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Lourdes suffered its first loss in pool play at the NAIA National Championships on Wednesday afternoon, falling to sixth-ranked Aquinas 25-19, 25-23, 25-19 inside the Johnson Wellness Center in Des Moines, Iowa.
 
The defeat for the second-ranked Gray Wolves does not eliminate Lourdes from the tournament with one pool play match remaining for each team.  The win for Aquinas was the first this season for the Saints after falling in the first three meetings between the two schools.
 
"We simply didn't play as well as we needed to in order to win that match," head coach Greg Reitz said afterwards.  "We will look to regroup for tomorrow and compete."
 
Aquinas scored seven of the first eight points in the opening set on the way to the early lead in the match.  The Saints put down 18 kills and hit .517 in the stanza.  Lourdes closed to within two, 17-15, after the initial deficit, but Aquinas answered with six of the next eight points to secure the win.
 
In the second set, Lourdes had 15 kills but was unable to maintain a late lead.  The Gray Wolves were in front 21-19 before the Saints evened the set at 22 and finished on a 4-1 run. 
 
Lourdes never led in the third set, falling behind 8-3.  The Gray Wolves closed to within one, 15-14, but Aquinas responded with the next four points to regain control.  Lourdes hit just .083 in the final stanza.
 
Evan Gebert (Fort Wayne, Ind./Snider H.S.) led the way with 12 kills for the Gray Wolves while Ricardo Gehrke (Blumenau, Brazil/Escola Barao Do Rio Branco H.S.) added 10 more while hitting a team-high .350.  Henrique Gehrke (Blumenau, Brazil/Escola Barao Do Rio Branco H.S.) handed out 25 assists.
 
Defensively, Matheus Andrade (Coronel Fabriciano, Brazil/Alberto Giovanni H.S.) tallied 11 digs while Brendan Brown (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Allegheny H.S.) was involved in six blocks.
 
Zane Moothart led Aquinas (29-4) with 12 kills and hit .478 as the Saints hit .337 for the match as a team.  Josh Evers had 13 digs, as the Saints became the first team this season to outdig Lourdes, doing so 36-31 for the contest.
 
Lourdes (24-4) closes out pool play on Thursday afternoon facing third-ranked Benedictine Mesa.