Lourdes closed out the road portion of the regular season on Wednesday evening with a 25-14, 25-23, 25-18 sweep of the University of Northwestern Ohio inside Racer Gymnasium in Lima, Ohio.
 
"We were able to put together a pretty good performance tonight," head coach Greg Reitz said afterwards.  "Our serving was pretty strong, and we were able to earn several runs of points.  This will help us later in the season."
 
Lourdes came out quickly, hitting a blistering .361 in the opening set, putting down 15 kills while committing just two errors.  An 8-1 run put the Gray Wolves in front early 10-2.  After the Racers scored the next three points, Lourdes went on another 10-2 spurt to put the stanza out of reach.
 
The Gray Wolves had to battle from behind in set two.  An 8-1 run by Northwestern Ohio put the Racers in front 18-13.  Lourdes answered with seven consecutive points, including a pair of service aces from McKenna Hall (Sylvania, Ohio/Northview H.S.) to retake the lead.  The set would be tied at 20 and 21 before Lourdes scored four of the final six points to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
 
In set three, Lourdes again had to rally late.  Trailing 18-16, the Gray Wolves would tally the final nine points of the match, taking advantage of Katey Stakolich's (Parma, Ohio/Normandy H.S.) to complete the sweep.  The Gray Wolves had just seven kills in the set but took advantage of 14 hitting errors by Northwestern Ohio.
 
Hall led Lourdes offensively with 13 kills and hit .321 while Stakolich handed out 25 assists while running an offense that hit .226 as a team.  Defensively, Alli Plasencio (Toledo, Ohio/Central Catholic H.S.) registered 18 digs.
 
Nevaeh Shugart led Northwestern Ohio (8-26, 3-16 WHAC) with 10 kills while Aubree Ricketts had 13 digs.
 
Lourdes (12-16, 8-11) will close out the 2021 regular season on Saturday afternoon as the Gray Wolves host Rochester (Mich.).  First serve is set for 1 p.m. inside the Russell J. Ebeid Recreation Center.