Lourdes went five sets for the third straight match on Wednesday evening, but the Gray Wolves were unable to open Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference play with a victory, falling to Concordia (Mich.) 26-28, 25-21, 24-26, 25-18, 15-11 inside Cardinal Fieldhouse in Ann Arbor, Mich.
 
"We are playing some solid volleyball for much of the match, but we need to be able to make a few more plays in crunch time to get us over the hump," head coach Greg Reitz said afterwards.   "We will get to work on things a bit and then test our progress this weekend."
 
The Gray Wolves won the opening set for the third time this season, rallying from a 19-13 deficit.  Lourdes led 17-15 in the second before the Cardinals fought back to even the match.  Lourdes put down 20 kills in the third and used eight straight points on the serve of McKenna Hall (Sylvania, Ohio/Northview H.S.) to pull within a set of victory.
 
Concordia (7-1, 1-0 WHAC) jumped out to a 16-6 lead in set four on the way to forcing the decisive set.  Lourdes managed just two kills in the fifth, hitting -.208, as the Cardinals scored six straight points to take a 7-3 advantage, a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the way.
 
Kylee McBride (Peoria, Ariz./Mountain Ridge H.S.) led all players with 29 kills for the Gray Wolves while adding 13 digs defensively.  Ella Lewis (Scotts, Mich./Portage Northern H.S.) added 10 kills for Lourdes while Miyana Dishroon (Woodhaven, Mich./Woodhaven H.S.) handed out 46 assists as the Gray Wolves hit .118 on the match.
 
Defensively, Arleena Willer (Perrysburg, Ohio/Toledo Christian H.S.) picked up 29 digs while Hall had 21 more.  The Gray Wolves finished the match with 99 digs on the night.  Lewis was involved in five blocks.
 
Breann June led Concordia with 19 digs while McKenzie Peters had 33 digs for the Cardinals.
 
Lourdes (0-3, 0-1) heads to Chicago, Ill. on Friday evening for a neutral site match against eighth-ranked Indiana Wesleyan.  First serve is set for 6 p.m. EDT inside the Shannon Center.