BELLEVILLE, Ill. – Webster University has earned the No. 3 seed for the 2019 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Women's Tennis Tournament that is scheduled for this coming weekend, April 19-20, at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center at Forest Park in St. Louis, Mo.
 
The Gorloks, who are the defending SLIAC Tournament champions, finished the conference season with a 3-2 record to finish in third place. Overall, Webster is sporting a 5-8 record on the season and comes into the SLIAC Tournament having won three of its last four matches to close the regular season with the only loss being a 5-4 setback at Principia last Saturday.
 
Webster will open the SLIAC Tournament on Friday, April 19 at 11 a.m. against No. 6 seeded Fontbonne in the first round. Webster picked up a 9-0 win over the Griffins at the Webster Groves Tennis Center on March 27 in the team's lone regular season meeting. Fontbonne went 0-12 overall and 0-5 in the league.
 
Friday's other first round match at 11 a.m. will feature No. 4 seeded Blackburn (4-8 overall, 2-3 SLIAC) facing No. 5 seeded Westminster (2-7 overall, 1-4 SLIAC).
 
Following Friday's two first round matches, there will be two more matches beginning around 2 p.m. as No. 1 seeded and regular season champion Greenville (11-5 overall, 5-0 SLIAC) will meet the winner of the Blackburn-Fontbonne match in one semifinal match, while the winner of the Webster-Fontbonne match will meet No. 2 seeded Principia College (7-13 overall, 4-1 SLIAC) in the other semifinal match.
 
The two losers of the 11 a.m. matches on Friday will meet in a fifth place match, which is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Friday afternoon.
 
On Saturday, April 20, the winners of the semifinal matches will meet in the championship match, while the two teams that lose in the semifinals will face other in the third place match. Both of those matches are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.  

Last season, Webster posted a 12-5 overall record and a 5-0 mark in the SLIAC and took home both the regular season and SLIAC Tournament championships en en route to earning an at-large berth into the NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Tournament. 

Despite some struggles in non-conference action this season, Webster won three of its five league matches with the only setbacks coming to Greenville (7-2) and Principia College (5-4). Two of WU's three league wins came by 9-0 scores, while its other league win was an 8-1 defeat of Blackburn College.  

Leading the way for the Gorloks heading into this weekend's SLIAC Tournament are seniors Madison Watts (Rogersville, Mo./Logan Rogersville) and Sara Rice (Mahomet, Ill./Mahomet-Seymour) as those two play the top two spots in the Gorloks singles line-up and also play No. 1 doubles.

Rice has posted a 5-7 singles record this season, including a 4-5 mark at the No. 1 spot and went 2-2 in singles during league play and went a combined 6-5 in doubles play, including posting a 6-3 mark at No. 1 doubles and a 3-1 record in SLIAC play, while Watts went a perfect 6-0 in singles action at the No. 2 spot and was 3-0 in league play in singles and posted a 5-2 record at the No. 1 doubles spot, including a 2-1 mark in league action. Rice and Watts have combined to win a total of 63 singles matches in their four year careers at Webster and have combined to win 71 doubles matches, including Watts posting a 42-27 record in doubles. The 42 doubles wins are eighth most in school history. 

In addition of Rice and Watts, three other Gorloks won six matches in singles during the regular season as sophomore Maggie Federhofer (St. Louis, Mo./Lutheran South) went 6-5 in singles, including posting a 5-2 mark at the No. 3 spot and was 3-1 in singles during SLIAC play, while freshmen Navone Armstrong (St. Louis, Mo./McCluer North) and Emma Ferguson (Troy, Mo./Troy Buchanan) also both won six matches in singles. Armstrong went 6-9, including a 6-1 record at the No. 5 spot and was 3-1 in SLIAC play and Ferguson posted a 6-10 record, including a 3-4 mark at the No. 4 spot and she was 2-2 in SLIAC play.

Webster's No. 6 spot in the line-up was played by multiple players during the regular season as sophomore Liz Gerger (St. Louis, Mo./Francis Howell Central) and freshman Addie Struckman (O'Fallon, Mo./Francis Howell) went a combined 2-2 at No. 6 singles, including going 1-2 at that spot during league play. 

Watts and Armstrong enter the SLIAC Tournament having won six and three consecutive matches respectively in singles.

Meanwhile, in doubles action, the No. 1 team of Rice and Watts went 5-2 in doubles and was 2-1 in doubles during SLIAC play. Watts has played No. 1 doubles the last three seasons. WU's other two doubles teams went a combined 6-3 in SLIAC play as Federhofer partnered with both Ferguson and Armstrong to go 3-1 at the No. 2 spot, while Armstrong and Struckman went 2-0 in league play, while Gerger and Ferguson went 1-0 in league play at the No. 3 spot. 

Overall, Webster's doubles teams went 9-3 in league play and were 17-29 overall on the season. At the No. 2 spot, Ferguson and Federhofer went 3-1 during the season, while Armstong and Federhofer also went 3-1, while at the No. 3 spot, Armstrong and Struckman went 2-2 and the other four teams that played at the No. 3 spot during the season combined to go 1-6.