FULTON, Mo. - Webster University continued its strong play here Wednesday evening in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action as the Gorloks earned a three-set victory over Westminster College (25-23, 25-16, 26-24) at the Historic Gym on the Westminster campus. 

Along with being its third consecutive victory on Wednesday, the win was also the Gorloks fifth staight in league play since dropping its first two league matches on Sept. 8 at Greenville, Ill., against both Greenville and Westminster. 

With the win, Webster improves to 7-7 overall and 5-2 in the SLIAC, while Westminster falls to 9-4 overall and suffered its first loss in league play and is now 7-1 in SLIAC action. The Gorloks are now sitting third in the league standings and split the season series with the Blue Jays.

Wednesday's match was a match-up between two of the top three teams in the league's preseason poll as Westminster was tabbed as the league's preseason favorite, while the Gorloks were tabbed third in the preseason poll.

The victory was also a milestone of Webster head coach Merry Graf as she won her 400th collegiate volleyball match and her 344th victory at the helm of the Gorlok program. Prior to her arrival at Webster in 2001, Graf spent five seasons coaching volleyball at St. Louis College of Pharmacy.

On Wednesday, Webster got a balanced offensive attack as five players recorded five or more kills and the Gorloks outhit the Blue Jays, 209 to .186. 

Senior outside hitter Torie Grassi (St. Louis, Mo./Rosati-Kain) led the way with nine kills and hit .241, while senior right side hitter Samantha Budrovich (St. Louis, Mo./Lutheran South) and junior outside hitter Sarah Jacobs (Carbondale, Ill./Murphysboro) each had eight kills and Jacobs hit .381. The other two Gorloks with five or more kills were sophomore outside hitter Samantha Kruse (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) and junior middle hitter Taylor Kissel (St. Louis, Mo./Lutheran South) had seven and five kills respectively.

On defense, Webster had 84 digs and outblocked the Blue Jays, 7-0. Sophomore libero Kristen Farrah (St. Charles, Mo./Francis Howell) finished with 25 digs and the NCAA Division III national individual leader in digs per set has now had 20 or more digs in a match 11 times. Farrah is currently averaging 8.18 digs per set. 

In addition to Farrah, Kruse added 16 digs, while Webster's two setters each posted double-doubles as senior Kelsey Hamann (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) had 15 assists and 15 digs and junior Jenna Rodriguez (Smithton, Ill./Freeburg) added 18 assists and 14 digs in the victory. 

Jacobs and Kissel each had four assisted blocks, while Grassi and freshman outside hitter Kylie Burke (Belleville, Ill./Belleville West) each had three assisted blocks. The seven blocks was one short of WU's season high of eight blocks against Lincoln (Ill.) College in the season opener.

Webster hit over .175 in the first two sets as they recorded a .192 attack percentage in the first set and then hit .347 in the second set. 

Westminster, who snapped its three-match win streak with Wednesday's loss, was paced offensively by a 15 kill night from Teresa Becker. In addition to Becker, Allie Kennebeck added eight kills and Natalie Needy had seven kills and hit .238. 

The Blue Jays finished with 41 kills, but committed 15 attack errors, including a combined 14 in the first and third sets. 

Jill Reando finished with a double-double of 21 assists and 16 digs, while Bridget Ringwald added 14 digs. 

Both teams finished with three aces as Rodriguez had two of WU's three aces, while Reando had two of her team's three. 

The Gorloks will look to extend its win streak to four consecutive matches on Friday, Sept. 28 as they host Iowa Wesleyan in a 7 p.m. match at Grant Gymnasium on the Webster campus. The match will be Faculty/Staff Appreciation Night. Last Saturday at Principia, the Gorloks picked up a three-set victory over the Tigers as part of the Principia Quadrangle.