Men's Volleyball Upsets #5 Lourdes on Senior Night

Men's Volleyball Upsets #5 Lourdes on Senior Night

ADRIAN, Mich. – The Siena Heights men's volleyball team upset No. 5 Lourdes (Ohio), 3-2, on Senior Night. The NAIA Independents match took place on Wednesday. Set scores were 25-23, 15-25, 25-23 and 15-9.

GAME ONE: Siena Heights 25, Lourdes 23
The Saints jumped to a 10-4 lead to start game one. Slowly, the Gray Wolves tied it up 15-15 but SHU again climbed to a 22-18 lead and were able to hold on through set two.

GAME TWO: Lourdes 25, Siena Heights 15
A string of aces by Lourdes helped the Gray Wolves to a 10-5 lead early in game two. The Saints were not able to make up the difference, eventually falling 25-15.

GAME THREE: Siena Heights 25, Lourdes 23
LU help the first lead but was shortly caught by Siena Heights at 5-5. The Saints went on an 8-2 run to earn an 18-12 advantage but a nine-point run by Lourdes put SHU in a one-point lead at 22-21. A couple kills from Kyle Browne silenced the Gray Wolves to give the Saints a 25-23 victory.

GAME FOUR: Lourdes 25, Siena Heights 23
Another nail-biter as Siena Heights came back from a 9-13 deficit to lead 15-14. However, a three-point swing for Lourdes helped LU to a 20-18 lead, which would hold through the remainder of the game.

GAME FIVE: Siena Heights 15, Lourdes 9
Siena Heights started the final set with an 8-0 lead served by Jack Pranckus. The Gray Wolves clawed their way back in, closing the gap to 11-7. The Saints stood their ground as an LU attack error gave them the 15-9 upset victory.

Leading the Saints (17-5, 3-1) with 22 kills, 17 digs and three service aces was Browne, followed by Ryan Haftner with 12 kills and 10 digs. Setter Keegan Crawford earned 45 assists and 12 digs as libero Pranckus earned 13 digs and five assists. Tyler Hubbard-Neil also managed eight digs while earning a solo block. Trevor Holston earned five assisted blocks as Parker Saenz, Browne and Crawford each earned three block assists.

Lourdes had four Gray Wolves (18-5, 3-1) earn double-digit kills: Ricardo Gehrke, Jeff Lam, Matheus Andrade and Brendan Brown. Eric Ubior tallied 28 digs in the back row an setters Ian Fields and Henrique Gehrke earned 36 and 26 assists, respectively.

Next up, Siena Heights will travel to Penn State-Behrend for games against the host Lions and Theil (Pa.) for non-conference matches, on Saturday.