Lourdes opened its Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference slate on Tuesday evening with a 25-20, 25-15, 25-19 victory over Mount Vernon Nazarene inside the Russell J. Ebeid Recreation Center.
 
"This was a good start to league play," head coach Greg Reitz said afterwards.  "With a limited schedule this season, every match is important.  I thought we did a very good job of executing our game plan tonight."
 
The sixth-ranked Gray Wolves hit a blistering .440 for the match while outdigging the Cougars 34-13 on the night.  Jeff Lam (Richmond, B.C./Hugh McRoberts H.S.) put down a match-high 12 kills while swinging at a .500 clip and Sawyer Schafer (Monroeville, Ohio/Monroeville H.S.) added 10 kills.  Tomas Olak (Rowville, Australia/Mazenod College) added nine kills and hit .471 for the match.  Henrique Gehrke (Blumenau, Brazil./Escola Barao Do Rio Branco) handed out 28 assists.
 
The first half of the opening set was tight before Lourdes went on a 5-1 scoring run to build a 20-14 advantage.  The Gray Wolves hit .565 in the frame with just three errors while building the early lead in the match.
 
Six straight points in the middle of set two allowed the Gray Wolves to pull away, building an 18-8 advantage on the way to taking a 2-0 lead in the match.  Lourdes tallied 16 kills for the second straight set while swinging at a .500 clip.
 
The final set saw the Cougars take the early lead before Lourdes went on an 8-1 spurt to pull in front for good 17-11.  The Gray Wolves held Mount Vernon Nazarene to just seven kills in the set on the way to the sweep.
 
Defensively, Guga Heidrich (Braco do Norte, Brazil/Colegio Unificado) tallied 17 digs while Harrison McBean (Melbourne, Australia/Northern College of the Arts) was in on three of the Gray Wolves' six blocks.
 
Landon Ewers led Mount Vernon Nazarene (1-1, 1-1 WHAC) with seven kills in the match.
 
Lourdes (2-0, 1-0) will take to the road for the first time in 2021 on Friday evening as the Gray Wolves travel to Grand Rapids, Mich. to battle Cornerstone.  First serve is set for 6 p.m. inside of Mol Arena.