LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Webster University Volleyball continued St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play here Saturday at a quadrangle hosted by Spalding University by picking up wins over Blackburn College (26-24, 25-21, 25-21) and Spalding (25-14, 25-21, 24-26, 25-17) at Columbia Gym on the Spalding campus. 

With the two wins, Webster improves to 6-5 overall and 3-0 in the SLIAC and the Gorloks now won 19 consecutive regular season SLIAC matches since opening the 2018 season with back-to-back losses to Greenville and Westminster and then closing the 2018 season by winning its last 16 league matches. 

Against Spalding (2-9 overall, 2-1 SLIAC), the Gorloks recorded 49 kills and hit .209, along with recording seven aces, 69 digs and four team blocks. The Gorloks hit over .150 in all four sets, including hitting .323 in posting its 25-14 win in the opening set. 

Freshman outside hitter Lauren Borik (Belleville, Ill./Althoff) paced the Gorloks offense with 12 kills, while junior outside hitter Samantha Kruse (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) added 10 kills and 14 digs for her third double-double of the season and sophomore middle hitter Kylie Burke (Belleville, Ill./Belleville West) had seven kills and hit .438 in the victory. 

Junior middle hitter Jordan Price (Fulton, Ill./Carl Sandburg College) had six kills, seven digs and a match-high four aces. 

Defensively, junior libero Kristen Farrah (St. Charles, Mo./Francis Howell) paced the Gorloks with a match-high 21 digs, while in addition to Kruse's 14 digs, senior setter Jenna Rodriguez (Smithton, Ill./Freeburg) added 10 digs and 16 assists for her fifth double-double of the year. 

Junior setter Emma Larson (Bellevue, Neb./Bellevue West) had 12 assists, two aces and four digs in the win. 

In the first set, WU earned a 25-14 win after hitting .323, while Spalding was held to a -.029 hitting percentage. Borik paced the Gorloks with five kills in the set. 

Trailing 1-0 in the set, Spalding jumped out to an 8-0 lead and led 11-3 when the Gorloks used a 16-5 run to take a 19-16 lead. The run was capped by two kills from Burke and an ace from Price. The Golden Eagles, though, used a 5-1 run to take a 21-20 lead. That would be the final lead of the set for Spalding as the Gorloks scored the final five points of the set to post a 25-21 win and take a 2-0 lead in the set.

Much like the second set, Spalding jumped to an early 4-1 lead and led 9-7 when the Gorloks responded with a 9-3 run to take a 16-12 lead. The run was capped by an ace from Larson. SU would use an 11-6 run to pull within 23-22. Price would give the Gorloks a 24-22 lead following a kill, but SU would close out the set by scoring the final four points to post a 26-24 set win to force a fourth set. The win in the third set by Spalding snapped a streak of 50 consecutive set wins by the Gorloks in regular season league play dating to a four set win last season against Eureka. 

Spalding jumped out to a 7-4 lead in the fourth set and led 9-7 when the Gorloks used an 8-1 run to take a 15-10 lead. The run was capped by a kill from Borik, who had four kills in the set. After SU scored two straight points to cut WU's lead to 15-12, the Gorloks answered by scoring six of the next seven points to take a 21-13 lead. SU would then score three straight points to pull within 21-16, before WU closed out the set by scoring four of the final five points to post a 25-17 set win to seal the match win. In the set, WU hit .182 and had 11 kills, while SU hit .024 and had nine kills. 

Savannah Kruse paced Spalding with 10 kills, while Samantha Robison added eight kills for the Golden Eagles. 

Sarah Richards had 17 of SU's 60 digs, while Mya Summers added a double-double of 27 assists and 11 digs. 

Meanwhile, in Saturday's opening match against Blackburn (1-8 overall, 1-2 SLIAC), Webster's offense hit .190 as they had 41 kills and five aces in the three set victory. 

Against the Beavers, Webster spread its offense around as five Gorloks recorded five or more kills, including Kruse leading the way with nine kills and a .364 attack percentage. In addition to Kruse's nine kills, Borik and Jacobs each had seven kills, while Price added six and Burke had five kills in the win.

Defensively, Farrah recorded 21 digs and has now recorded 20 or more digs in all 11 matches this season and 14 consecutive matches dating to last season. The 42 digs on the day pushed her career total to 1,587 digs, which is fifth on the school's all-time list and is just 13 digs shy of becoming just the fifth Gorlok in school history to record 1,600 career digs. 

Rodriguez set the pace for Webster's offense as she had 22 assists and added six digs, while Larson added nine digs and two aces. 

The Gorloks will look to remain undefeated in SLIAC play this coming Wednesday, Sept. 25 as they host Greenville University for a 7 p.m. match at Grant Gymnasium. The Panthers and the Gorloks shared the regular season SLIAC title a season ago as both team went 16-2 in conference action.