MOUNT VERNON, Ohio – The No. 8-ranked Lourdes men's volleyball team (16-3, 10-1 in WHAC) defeated the Mount Vernon Nazarene Cougars (8-9, 5-6 in WHAC) by virtue of a sweep on Tuesday evening.
Lourdes traveled two and a half hours south to take on MVNU at Ariel Arena, a place where they've had historic success. The Gray Wolves won the first set 25-17, the second set 25-22, and the third set 25-11.
The Terracotta & Gray remain just a half game back from Bethel (Ind.) for first place in the WHAC and have the most overall wins in the conference. Lourdes has 11 sweep victories on the season, which is by far the most in the WHAC. They've also won nine conference matches in a row. MVNU remains in sixth place in the WHAC, a game back from Cornerstone and a game up on Goshen.
1st Set
The Gray Wolves started off the match strong on a 6-1 opening run. Sophomore outside hitter
Felipe Tramontin had two aces in the opening run. The Brazilian continues to be one of the most consistent servers on the team.
MVNU got back into the game on a couple of aces of their own, but three subsequent attack errors in a row by the Cougars extended the Lourdes lead to 11-6.
Tramontin had a few strong attacks to win crucial points down the stretch of the set as Lourdes pulled away with an eight-point victory. Tramontin had a career-high 20 kills in the three-set sweep.
Juan Diego Vargas Mendoza also had a solid first set off the bench for Lourdes. The Columbian outside hitter had a few kills and five digs. Mendoza exited the game with a career-high nine digs in the match.
2nd Set
The second set started off with a 6-3 MVNU run as Lourdes made some early errors. However, senior setter
Joey Bianco rattled off five set assists over the next nine points to help Lourdes regain a 10-8 lead. Bianco had a great game with his passing, totaling 36 assists on a 12 per set average.
After a couple more Cougars' surges, senior middle blocker
Trace Bauersfeld had a thunderous block to regain a mid-set 13-13 tie. Later in the set, with Lourdes down 15-16, Bauersfeld and Bianco connected for two blocks in a row to take the lead.
Lourdes wouldn't surrender the lead again in the set as they pulled away with a 25-22 win. Bauersfeld had four blocks in the set and a career-high six on the night.
3rd Set
The final set was an offensive clinic from Lourdes from start to finish, with solid passing, serving and attacking. Lourdes had four separate four-point runs and never led the Cougars get the lead the entire set.
Tramontin ended the match off with his third and fourth aces of the night, giving him a career-high in the match.
Stats
Lourdes had advantages in every major category against MVNU. The Gray Wolves had a +22 kill advantage, +3 service ace advantage, +1 block advantage, +20 set assist advantage, and a +9 dig advantage.
Coach Reitz' Post-Match Comments
"We've had quite a bit of time off, so we came in pretty fresh," Coach Reitz said. "We were a little rusty early on with our serve and pass, but defensively we looked pretty sound from the start. Once we got our rhythm, we were able to dial in our serves quite a bit. Felipe was really tossing his ball well in his serve once we got deeper into set one and into set two and three. Passing-wise, we were able to distribute the ball well, and Joey did a pretty good job of stretching out the offense from pin to pin. Then, Felipe was very efficient with his arm and ready to play after such a long break. Trace did a great job of blocking and just getting to the spots he needed to be at. Juan defensively made the plays we needed him to make, and it happened to be a career-high. Juan does some pretty athletic plays to get to the balls outside of the zone. It was a great team effort against a quality opponent in their gym."
Next Up
The Gray Wolves continue their WHAC roadtrip this week with a Friday game at Cornerstone and a Saturday game at Aquinas. Lourdes' next home game is against Bethel (Ind.) on March 31 at 7pm.
