GREENVILLE - Webster University saw its 2019 volleyball season come to a close here Saturday evening as the No. 3 seeded Gorloks fell in a five-set thriller to No. 2 seeded Westminster (Mo.) College (23-25, 26-24, 23-25, 25-15, 9-15) in the second semifinal of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament at H.J. Long Gymnasium on the Greenville University campus. 

The Gorloks, who closed the season with a 17-12 record, had to play on Saturday with an adjusted lineup as junior outside hitter Samantha Kruse (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) missed the match due to a season ending injury and with Kruse's injury, Webster head coach Merry Graf moved junior Kristen Farrah (St, Charles, Mo./Francis Howell) from libero into a hitter and insterted freshman Tori Cichelero (St. Louis, Mo./Ursuline) as the team's starting libero. 

Despite the lineup change, the Gorloks didn't appeared to miss a beat as their offense outhit the Blue Jays, .181 to .150 and the Gorloks defense recorded 115 digs, including Cichelero recording a career high 30 digs as the team's libero.

In her new-old position Farrah, who played as an outside hitter as a freshman in 2017, had a double-double of 10 kills and 23 digs in her final collegiate match. With her 23 digs, Farrah pushed her career total to 1,975 digs, which is tops on the school's all-time list and her career dig average of 6.23 digs per set is also tops in school history and third among active Division III players. The double-double was the second of the season for Farrah and fifth of her career. 

Webster's offense was paced by freshman outside hitter Lauren Borik (Belleville, Ill./Althoff), who had 18 kills and hit .333, while senior right side hitter Sarah Jacobs (Carbondale, Ill./Murphysboro), who was Webster's representative on the SLIAC All-Tournament Team, added 14 kills and hit .227 in her final collegiate match. With her 18 digs, Borik, who was a Second-Team All-SLIAC selection this season, closes out the season by recording double-digit kills in 17 of her last 19 matches. 

The fourth Gorlok that posted double figures in kills was junior middle hitter Jordan Price (Fulton, Ill./Carl Sandburg College), who had 12 killls, three blocks and hit .229. 

Senior setter Jenna Rodriguez (Smithton, Ill./Freeburg) recorded a double-double of 25 assists and 17 digs in her final collegiate match and the double-double was her team leading 16th this season and 29th of her career. Her 25 assists pushed her career total to 1,068, which is ninth on the school's all-time list. In addition to Rodriguez, junior setter Emma Larson (Bellevue, Neb./Bellevue West) had 24 assists and a career-high tying 14 digs for her seventh double-double of the season. 

The fifth set match on Saturday was Webster's sixth of the season as the Gorloks went 1-5 overall in five set matches this season. 

In the match against the Blue Jays, the two teams combined for 31 ties and 18 lead changes, including 24 ties and a combined 14 lead changes in the first two sets. 

The Gorloks jumped out to a 7-4 lead early in the first set, before WC answered with a 6-2 run to take a 10-9 lead. The lead, though, would be shortlived as the Gorloks scored three straight points capped by a kills from Price to take a 12-10 lead. The Blue Jays, though, responded witth an 11-6 run to take a 21-18 lead. WU wouldn't go away as the Gorloks scored five of the next six points, including capping the run with back-to-back kills from Borik and Rodriguez to take a 23-22 lead. Westminster would answer right back as they scored the final three points of the set, including capping the 25-23 win with a kill by Ashley Kistaitis, who was named the MVP of the SLIAC Tournament. In the set, which featued 11 ties and six lead changes, Borik had five kills and Cichelero recorded nine digs for the Gorloks, while WC had five kills from Kistaitis and nine digs from Eryka Wanyonyi. 

Much like the first set, the second set was another back-and-forth affair as the Blue Jays scored the first two points and led 10-5 when the Gorloks used a 6-1 run to tie the set at 11. From that point, the teams took turns trading points before WU used a 4-0 run to turn a 17-16 deficit into a 20-17 lead. The Jays, though, came right back and scored four straight poins to take a 21-20 lead. The teams, though, once again would take turns trading points until WU scored the final two points of the set thanks to a kill by Borik and an assisted block by Price and Jacobs to seal it 26-24 win. In the set, WU had 11 kills and hit .140, while WC had 14 kills and hit .034. 

In the third set, WC jumped out to a 12-8 lead and led 14-10 when the Gorloks used an 8-3 run capped by back-to-back kills from Farrah and freshman middle hitter Julia Frey (Teutopolis, Ill./Teutopolis) to take an 18-17 lead. The Jays, though, answered by scoring three straight points to take a 20-18 lead. WU would come back and score three of then next five points to pull within 22-21. The Jays would close out the set by scoring three of the final five points ot post a 25-23 set win and take a 2-1 lead in the match. In the set, WU had 15 kills and hit .226, while WC hit .206 with 19 kills, including seven from Wanyonyi. 

Trailing 2-1 in the match, the Gorloks came out in the fourth set and dominated as they hit .357 with 18 kills and held Westminster to a .130 attack percentage on 11 kills. In the set, WU opened the set with a kill by Farrah and two kills by Price to jump out to a 3-0 lead. That lead would eventually grow to 20-12 following an ace by Larson. After a kill by Kistaitis stopped WU's run, the Gorloks would close out the set by scoring five of the final eight points to seal its 25-15 set win and force a fifth set. Farrah (6) and Borik (5) combined for 11 kills in the set for the Gorloks.

In the ffith and deciding set, Westminster scored the first four points and led 7-2 when the Gorloks responded with a 5-3 scoring run capped by an attack error from Wanyonyi to pull Webster within 10-7. That would be as close as the Gorloks would get as the Blue Jays closed out the set by scoring five of the final seven points, including capping the 15-9 set with a kill by Kistaitis. In the set, WC hit .444, while WU hit .059. 

Wanyonyi paced the Blue Jays with 21 kills and 19 digs, while Kistaitis added 18 kills and 19 digs in the win. In addition, Natalie Needy had 10 kills and 11 digs. Teresa Becker had 57 assists and 20 digs and Erica Schrader recorded 24 digs for the Jays (18-8 overall), who faced No. 4 seed MacMurray in the championship match after the Highlanders opened the SLIAC Tournament with a five-set semifinal win over top-seed and tournament host Greenville, who claimed the SLIAC regular season title. 

For the match, Westminster had 67 kills, 112 digs and six blocks. 

In addition to Jacobs and Kistaitis, the other members of the SLIAC All-Tournament Team were Greenville's Mia Bonacorsi, MacMurray's Carissa Smith, MacMurray's Kamryn Flesner, Westminster's Wayonyi and Becker.