SYLVANIA, Ohio – The Lourdes men's volleyball team (4-1, 1-0 in WHAC) swept the Defiance Yellow Jackets (1-2, 0-1 in WHAC), 25-22, 25-13, 25-20 on Tuesday evening at the Ebeid Rec Center.

The victory gives Lourdes four wins on the season, three of which are sweeps. The game was Defiance's first WHAC game in men's volleyball program history.

Lourdes came into the game receiving votes in the latest NAIA poll and have the potential to be ranked in tomorrow's poll after two top-15 victories in the Gray Wolf Invitational.

1^st Set
Defiance started off the first set up 6-5 locked in a close battle. However, with junior libero Brayden Moyars serving, the Gray Wolves went on a 6-0 run to go up 11-6. Moyars' serving and ability to get crucial digs in the first set helped Lourdes go up one game to nothing. Moyars ended the game with 11 digs, leading all players.

2^nd Set
The second set was pure dominance by the Gray Wolves as Lourdes beat Defiance by 12 points. Senior setter Joey Bianco had an impressive set with 13 assists. Bianco finished the game with 37 assists and a massive 12.33 assists per set; a season-high. He was two assists away from his total season-high which was set in a four-set match with Hope International.

"I was really just trying to space out the ball because I could see who's open and who I could distribute the ball too easily," Bianco said post-match. "I can trust (our front line) and I know when they're up they are going to get a kill."

3^rd Set
Speaking of the front line, senior outside hitter Jaber Badarne had another incredible game, notching another 20 kills in the three-set match. Badarne had a particularly good third set with seven kills.

Lourdes struggled as a team to start the third set, going down six to four early before four Badarne kills over the next dozen points tied it up at 11 a piece. A few points later with the score tied at 13, Defiance made three errors in a row to give Lourdes there first lead of the set.

The Gray Wolves closed out the game on a nine to seven run with two kills by Badarne and two kills by sophomore outside hitter Felipe Tramontin. Tramontin was second on the team with eight kills in the match.   

Stats
Lourdes ended the game outscoring Defiance 75 to 55. The Gray Wolves held the attack percentage advantage at 37.6% to 14.3%, the kills advantage at 45 to 24, the ace advantage at 7 to 3, the assist advantage at 42 to 20, the digs advantage at 33 to 25, and the blocks advantage at 4 to 3. Despite the statistical and outcome success, head coach Greg Reitz emphasized postgame that there is still lots of work to be done.

Coach Reitz's Postgame Comments
"It's always good to start off the conference schedule with a win, especially at home," coach Reitz said. "We're doing things right to get the 3-0 sweep result, but we got to hold ourselves to a little bit of a higher standard, both in practice and in the match. Hopefully we can start to see a little bit of a higher level of execution. I thought we were good, but we could have been better. We showed some signs of success and some things we need to continue to work on."

Next Match
The Gray Wolves will go on a two-game conference road trip this weekend, taking on Bethel (Ind.) on Friday, Feb. 6 at 7:30 pm and Goshen on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 2 pm.