Lourdes extended its winning streak to five with its third consecutive sweep on Friday afternoon, defeating Aquinas 25-23, 25-21, 25-10 inside of the Russell J. Ebeid Recreation Center.
 
The Gray Wolves sizzled offensively, hitting .333 as a team, while defensively limiting the Saints to just 21 kills on the day and a .125 hitting percentage.  Lourdes also outdug Aquinas 45-36 and held an 8-1 edge in service aces.
 
"We started the match well," head coach Greg Reitz said afterwards.  "We didn't serve our best in the middle of the match, but we figured it out a bit near the end.  Our offense was pretty effective today and our block and defense allowed us to turn quite a few points.  It was another quality team performance."
 
The opening set was tight throughout, but Lourdes put down 20 kills to offset the 10 ties and five lead changes in the stanza.  With the set tied at 23, Ricardo Gehrke (Blumenau, Brazil/Escola Barao Do Rio Branco) put down one of his match-high 17 kills before Guga Heidrich (Braco do Norte, Brazil/Colegio Unificado) ended the set with an ace.
 
A 6-1 run late in the second set allowed the Gray Wolves to separate from the Saints and build the 2-0 match lead.  In the third, Lourdes hit .625 with 16 kills and just one error to complete the sweep.
 
Gehrke hit .424 while Jeff Lam (Richmond, B.C./Hugh McRoberts H.S.) swung at a .414 clip with 15 kills.  Ian Fields (Phoenix, Ariz./Sandra Day O'Connor H.S.) dished out 40 assists running the offense.
 
Fields also had 13 digs to lead the defense while Heidrich added 11 more.  Max Petuhov (West Hills, Calif./El Camino Real H.S.) had a team-high three blocks.
 
Julian Armendano led Aquinas (3-8, 2-5 WHAC) with six kills.
 
Lourdes (9-1, 7-1) will return to action on March 16, hosting Siena Heights.  First serve is set for 7 p.m.