No. 14 Lourdes earned its first victory of the 2024 season on Tuesday evening, rallying from a 2-1 deficit to defeat Goshen 16-25, 26-24, 19-25, 25-18, 15-10 inside Gunden Gymnasium in Goshen, Ind.
"This was a great match to get a win from," head coach
Greg Reitz said afterwards. "We had to battle the whole time. Our level of play continued to rise and we played a clean fifth set to end it. We will be in for many more battles this season."
Eduardo Ayala (Curitiba, Brazil/Colegio Dom Bosco) put down a team-high 19 kills and hit .359 on the night while
Reshawn Allen (Montgomery, Ill./Oswego H.S.) swung at a .562 clip with 11 kills.
Joey Bianco (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder H.S.) handed out 52 assists while leading an offense that hit .330 on the evening.
A 10-1 run by Goshen broke a 9-9 deadlock in the opening set, allowing the Maple Leafs to take the early lead in the match. Goshen hit .609 in the stanza with just one error. Lourdes trailed nearly the entire second set before tying the stanza at 23 and picking up the victory in extra points to even the match.
After the Gray Wolves jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the third, Goshen responded with an 8-2 run to take a lead it would not relinquish, again committing just one attack error while swinging at a .571 clip. The fourth set was all Lourdes as the Gray Wolves raced out to a 12-5 lead on the way to evening the match.
The Gray Wolves would not commit an attack error in the fifth, putting down six kills on just 12 swings, while Goshen made seven attack errors, as Lourdes completed the comeback.
Defensively,
Vinicius Lopes (Brusque, Brazil/Colegio Osvaldo Carvalho) and
Brayden Moyars (McCordsville, Ind./Cathedral H.S.) each picked up 14 digs while
Charlie Harr (Indianapolis, Ind./Bishop Chatard H.S.) and
Jaber Badarne (Arrabe, Israel/Hof Hasharon) had five blocks each.
Hasan Hadzic had 31 kills and hit .300 for Goshen (3-4, 0-1 WHAC) while Ishmail Bangura added 13 kills.
Lourdes (1-6, 1-0) continues its road trip on Friday evening, traveling to Southfield, Mich. to battle Lawrence Tech. The opening serve is set for 7 p.m. inside Ridler Field House.
