Ninth-ranked Lourdes atoned for its loss to Mount Vernon Nazarene last week with a 28-30, 25-20, 25-18, 25-21 victory over the Cougars on Tuesday evening inside the Russell J. Ebeid Recreation Center.
"This was a really important win for us," head coach
Greg Reitz said afterwards. "We were able to play much better defense tonight than in the previous meeting. We played good, but not great, volleyball, but were able to defend their attack."
The opening set had 17 ties and nine lead changes. Lourdes had four set points, but the Cougars fought them all off to take the early lead in the match. The Gray Wolves rebounded in the second to even the match. After 10 ties, the final coming at 19-19, Lourdes closed the stanza on a 6-1 run.
Trailing 7-6 in the third, Lourdes used a 7-3 spurt to take the lead for good, extending the advantage to as many as eight, 23-15. Mount Vernon Nazarene scored three straight points late before the Gray Wolves closed the set. Set four had eight more ties in it before Lourdes broke the deadlock with back-to-back points when even at 14. The Gray Wolves would not relinquish the lead, pushing the advantage to 20-16, on the way to closing the match.
Jaber Badarne (Arrabe, Israel/Hof Hasharon) led Lourdes with 21 kills while
Eduardo Ayala (Curitiba, Brazil/Escola Barao do Rio Branco) added 15 more.
Vinicius Lopes (Brusque, Brazil/Colegio Osvaldo Carvalho) registered a double-double with 11 kills and 15 digs.
George Tsogtbaatar (Wheeling, Ill./Wheeling H.S.) handed out 48 assists while directing an offense that hit .211 for the night.
Defensively,
Gabriel Vianna (Belo Horizonte, Brazil/Colegio do Instituto Padre Machado) picked up a match-high 20 digs while
Trace Bauersfeld (Dayton, Ohio/Centerville H.S.) was involved in four blocks.
Landon Ewers led Mount Vernon Nazarene (9-3, 6-2 WHAC) with 17 kills and hit .424 while Jaysen Matsumoto had a double-double handing out43 assists while tallying 11 digs. The Cougars were held to just .137 hitting for the night.
Lourdes (8-4, 5-1) has cancelled its scheduled match with Life for Thursday evening and will now return to the court on Friday. The Gray Wolves travel to Gynden Gymnasium in Goshen, Ind. to face Goshen. First serve against the Maple Leafs is set for 7 p.m.
