ST. LOUIS - With the regular season complete, top-seeded Webster University opened up play in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Women's Tennis Tournament here Friday afternoon by posting a 5-0 victory over fourth-seeded Principia College at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center at Forest Park.

The Gorloks, who went 5-0 during the regular season in the SLIAC and earned a bye in the first round, will now face No. 2 seeded Westminster (Mo.) College in Saturday's tournament championship match that is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. at Dwight Davis. The Gorloks have finished as runner-up the past two seasons after winning the SLIAC title for the third time in school history in 2015. 

"I'm very pleased with our performance today," Webster head women's tennis coach Martha Davis-Goldstein said. "We came out focused and played very consistently. I look forward to our team bringing the same high level of mental strength and performance on court tomorrow to clinch the conference title."

During the regular season, Webster (11-5 overall on the season) picked up a 9-0 win over the Panthers to close the regular season last Saturday at the Webster Groves Tennis Center. Principia fell to 5-8 on the season and will face No. 3 seeded Greenville in the third place match on Saturday at 11 a.m. 

In Friday's match, the Gorloks opened by winning all three doubles matches by scores of 8-1, 8-1 and 8-2 at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 respectively. With those three wins, Webster only needed two wins in singles to seal its victory.

Webster got its fourth point of the match at the No. 1 singles as senior Monica Behrle (Atlanta, Ga./East Paulding) picked up a 6-0, 6-0 win over Grace Buchanan and then junior Sara Rice (Mahomet, Ill./Mahomet-Seymour) sealed Webster's 5-0 victory with a 6-0, 6-0 win at the No. 4 spot over Principia's Sarah Switzer. 

The other four singles matches weren't finished once Rice secured the fifth point to earn the win. Webster had won the first set in three of the other four matches as senior Jesse Steffens-Willis (St. Louis, Mo./Rockwood Summit) trailed 5-4 in the opening set at the No. 3 spot to Principia's Olivia Kasprzyk.