Lourdes opened play at the NAIA National Championships on Wednesday afternoon with a convincing 25-20, 25-12, 25-17 victory over Missouri Baptist inside the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines, Iowa.
 
The seventh-ranked Gray Wolves never trailed in a single set on their way to eliminating the 10^th-ranked Spartans from the tournament.  Missouri Baptist opened the tournament on Tuesday with a straight set loss to Benedictine Mesa.
 
"This was a great way to start the tournament for us," head coach Greg Reitz said afterwards.  "We played well.  Our serve receive allowed our offense to be very efficient.  We are going to have to play even better in our next match to give ourselves a chance to advance."
 
The Gray Wolves won three of the match's first four points and never allowed Missouri Baptist to catch up in set one.  Lourdes extended its lead to four, 16-12, before Missouri Baptist battled back to within one with three straight points.  The Gray Wolves responded with three consecutive points of their own to regain control and win the first set.
 
Lourdes was nearly flawless in set two, hitting .619 with 13 kills on 21 swings without an error.  A 10-2 run early in the set allowed the Gray Wolves to build a 14-5 advantage.  The Gray Wolves then closed with six of the final eight points to pull within one set of victory.
 
Missouri Baptist tied the third set at one, the lone tie in any set of the match, before Lourdes scored the next five points and never looked back.  With the Gray Wolves leading 16-8, the Spartans tried to make a late run, closing within five, 21-16, but three Jeff Lam (Richmond, B.C./Hugh McRoberts H.S.) kills helped seal the sweep.
 
Lam led the Gray Wolves with 14 kills while Ricardo Gehrke (Blumenau, Brazil/Escola Barao Do Rio Branco) added 13 kills and hit .321.  Henrique Gehrke (Blumenau, Brazil/Escola Barao Do Rio Branco) dished out 33 assists while leading the offense that hit .310 for the match.
 
Defensively, Lourdes limited Missouri Baptist to just a .062 hitting afternoon.  Max Petuhov (West Hills, Calif./El Camino Real H.S.) registered five blocks while Guga Heidrich (Braco do Norte, Brazil/Colegio Unificado) recorded a match-high 12 digs.
 
Miljan Kastratovic led Missouri Baptist (18-8) with 11 kills and eight digs.
 
Lourdes (15-2) will face second-ranked Benedictine Mesa (16-0) on Thursday afternoon with the victor winning pool B and advancing to Friday's national semifinals.  First serve is set for 2 p.m. EDT inside the Iowa Events Center.