FULTON, Mo. - Webster University returned to St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play here Thursday with a hard-fought three-set loss to Westminster (Mo.) College (23-25, 16-25, 20-25) at the Historic Gym on the Westminster College campus.

With the setback, Webster falls to 7-9 overall and 4-3 in the SLIAC, while Westminster improves to 7-6 overall and remains in second place in the SLIAC standings with a 5-1 record. The match was the second between the two teams this week as the Gorloks posted a four set win over the Blue Jays at the MacMurray Quadrangle this past Saturday. 

Thursday's match was a competitive one throughout the night as the match featured 16 ties and six lead changes. including seven ties each in the first and third set. 

In Thursday's match, Webster's offense recorded 35 kills and hit .175, while Westminster had 39 kills and hit .187 as a team.

Perhaps the biggest difference in Thursday's match was serving as the Blue Jays recorded eight service aces and had five service errors, while Webster did not record an ace and had seven service errors. It was the first time in 58 matches dating to the 2017 season that Webster failed to record an ace in the match. 

Freshman outside hitter Lauren Borik (Belleville, Ill./Althoff) continued her strong offensive play this season as she finished with 13 kills and hit .267 for the Gorloks. Borik has now recorded double-digit kills in six consecutive matches and has hit over .250 in five of those six matches. 

In addition to Borik, junior middle hitter Jordan Price (Fulton, Ill./Carl Sandburg College) added seven kills and hit .462, while senior right side hitter Sarah Jacobs (Carbondale, Ill./Murphysboro) had six kills and hit .235. 

Defensively, junior libero Kristen Farrah (St. Charles, Mo./Francis Howell) had a match high 17 digs and pushed her career total to 1,708 digs, which is second on the school's all-time chart and she is one of just two Gorloks to record 1,700 career digs. Farrah is now just 221 digs shy of the school's career mark for digs as Katie O'Toole holds the record for 1,929 digs, which she recorded in 2013-16. 

Senior setter Jenna Rodriguez (Smithton, Ill./Freeburg) posted her team leading ninth double-double of the season as she had 13 assists and 12 digs, while junior outside hitter Samantha Kruse (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) also had 12 digs, but was limited to just two kills on a season low 14 attack attempts. 

Westminster jumped out to a early 2-0 lead, before the Gorloks used a 9-4 run to take a 9-6 lead. The Blue Jays, though, would respond with an 11-5 run to take a 17-14 lead. During that run, the set would be tied four times. WU would answer with a 6-4 run capped by back-to-back kills from Price and Jacobs to pull the Gorloks within 21-20. Westminster would close the set by scoring four of the final seven points to seal it 25-23 win. In the set, WU hit .028 and had 14 kills, while WC had 17 kills and hit .212. 

In the second set, both teams hit over .200 as WU had 11 kills and hit .242, while WC had 13 kills and hit .257. In the set, Westminster jumped out to an 11-5 lead, before the Gorloks two of the next three points to pull within 12-7. The Blue Jays, though, responded with 12-8 run to push its lead to 24-15. Borik would stop the run with a kill to bring WU within 24-16, before Eryka Wanyonyi slammed home her eighth kill of the set to seal WC's 25-16 set win. 

Neither team was able to take control of the third set early on as the two teams took turns trading points until WC used a 3-1 run to turn a 9-all tie into a 12-10 lead. The lead, though, was shortlived as the Blue Jays committed back-to-back errors to allow the Gorloks to tie the set at 12. After the two teams would record another tie at 13-all, the Blue Jays used an 8-3 run to push out to a 21-16 lead. The Gorloks would score two of the next three points to pull within 22-18, the Blue Jays closed out the set and match by scoring three of the final five points to seal the 25-20 win. In the set, both teams combined for 19 kills, 13 errors and each team hit under .100. 

Wanyonyi led the way offensively for the Blue Jays with 17 kills and hit .316, while also recording 11 digs. In addition to Wanyonyi, Ashley Kistaitis added 11 kills and 15 digs, while Natalie Needy had five of WC's eight aces. 

Teresa Becker paced WC's offense with 34 assists and also had 10 digs. 

Westminster had six blocks, while Webster had four blocks on the night.

The Gorloks will look to snap its two-match losing streak this coming Tuesday, Oct. 8 as they travel to Carlinville, Ill., for a 7 p.m. SLIAC match against Blackburn College (3-12 overall, 3-5 SLIAC). The Gorloks picked up a three set win over the Beavers at the Spalding Quadrangle on Sept. 21.