DEFIANCE, Ohio – The No. 7-ranked Lourdes men's volleyball team (19-3, 13-1 in WHAC) swept the Defiance Yellow Jackets (5-15, 3-10 in WHAC), 25-18, 25-8, 25-18 on Tuesday evening on the road.

The Gray Wolves are now ranked No. 7 in the NAIA National Poll after the win. Lourdes is on a seven-match winning streak and have won the last five matches via sweeps. Lourdes is undefeated in the month of March and have won their last 16 sets in a row. They have won 18 out of 20 sets in March.

1^st Set
The first set was by far the closest in the match with both teams trading points to make it 10-10 midway through. Senior outside hitter Jaber Badarne had three kills in the next five points to make it a 13-12 Lourdes lead. Then, sophomore outside hitter Juan Diego Vargas Mendoza had a thunderous ace to extend the lead to two points.

Badarne once again led the team with kills, giving him 263 on the season. Vargas Mendoza's ace was his third of the year. Vargas Mendoza also had a solid night defensively, with nine digs, and offensively, with nine kills. Vargas Mendoza has 41 kills on the year and 50 digs on the year and has improved his production considerably in the month of March.

Defiance's offense started to slow down towards the end of the set with five errors accounting for nearly half of Lourdes' remaining points. These errors resulted in a couple of late runs from Lourdes to give the Gray Wolves a seven-point set one win.

2^nd Set
Lourdes blew out Defiance in the second set with a season-high 17-point victory. The key in the set was sustained runs. Lourdes had two four-point runs, a five-point run, and a seven-point run in the set.

The runs were orchestrated by setter Joey Bianco, who's passing was on point and allowed the offense to spread out on the court. Bianco had 32 set assists in the match and eight of them were in the second set.

Bianco broke the Lourdes men's volleyball program career set assist record over the weekend against Aquinas. He now has 2,699 career assists after the Defiance win, 62 more than Henrique Gehrke's previous record. Bianco also passes Gehrke's 2020 assists for the 10^th most assists in a single season in Lourdes history with 645. Bianco's 728 assists last year are the 9^th most in a single-season all-time and his 922 assists in 2024 are the 4^th-most in a single-season all-time. He is the only player in Lourdes history to have three seasons in the top-10.

3^rd-Set
The third-set was another seven-point victory for Lourdes. However, unlike the first, the offense got off to a great start. Lourdes broke off a couple of four point runs to take a 13-9 lead over the Yellow Jackets.

Senior middle blocker Ben Palma started off the set with a block. He later combined with Jaber Badarne and Jack McMurray for a triple team block to extend Lourdes' lead in the set to 19-14. Palma had four blocks to lead the team in the match and leads the team on the season with 52 total blocks.

Lourdes ended off the sweep on a 6-4 run with five kills and a set error on Defiance.

Stats
Lourdes held every statistical advantage over Defiance in the match. The Gray Wolves had a 44-20 kill lead, 2-1 service ace lead, 7-2 block lead, 40-20 set assist lead, and 47 to 31 dig lead.

Next Up
Lourdes goes back home to the Ebeid Rec Center on Tuesday, March 31 at 7pm to take on No. 13-ranked Bethel (Ind.). The game will be a battle for first place in the WHAC standings. The Pilots are one of the three losses on the Lourdes schedule and are the only other ranked team in the conference.