O'FALLON, Ill. - Webster University returned to St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play here Thursday evening as the Gorloks collected a 9-0 victory over Fontbonne University at St. Clair Tennis Center.

Thursday's match, which began at 8:30 p.m., was the second meeting this season between the Griffins as the Gorloks picked up a 7-2 non-conference win over the Fontbonne at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in Forest Park on April 2. 

With Thursday's win, Webster improves to 11-5 overall and 2-1 in the SLIAC, while Fontbonne fell to 1-7 overall and 1-2 in the league. The 11 wins this season are the most for the Gorloks in a season since the 2013 squad won a school record 19 matches and finished with a 19-3 record.

In Thursday's match, the two Big Bend Blvd. rivals opened up by playing singles, before concluding the match that ended just before midnight, by playing doubles. 

The shutout win by Webster was its third of the season and first since posting a 9-0 win over Nazareth during its Spring Break trip in Hilton Head, S.C., on March 10. 

Webster dropped just a total of 20 games in singles as only the match at No. 1 singles between junior Riley Muren (O'Fallon, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) and Sebastian Culton went to a third set. 

Muren's match at No. 1 singles was the match of the night as the Gorlok junior won the first set, 6-3, before Culton battled back to win the second set 6-2 to force a third set. In the third set, the two players battled back-and-forth before Muren prevailed 6-4 to improve to 10-6 on the season. 

The Gorloks won three of the singles matches without dropping a game as sophomore Austin Nation (Oklahoma City, Okla./Purcell) won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2 singles over Zach Stevens, while sophomore Tom Shutzman (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South) won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 4 singles over FBU's Anh Nguyen and sophomore Courtland Butler (St. Louis, Mo./McKinley) won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 6 singles over Hayden Thompson. For Butler, it was his first singles match of the season and is now 4-0 in Webster career in singles action.

Senior Charlie McGhee (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) moved his season singles record to 10-5 after his 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 3 singles over Brandon Baumgartner. 

Webster's final singles win came at the No. 5 spot in the line-up as freshman Justin Kohler (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) improved to 3-0 in singles action this season following his 6-2, 6-2 win on Thursday over Jaxon Ziemann. Kohler is now 3-0 on the season in singles play.

Meanwhile in doubles, FBU battled hard in two of the three matches against the Gorloks. In doubles, Webster lost a total of nine games with six of those coming at No. 2 doubles as freshmen Harsh Jaswal (O'Fallon, Mo./Fort Zumwalt West) as Jaswal defeated Nguyen and Baumgartner. 
 

At. No. 1 doubles, Muren teamed with freshman Tanner Haugen (Jefferson City, Mo./Jefferson City) to win 8-2 over Culton and Stevens, while junior Nicolas Andrade (Quito, Ecuador/Francis Howell) and freshman Sean Raglin (Barnhart, Mo./Windsor) won 8-1 at the No. 3 spot over Greih Murray and Hayden Thompson.

The Gorloks will close out the home portion of its 2019 schedule on Saturday, Jan. 13 as they host Knox College in a 10 a.m. match at Webster Groves Tennis Center. The match will mark the final home match for McGhee, who is Webster's lone senior.