WEBSTER GROVES - Webster University opened the home portion of its 2019 season schedule here Wednesday evening by suffering a hard-fought setback in four sets to Rose-Hulman (16-26, 27-25, 23-25, 23-25) Institute of Technology in non-conference action at Grant Gymnasium. 

With the loss, Webster falls to 4-5 overall on the season, while RHIT improved to 4-9 on the season. 

Wednesday's match was the latest home opener for the Gorloks since the 2013 season when Webster opened its home schedule on Sept. 18 against Greenville. 

In Wednesday's match, Webster recorded 53 kills, six aces and 108 digs and hit .133 as a team, while RHIT had 55 kills, eight aces, 103 digs and hit .163 for the match. 

Junior outside hitter Samantha Kruse (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) and junior middle hitter Jordan Price (Fulton, Ill./Carl Sandburg College) paced the Gorloks with 12 kills apiece and also each had two aces. In addition to Kruse and Price, freshman outside hitter Lauren Borik (Belleville, Ill./Althoff) added nine kills. Price hit .357 and Borik in .240 in the loss. 

Webster's defense was paced by 38 digs from junior libero Kristen Farrah (St. Charles, Mo./Francis Howell), while senior setter Jenna Rodriguez (Smithton, Ill./Freeburg) posted her fourth double-double of the season with 20 assists and a season high 27 digs. Sophomore defensive specialist Kyra Gensel (Clarkton, N.C./Harrells Christian) added 16 digs and junior setter Emma Larson (Bellevue, Neb./Bellevue West) also posted a double-double of 18 assists and 10 digs and tallied two aces. The double-double was Larson's third of the season.

In the first set, both teams took turns holding the lead until the Gorloks scored two straight points to take a 10-8 lead. The lead was shortlived as RHIT used a 14-5 run to jump out to a 22-13 advantage. The Gorloks, though, would respond by three of the next four points to pull within 23-16, before the Fightin' Engineers scored the set's final two points to earn a 25-16 win. In the set, RHIT had 12 kills and hit .250, while WU had 13 kills, including three apiece from Borik, Kruse and Price, but hit just .167. 

RHIT jumped out to a 10-6 lead and eventually led 16-7 in the second set, before the Gorloks responded with a 12-4 run that was capped by a kill from Rodriguez to drop RHIT's lead to 20-19. Looking to tie the set, Kruse recorded a service error to give the visitors a 21-19 lead. WU would answer with a 5-3 run capped by a kill from freshman outside hitter Jordan Mueller (Naperville, Ill./Naperville Central) to take a 24-23 lead. The two teams would then trade points until WU scored the final two points of the set to post a 27-25 win to tie the match at a set apiece. WU hit .130 in the set and had 14 kills, while RHIT hit .111 and had 14 kills. 

The third set was another back-and-forth affair as the two teams combined for seven ties and three lead changes. WU opened the set by scoring four of the first five points and led 12-9 when RHIT used a 9-4 run to take an 18-16 lead. The lead eventually grew to 20-17 when the Gorloks used a 6-4 scoring run capped by a kill from Borik and an ace from Larson to pull within 24-23. Larson, though, would end the set with a service error, one of seven in the match for the Gorloks, to seal RHIT's 25-23 set win to give them a 2-1 lead in the match. Both teams each had 12 kills as RHIT hit .125 and WU hit .103.

RHIT jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the fourth set and led 10-6, when the Gorloks scored four of the next six points to pull within 12-10. RHIT, though, would score five consecutive points to take a 17-10 lead. WU would answer by scoring nine of the next 12 points, including capping the run with a kill from sophomore outside hitter Peyton Eikel (Dardenne  Prairie, Mo./Liberty) to drop RHIT's lead to 20-19. The Fightin' Engineers would close out the set by scoring five of the final nine points to earn a 25-23 set win to earn the match win. RHIT had 17 kills and hit .174 in the set, while WU hit .133 and had 14 kills in set. 

Elizabeth Cannon finished the match with a game-high 17 kills, while Grace Beach added 12 kills in the win. 

RHIT's defense was paced by 42 digs from Katryna Dahlberg, while Emma Royer had 23 assists and 23 digs and Maria Bruner had six kills and a match-high three blocks. 

The Gorloks will return to the road this coming Saturday, Sept. 21 as they travel to Louisville, Ky., to play two matches as a quadrangle hosted by Spalding University. At the Spalding Quad, the Gorloks will face Blackburn at 12 p.m. CT and then face Spalding at 2 p.m. CT. Those two matches will mark the second and third St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference matches of the season for the Gorloks, who opened league play last Thursday with a three set win at Iowa Wesleyan.