lourdes hit .464 with 16 kills.  The Gray Wolves yielded just three points off Charleston's serve in completing their fourth consecutive sweep.
 
Brandon Greenway and Max Senica led Charleston (8-16) with seven kills each while Senica also had a team-high seven digs.
 
Lourdes (19-3) will close out the regular season on Saturday with a pair of matches in the Lourdes Invitational.  The Gray Wolves face Campbellsville at 11:30 a.m. before battling Cardinal Stritch at 4:30 p.m.  Prior to the Cardinal Stritch match, Lourdes will honor its 2019 senior class.