Lourdes men's volleyball team captured the inaugural Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference tournament title on Saturday evening with a 25-21, 25-22, 25-19 victory over Aquinas inside the Russell J. Ebeid Recreation Center to earn an automatic bid to the NAIA National Championships.
 
"This is a great step for us to win the first WHAC regular season and tournament titles," head coach Greg Reitz said following the match.  "This group of guys has been focused on this goal since day one.  Now we will focus our attention on the national championships."
 
The second-ranked Gray Wolves won their 21^st consecutive home match, finishing this season a perfect 13-0 in their own facility.
 
The opening set featured 10 ties before Lourdes pulled away.  Trailing 15-13, Ricardo Gehrke's (Blumenau, Brazil/Escola Barao Do Rio Branco H.S.) service led to a 7-0 run, putting the Gray Wolves in front for good.  Aquinas cut the five-point deficit to two, 22-21, but Lourdes finished off the set with three straight points, including a pair of kills from Evan Gebert (Fort Wayne, Ind./Snider H.S.) sandwiched around a Henrique Gehrke (Blumenau, Brazil/Escola Barao Do Rio Branco H.S.) service ace.
 
In the second, Lourdes scored four consecutive points to take the lead for good, 12-8, and led by as many as five before the Saints battled back again.  Aquinas closed the gap to two, 23-21, before Gebert registered a block and a kill to close the set.
 
Trailing 7-4 in the third, the Gray Wolves went on an 8-1 run and would not trail the rest of the way, slowly extending the advantage on the way to capturing the title.
 
Gebert finished with a match-high 14 kills while Jeff Lam (Richmond, B.C./Hugh McRoberts H.S.) added 10 kills.  Henrique Gehrke finished with a double-double, 32 assists and 12 digs, while Matheus Andrade (Coronel Fabriciano, Brazil/Alberto Giovanni H.S.) registered a match-high 14 digs.
 
Joshua Boothroyd had a team-high eight kills for sixth-ranked Aquinas (28-3), which suffered just three defeats all season, all at the hands of the Gray Wolves.  Colby Elder tallied 26 assist and had nine digs for the Saints.
 
Lourdes (23-3) will head to the national tournament for the fourth consecutive season, and fifth time in program history.  The NAIA Men's Volleyball National Championships will take place April 16-20 in Des Moines, Iowa, hosted by Grand View University.