ST. LOUIS - Webster University opened play here Friday in the 2018 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Men's Tennis Tournament by splitting its two matches and advancing to Saturday's third place match at 11 .m. against No. 4 seeded Westminster (Mo.) College at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in Forest Park.

The third-seeded Gorloks opened Friday's action by falling 5-0 to No. 2 seeded Greenville University and then rebounded to post a 5-1 win in the fifth place match against fifth-seeded Fontbonne University. Greenville and No. 1 seeded Principia will face each other Saturday at 11 a.m. for the championship.

With the split, Webster improves its record to 8-7 on the season and can assure themselves of a winning record on the season with a win over Westminster in the third place match. Last season, Webster went 4-7.

In the fifth place match against Fontbonne, Webster opened the match by winning two of the three doubles matches as all three of them being highly competitive. The Gorloks won the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles spots as freshmen Austin Nation (Oklahoma City, Okla./Purcell) and Tom Shutzman (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South) picked up an 8-4 win at No. 2 and freshmen Nicolas Andrade (Quito, Ecuador/Francis Howell) and Zach Bliss (Branson, Mo./Branson) earned an 8-5 win at the No. 3 spot.

Fontbonne (0-8) earned its only point of the match at No. 1 doubles as their No. 1 team of Sebastian Culton and Blake Wisniewski defeated Webster's No. 1 tandem of sophomore Riley Muren (O'Fallon, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) and junior Charles McGhee (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo), 8-5. 

Holding a 2-1 lead in the match, Webster sealed the win with wins in singles at No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 to complete the 5-1 win. At the No. 3 spot, Shutzman defeated Stephen Lendy, 6-3, 6-1, while McGhee picked up a 6-0, 6-2 win at the No. 4 spot over Khoa Trieu and Bliss improved to 8-5 this season. at No. 5 singles with his win over Jacob Lendy, 6-1, 6-1. 

The other three singles matches were not played as Webster had already sealed the win. 

Meanwhile, in Friday's opening match against No. 2 seeded Greenville, the Panthers opened with three wins at doubles, including an 8-6 win at the No. 2 spot over Nation and Shutzman. Greenville won the other doubles matches by identical 8-2 scores.

Greenville would seal the 5-0 win by picking up a 6-0, 6-0 win at the No. 2 spot and a 6-1, 6-0 win at the No. 5 spot to advance to Saturday's championship match. 

The other four singles matches were in the second set when Greenville sealed the win and were left unfinished.