WEBSTER GROVES - Webster University continued its strong play here Tuesday evening as the Gorloks opened St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play with a 7-2 victory over Westminster (Mo.) College at the Webster Groves Tennis Center. 

With the victory, Webster extends its win streak to eight straight matches and moves its record to 8-2 overall and 1-0 in the SLIAC, while Westminster is now 0-1 as Tuesday's match was their first of the 2019 spring season.

The eight match winning streak for the Gorloks is the longest for the program since winning 13 straight matches during the 2013 season.

In Tuesday's match, the teams opened by playing the six singles matches and in singles play, Webster dominated as they won all six matches in straight sets and lost a total of 14 games in the process, including winning two of the matches by identical 6-0, 6-0 scores. 

By starting the match with singles, Webster was able to secure the win and then mix-up their doubles teams and play all 11 players on the roster as the only Gorlok to play both singles and doubles was junior Riley Muren (O'Fallon, Ill./Illinois-Springfield).

In fact, Muren won Webster's first match on Tuesday as he posted a 6-0, 6-0 shutout at No. 1 singles against Phillip Udinyiwe. The victory was Muren's sixth straight in singles and improved his record to 8-2 on the season. 

Webster's other shutout came at the No. 6 singles spot as junior Nicolas Andrade (Quito, Ecuador/Francis Howell) won 6-0, 6-0 over Westminster's Mike Ruis. Andrade has now won three straight singles matches and is now 3-2 on the season.

The Gorloks third singles win came at the No. 5 spot as freshman Tanner Haugen (Jefferson City, Mo./Jefferson City) defeated Brandon Rettke, 6-0, 6-1 to improve to 5-0 on the season in singles play. 

Sophomore Austin Nation (Oklahoma City, Okla./Purcell) won WU's fourth point as he won at No. 2 singles over the Blue Jays' Giovanni Strickland, 6-1, 6-2. Nation, like Muren, has now won six straight matches this season and is 7-2 on the year in singles. 

Senior Charlie McGhee (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) improved his singles record on the season to 7-2 following its 6-3, 6-1 win over Joshua Udinyiwe at the No. 3 spot. McGhee's win at No. 3 singles secured the match win for the Gorloks. 

Webster made its a clean sweep in singles as sophomore Tom Shutzman (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South) won in straight sets (6-1, 7-5) over Nick Lalowski at the No. 4 singles spot. 

Holding a 6-0 lead in the match, the teams moved onto doubles action and Westminster would prevent the Gorloks from posting a sweep as the Blue Jays won at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles for their only two wins of the match.

Webster would open doubles play with an 8-1 win at No. 1 by Muren and his partner, freshman Parker Schaefer (Barnhart, Mo./Windsor) over Westminster's No. 1 team of Phillip and Joshua Udinyiwe.

In No. 2 doubles, Lalowski and Strickland picked up an 8-6 win over WU's tandem of freshmen Harsh Jaswal (O'Fallon, Mo./Fort Zumwalt West) and Justin Kohler (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo), while at No. 3 doubles, Rettke and Ruis picked up a win over WU's duo of sophomore Courtland Butler (St. Louis, Mo./McKinley) and freshman Sean Raglin (Barnhart, Mo./Windsor). 

Webster will look to make its nine straight wins as they face St. Louis College of Pharmacy on Friday, March 29 at the St. Clair Tennis Center. The match with College of Pharmacy is scheduled for a 4 p.m. start.