Box Score Webster University clinched a top-two seed for the conference tournament with a 3-0 win against Blackburn College, 25-9, 25-10, 25-11, Thursday (Oct. 24) at Grant Gym.
 
The Gorloks are 13-1 in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (21-7 overall) and assured of no worse than second place in regular season standings. They'll have a chance for first place when they play Greenville, undefeated in SLIAC, next Tuesday (Oct. 29).
 
Webster amassed 18 service aces, third highest in school history, in the Blackburn sweep. This is a season-high total and the third time this season the squad has 10 or more aces in a match. The Gorloks had 14 aces each in back-to-back matches against Eureka and Blackburn on Sept. 20-21.
 
Webster had a team hitting percentage of .467 in the second game and .333 in the third game to finish at .340 for the match. That is the fifth-highest percentage this season and the seventh time the squad has hit .300 or better this season.
 
Nineteen of the 21 players on Webster's roster appeared in this sweep.
 
Emily Ratkewicz (Granite City, IL / Granite City), Megan Morrison (St. Louis, MO / Lutheran South) and Ashley Fawcett (Surprise, AZ / Valley Vista) each had four service aces.
 
Alexa Joseph (Austin, TX / Anderson) had a team-high seven kills.
 
Ratkewicz and Morgan Tipton (Dittmer, MO / Grandview) each contributed three assisted blocks. Webster had two solo blocks and 10 assisted blocks.
 
At start of this week, the Gorloks were third in the nation in NCAA Division III for most blocks per set. Sam Kersting (St. Louis, MO / Lindbergh) was the individual national leader in blocks per set while Ratkewicz was 35th.
 
Kersting also was 55th in the nation in hitting percentage, and 96th in points per game. Katie O'Toole (St. Louis, MO / Lutheran South) was 52nd in digs per set.
 
The Greenville match is the second of five conference matches to close out the regular season. The SLIAC tournament, featuring the top four teams, to determine the league champion and its automatic berth for the NCAA national tournament is November 9.