Lourdes saw its 2021 season come to a close on Wednesday evening in the quarterfinals of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference tournament, dropping a 26-24, 25-18, 25-18 match to Cornerstone inside of Mol Arena in Grand Rapids, Mich.
 
"This was a tough loss," head coach Greg Reitz said afterwards.  "We didn't play well enough to give ourselves a chance.  Had we finished off the first set things may have been different."
 
In the opening set, Lourdes (12-18) tallied just six kills and hit .000 for the stanza, but still pushed the set to extra points.  Cornerstone committed 11 attack errors.  The Gray Wolves jumped out to an early 11-6 advantage before the Golden Eagles fought back to take a 13-12 edge.  Lourdes scored the next five points to regain the lead, and carried it into the late stages of the set.  The Gray Wolves had a pair of set points leading 24-22 only to see the hosts post the final four tallies of the stanza to take the set.
 
Cornerstone held a slim 10-9 lead in set two before a 7-1 run allowed the Golden Eagles some separation.  After trailing by as many as nine, the Gray Wolves were able to pull within 23-17 late, but could not complete the comeback.  Cornerstone hit .324 in the frame in taking the 2-0 lead in the match.
 
The Golden Eagles never trailed in the third set, building an early 6-2 lead.  The advantage grew to six, 12-6, before Lourdes made a run, pulling to within two, 13-11.  Again, Cornerstone ran off five consecutive points to push the lead back to seven.  Trailing 19-12, the Gray Wolves made one last spurt.  Five straight points made it a two-point game, but could not get any closer the rest of the way.
 
Abby Gentile (Blissfield, Mich./Blissfield H.S.) led Lourdes with eight kills and a .227 hitting percentage as the Gray Wolves as a team swung at just a .089 clip for the night.  Alli Plasencio (Toledo, Ohio/Central Catholic H.S.) registered 20 digs, setting the school's single season record with 601 digs.  McKenna Hall (Sylvania, Ohio/Northview H.S.) added 12 digs.
 
Rylie Walters led Cornerstone (23-13) with 15 kills while Olivia Keelean added 14 more.  Aubrey Lenz handed out 38 assists and tallied 12 digs while leading the Golden Eagles' offense that hit .217 for the night.