Lourdes registered its first victory of the 2023 season on Friday as the Gray Wolves swept fifth-ranked William Penn 25-22, 25-23, 26-24 inside the Charles S. Johnson Wellness Center in Des Moines, Iowa.
 
"This was a great team battle," head coach Greg Reitz said afterwards.  "We went swing-for-swing with a very good team and did not back down.  This was a really nice step for us but now we need to build upon it."
 
The Gray Wolves hit .531 in the opening set with 19 kills, leading wire-to-wire.  Lourdes never led by more than four points the entire set though as the Statesmen hit .370 with just one attack error of their own offensively.
 
Set two had 11 ties and four lead changes.  William Penn jumped out to an early 8-03 lead only to see the Gray Wolves pull even at 11.  Back-to-back points with the set tied at 22 gave Lourdes the margin it needed to secure the win.
 
Lourdes trailed nearly the entire third set, falling behind by as many as seven, 18-11.  A late 7-1 run brought the Gray Wolves to within one and Lourdes finally tied the set at 22.  Trailing 24-23, the Gray Wolves took advantage of three straight errors by William Penn, the final a block by Charlie Harr (Indianapolis, Ind./Bishop Chatard H.S.) and Joey Bianco (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder H.S.) to complete the sweep.
 
Eduardo Ayala (Curitiba, Brazil/Colegio Dom Bosco) led Lourdes with 13 kills while Reshawn Allen (Montgomery, Ill./Oswego H.S.) added 11 more kills, hitting .786 on the night.  Jaber Badarne (Arrabe, Israel/Hof Hasharon) added 10 kills.  Bianco handed out 38 assists for an offense that hit .296 as a team.
 
Defensively, Sawyer Schafer (Monroeville, Ohio/Monroeville H.S.) had a match-high 10 digs while Vinicius Lopes (Brusque, Brazil/Colegio Osvaldo Carvalho) added nine more.
 
Ike Papes led Williams Penn (1-1) with nine kills and three service aces.
 
Lourdes (1-1) will open the home portion of its 2023 schedule on Tuesday evening as the Gray Wolves entertain Lawrence Tech in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference opener as well.  First serve is set for 7 p.m. inside the Russell J. Ebeid Recreation Center.