Lourdes closed out the regular season on Saturday dropping a 22-25, 25-19, 25-20, 25-21 decision to Aquinas inside the Sturrus Sports & Fitness Center in Grand Rapids, Mich.
The ninth-ranked Gray Wolves finished the regular season and co-champions with Indiana Tech in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference.
"This wasn't our best match," head coach
Greg Reitz said afterwards. "We will look to improve in the upcoming week to get ready for the postseason."
The Gray Wolves hit just .089 for the match and had at least eight attack errors in each set.
Trailing 11-9 in the opener, the Gray Wolves scored six straight points, including a pair of service aces from
Jeff Lam (Richmond, B.C./Hugh McRoberts H.S.), to take the lead. Lam finished the match with seven aces, tying the school mark for a single match. Aquinas would tie the set at 21 before Lourdes scored the next three points on the way to the early lead in the match.
Aquinas (5-11, 4-8 WHAC) never trailed in the second set, jumping out to an 8-3 lead. The Gray Wolves were within two, 17-15, but could not get even the rest of the set. The Saints took the lead 16-13 in the third set with three consecutive points and never allowed Lourdes to retake the lead.
Lourdes jumped out to an 11-5 lead in the fourth before five straight points allowed the Saints to pull close. Aquinas tied the set at 16 and took the lead for the first time at 19-18. With the set tied at 20, the hosts scored the next four points on the way to the upset.
Lam led Lourdes with 17 kills and 14 digs in addition to the seven aces while
Ricardo Gehrke (Blumenau, Brazil/Escola Barao Do Rio Branco) added 11 kills.
Henrique Gehrke (Blumenau, Brazil/Escola Barao Do Rio Branco) handed out a team-high 25 assists.
Defensively,
Bryant Herrera (Orlando, Fla./Freedom H.S.) registered six blocks while adding seven kills on the offensive end and hitting .545.
Julian Armendano led Aquinas with 19 kills and hit .429 wile Robert Valerio added 13 kills while swinging at a .480 clip.
Lourdes (12-2, 10-2) will host the WHAC tournament on Friday and Saturday with official pairing being released by the league office soon.
