Lourdes jumped out to a two-set lead over Goshen on Saturday evening before holding off a Goshen rally to defeat the Maple Leafs 25-19, 26-24, 29-31, 20-25, 15-11 inside of Gunden Gymnasium in Goshen, Ind.
 
"We had to battle against a quality team and were able to score the last few points," head coach Greg Reitz said afterwards.  "They pushed us and it was good to see our response."
 
Goshen jumped out to a quick 8-4 lead in the opening set before the Gray Wolves responded.  A 7-2 run gave Lourdes its first lead of the night.  Six straight points off the serve of Jeff Lam (Richmond, B.C./Hugh McRoberts H.S.) put the Gray Wolves in front 19-14 on the way to taking the opening set.
 
The Maple Leafs against jumped out to a quick lead in set two, building an 8-3 advantage.  Trailing 14-11, Lourdes scored the next four points for its first lead of the stanza, Goshen would retake the lead, 22-21, but the Gray Wolves battled late, pushing the set to extra points before earning the 2-0 lead in the match.
 
Set three was tied at 11 when Lourdes appeared ready to complete the sweep.  The Gray Wolves scored seven of the next eight points to build a six-point edge.  Lourdes still led 22-16 when Goshen responded with seven consecutive points of its own, finally prevailing in extra points.
 
Lourdes held a 16-15 lead in the fourth before the Maple Leafs went on another spurt, this time scoring the next six points to take control of the frame for good and force the decisive fifth set.
 
Goshen held an 8-6 lead midway through the final stanza before Lourdes scored five of the next six points, including back-to-back service aces by Elijah Fleming (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook H.S.).  This time the Gray Wolves would not relinquish their edge, closing out the victory.
 
Lam led Lourdes with 28 kills and hit .302 offensively while adding 11 digs on the defensive end.  Eduardo Ayala (Curitaba, Brazil/Colegio Dom Bosco) added 19 kills while Sawyer Schafer (Monroeville, Ohio/Monroeville H.S.) handed out a career-high 47 assists while directing an offense that hit .193 on the night.  Schafer also had four of the team's 13 service aces.
 
Guga Heidrich (Braco do Norte, Brazil/Colegio Unificado) added 21 digs defensively for the Gray Wolves.
 
Alexander Rabadzhiev led Goshen (5-3, 1-3 WHAC) with 20 kills and 17 digs while Lucas Sauder tallied 15 kills.  The Maple Leafs hit .164 on the night.
 
Lourdes (4-1, 3-1) returns home on Wednesday evening to entertain Indiana Tech.  First serve is set for 7 p.m. inside the Russell J. Ebeid Recreation Center.