HILTON HEAD, S.C. - Webster University Women's Tennis completed play here Friday in the Spring TennisFest by suffering a hard-fought 5-4 loss to Earlham College at the Chaplin Park Tennis Center.

With Friday's setback, Webster falls to 2-6 overall on the season and went 0-4 in its four match on its Spring Break trip to Hilton Head. Earlham moves to 8-9 on the season with the win.

In Friday's match, the Quakers jumped out out to a 2-1 lead after doubles action as they won at the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles spot, while Webster won at the No. 3 spot by default due to an injury suffered by Abilgail Smith. 

Earlham won the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches by identical 8-4 scores. 

Meanwhile in singles play, Webster won three of the six singles matches, but the Quakers sealed the match win at No. 1 singles as Anna Hahn needed a third set tiebreaker to defeat Webster sophomore Maggie Federhofer (St. Louis, Mo./Lutheran South) to seal the match win.

In No. 1 singles, Federhofer won the first set, 6-3, before Hahn came back to win the second set, 6-2 to set up a third set tiebreaker to determine the winner of the match. The tie-breaking third set was also Hahn as she won 10-4 to give the Quakers the 5-4 match victory. 

Webster's wins in singles came at No. 2, No. 5 and No. 6, while Earlham won at No. 1, No. 3 and No. 4. 

The Gorloks tied the match at 2-all after freshman Emma Ferguson (Troy, Mo./Troy Buchanan) picked up a straight sets win over Abby Stewart at No. 2 singles. Ferguson won, 6-1, 6-3. 

Earlham would take a 3-2 lead after Alexandra Swank won at No. 4 singles over freshman Addie Struckman (O'Fallon, Mo./Francis Howell). Swank won 7-5 and 6-0 over Struckman.

The Quakers pushed its lead to 4-2 following a win by Ari Sanchez at No. 3 singles over Gorlok freshman Navone Armstrong (St. Louis, Mo./McCluer North). Sanchez wpn 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 over Armstrong, who fell to 0-3 this season at the No. 3 spot in the line-up.

Freshman Alea Morris (St. Louis, Mo./Maplewood-Richmond Heights) picked a win by default at the No. 6 spot over Smith, who was forced to retired after leading 1-0 in the first set due to injury. Morris was making her collegiate debut on Friday for the Gorloks.

Sophomore Liz Gerger (St. Louis, Mo./Francis Howell Central) would tie the match at 4-all after her straight set win at No. 5 singles over Maddie Dalzell. Gerger, who went 1-3 in singles at the Spring TennisFest event, won by scores of 6-0 and 6-1. 

Gerger's win tied the match at 4-all and set up the winner-take-all match at No. 1 singles. 

The Gorloks will now return home to St. Louis and will return to action on Saturday, March 23 as they host Lewis & Clark Community College in a exhibition match beginning at 2 p.m. at the Webster Groves Tennis Center. WU's next regular season match is slated for Wednesday, March 27 as the Gorloks host Fontbonne for a 6 p.m. St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match at the Webster Groves Tennis Center.