BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - Webster University opened up play here Friday evening in the Holiday Inn Express Classic III hosted by Illinois Wesleyan by suffering a hard-fought four-set setback to Coe College (26-24, 12-25, 20-25, 20-25) in a non-conference match at the Shirk Center.

With the loss, Webster falls to 18-8 overall and had its school record 14 match win streak snapped as the Gorloks suffered its first loss since being swept by then 10th-ranked WashU on Sept. 20. In addition, WU also had its school record streak of consecutive sets won snapped at 43 after dropping the final three sets Friday after opening with a win in the first set. Coe improved to 18-9 with the win. 
 

Following Friday's match against Coe, the Gorloks learned that they had officially secured the No. 1 seed in next Saturday's St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament that will be held at Grant Gymnasium. The Gorloks earned the No. 1 seed in the SLIAC Tournament after tying with Greenville for the regular season league title with a 16-2 conference mark after Greenville earned a five-set win at home Friday against Fontbonne. The regular season title for Webster was the 10th in the program's history and first since sharing the 2012 title with Greenville.

In Friday's match against the Kohawks, Webster hit .176 and recorded 42 kills and added four services in the loss. 

Senior outside hitter Samantha Budrovich (St. Louis, Mo./Lutheran South) led the way offensively with 11 kills and hit .256. In addition to the 11 kills, Budrovich added 11 digs for her fifth double-double of the season. 

Along with Budrovich, senior right side hitter Torie Grassi (St. Louis, Mo./Rosati-Kain) had nine kills and hit .219, while sophomore outside hitter Samantha Kruse (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) recorded six kills and had 18 digs, but hit just .083 as she had three attack errors on 36 attack attempts. 

Junior Jenna Rodriguez (Smithton, Ill./Freeburg) made her second straight start at setter in place of the senior setter Kelsey Hamann (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo), who is nursing an injury, finished with 15 assists and 15 digs for her 10th double-double of the season and added three aces.

Freshman setter Ali Spohr (Quincy, Ill./Quincy) recorded her first career double-double as tallied a career-high 17 assists and added a career-high 10 digs. 

Sophomore libero Kristen Farrah (St. Charles, Mo./Francis Howell) continued her strong play on defense as she finished with 25 digs and pushed her career dig total to 1,127. Farrah, who leads NCAA Division III in digs per set as she is averaging 8.37 digs per set, holds Webster's single season dig record and has now recorded 20 or more digs in a match in 20 of 26 matches this season.

Webster opened the match by hitting .262 in the first set as they had 13 kills and just two errors on 42 total attacks and after hitting .086 in the second set, Webster would hit .163 and .180 respectively in the final two sets.

Coe, who hit .257 as a team and had 65 kills and recorded 125 digs, was paced offensively by 19 kills and a ,341 attack percentage from Lindsey Koch. Koch also added 22 digs in the win. In addition, Adysen Wintermote added 15 kills and 20 digs, while Darby Hawtrey had 14 kills and hit .429 for the Kohawks. 

Madi Miller paced Coe's defense with a match-high 26 digs and Jaimee Rindy had two blocks as Coe outblocked the Gorloks, 4-2.

For the match, Coe hit over .300 in both the second (.343) and third sets (.318) and had 14 or more kills in all four of the sets, including 19 kills in the third set. 

The Gorloks will conclude play in Illinois Wesleyan's Holiday Inn Express Classic III on Saturday, Oct. 27 as they face Cornell College at 10 a.m. and Dominican (Ill.) University at 2 p.m.