LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Webster University closed out the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference portion of its schedule here Wednesday evening with a three-set sweep over Spalding (25-23, 25-17, 25-10) at Columbia Gym to claim at least a share of the regular season SLIAC title.
Webster, who extended its win streak to 14 consecutive matches, improved to 18-7 overall and finishes SLIAC with a 16-2 mark, while Spalding lost its 26th consecutive match and fell to 1-26 overall and 0-16 in the league.
The Gorloks will win the regular season SLIAC title outright if Greenville, who is currently 14-2 in the league, loses either one of its final two league matches as Greenville plays at Eureka on Wednesday and at home against Fontbonne on Friday. Should both teams tie after the completion of SLIAC play, Webster will earn the No. 1 seed and will host the SLIAC Volleyball Tournament at Grant Gymnasium on Nov. 3, due to the fact of winning a tiebreaker over the Panthers thanks to earning two wins this season over Principia, who is 14-3 in the league and will finish no worse than third place in the SLIAC standings.
Senior right side hitter
Torie Grassi (St. Louis, Mo./Rosati-Kain) led the way for Webster with 13 kills and hit .333 as the Gorloks finished the match hitting .190 as a team and recorded 42 kills.
In addition to Grassi's 13 kills, senior outside hitter
Samantha Budrovich (St. Louis, Mo./Lutheran South) added 10 kills and hit .243, while sophomore outside hitter
Samantha Kruse (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) had eight kills, hit .500 and also added 14 digs in the win.
Defensively, Webster held Spalding to an .039 attack percentage for the match, including limiting them to a -.148 percentage in the third set.
The Gorloks were outdug for just the seventh time this season as Spalding held a 57-52 edge in digs. Sophomore libero
Kristen Farrah (St. Charles, Mo./Francis Howell) extended her double-digit dig streak to 30 straight matches as she had 14 digs and has now recorded 703 digs this season and 1,102 career digs.
Junior setter
Jenna Rodriguez (Smithton, Ill./Freeburg) just missed her 10th double-double by one dig as she had a career-high 22 assists and added nine digs. Sophomore setter
Emma Larson (Bellevue, Neb./West) added a career-high eight assists.
In the first set, Spalding jumped out to a 10-6 lead and led 12-9 when the Gorloks used a 7-4 run to tie the set at 16. The run was capped by back-to-back kills from Budrovich. Spalding, though, responded by scoring three straight points to push its lead back out to 19-16. WU would answer with a 7-2 run to take a 23-21 lead. After a service error by Rodriguez pushed Spalding within a point at 23-22, the Gorloks would score two of set's final three points to earn a 25-23 win and take a 1-0 lead in the match. Both of Webster's points came on kills from junior middle hitter
Taylor Kissel (St. Louis, Mo./Lutheran South). In the set, WU was outhit, .083 to .062 by Spalding.
The second set belonged to Webster as the Gorloks jumped out to a 6-1 lead and led 10-6 when Spalding scored two of the next three points to pull within 11-8. WU responded with an 8-1 run to take a 19-9 lead. After Spalding scored the next two points to drop WU's lead to 19-11, the Gorloks closed the set by scoring six of the next 12 points to earn a 25-17 win to take a 2-0 lead in the match. In the set, WU hit .261 and held Spalding to a .128 attack percentage.
Webster would get off to a fast start in the third set as they scored 11 of the first 14 points to take an 11-3 lead. The Golden Eagles responded with a 4-2 run to drop WU's lead to 13-7. The Gorloks responded with a 6-1 run to take a 19-8 lead. After SU scored two straight points to move within 19-10, the Gorloks closed the set by scoring the final six points to earn a 25-10 set win its 42nd consecutive set. WU hit .296 in the set and held SU to a -.148 attack percentage.
Samantha Robison led Splading with eight kills, while Sarah Richards and Amanda Patterson each had six kills in the loss. Emily Erickson paced the Golden Eagles with a match-high 18 digs, while Claudia Spivey had four blocks, including three solo blocks.
The Gorloks will return to action this coming weekend as they travel to Bloomington, Ill., to compete at the Holiday Inn Express III Classic hosted by Illinois Wesleyan University. Webster will open the event with a 5 p.m. match on Friday, Oct. 26 against Coe College, before playing Cornell College and Dominican (Ill.) on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. respectively.
