Over the next several weeks, Webster University Athletics Department will be releasing its All-Decade Teams of the 2010s. For a full schedule of the teams set to be released, click here.
 
WEBSTER GROVES – Webster University Athletics has begun unveiling of its All-Decade Teams from the 2010s as it compiles the best student-athletes across the past 10 seasons (2010-19) in each of Webster's intercollegiate athletic teams. Our fourth team to be unveiled is the 2010-19 All-Decade Volleyball Team.
 
During the decade, the Gorloks won four straight St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament championships from 2011-14 and three SLIAC regular season titles (2011, 2012 and 2018). Along with winning four SLIAC Tournament titles and three SLIAC regular season titles in the decade, Webster also made four consecutive trips to the NCAA Division III Tournament from 2011-14. The Gorloks posted a 196-131 overall record in the decade and went 144-30 in SLIAC play, including a combined 60-8 in league play from 2011-14. In fact, the Gorloks won at least 12 league matches in all 10 years in the decade and posted six years of winning at least 19 matches, including three 20-plus win campaigns.
 
Along with their success on the court, that success also brought recognition for Webster's players as 10 of the 11 players on the All-Decade Team earned All-SLIAC honors a combined 28 times, including earning first team honors 10 times and three players earning All-SLIAC honors all four years – Jenny Howard, Allie O'Toole and Jordan Vehlewald. In addition, two players – Kristen Farrah and Sam Kersting – earned AVCA All-Region honors and Kersting was named a Third-Team AVCA All-American in 2012. During the last 10 years, four Gorloks on the All-Decade Team earned a combined six SLIAC Player of the Year accolades as four players earned Defensive Player of the Year accolades, including Farrah taking home the honor the last two years of the decade and two took home SLIAC Player of the Year honors – Farrah in 2018 and Howard in 2012.
 
One of the All-Decade Team members, Howard, was a CoSIDA Academic All-District selection in 2014 and was also the SLIAC Post Graduate Scholarship winner, the NCAA Women of the Year nominee and Webster's Female Student-Athlete of the Year in 2014. Additionally, the All-Decade Team members earned a combined 25 SLIAC Fall All-Academic Team honors and three players earned SLIAC Tournament MVP honors, including Howard taking home the honor in both 2012 and 2014.
 
Additionally, the members of the All-Decade Team earned a combined 25 SLIAC Player of the Week accolades as they earned 11 Offensive Player of the Week honors and 14 Defensive Player of the Week honors.  
 
Listed below is the 11-member Webster Athletics Volleyball Team of the Decade for the 2010s. Players were selected by head coach Merry Graf and are listed alphabetically by position.
 
Outside Hitters
Torie Grassi (St. Louis, Mo. – 2015-18)
In the latter part of the decade, Grassi played four years from 2015-18 and was a two-time All-SLIAC selection in 2017 and 2018. Along with being a two-time All-SLIAC selection, she was also a three-time SLIAC Fall All-Academic Team member and earned a SLIAC Offensive Player of the Week accolade in 2018. During her Webster career, she played in 117 matches and 391 sets and finished her career eighth in career attack attempts (2,616), 10th in career kills (845), tied for 11th in career matches played (117) and 16th in career sets played (391). Additionally, she recorded 273 career digs and 113 career blocks, including recording a career high six block assists against Westminster in 2017. Grassi's 907 career points are 13th most in the program's history. Had 200 or more kills in a season three times and hit .187 in her playing career, including a .242 attack percentage as a senior in 2018. 
 
Jenny Howard (Florissant, Mo. – 2011-14)
Perhaps one of the top student-athletes in Webster history, Howard played four years in the decade and was a two-sport athlete as along with playing volleyball, she was also a member of the women's track and field program. She is one seven Gorlok volleyball players in program history and one of three on the 2010s All-Decade Team to earn All-SLIAC honors four times, including earning first team honors in 2011 and 2012. In addition, she was a four-time member of the SLIAC Volleyball All-Tournament Team and was named the Tournament MVP in 2012 and 2014 and was named the SLIAC Newcomer of the Year in 2011 and was named the SLIAC Player of the Year in 2012. Was a four-time SLIAC Offensive Player of the Week and was a three-time selection to the SLIAC Fall All-Academic Team. Additionally, she was a CoSIDA Academic All-District selection, a SLIAC NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and an NCAA Women of the Year nominee in 2014 and was named Webster Athletics Female Student-Athlete of the Year in 2014-15. In her time at Webster, she played in 106 matches and 330 career sets and stands sixth on the school's all-time list for attack percentage (.296), eighth in career kills (918), ninth in career attack attempts (2,577) and is 13th in career digs with 1,032. Recorded 200 or more kills in a season three times and hit over .300 in both 2011 and 2012. Also recorded 41 career aces, 57 assists and 117 career blocks.
 
Samantha Kruse (Waterloo, Ill. – 2017-19)
One of two members from the final team of the 2010s on the All-Decade Team as Kruse was a two-time All-SLIAC selection in 2018 and 2019. Along with her two All-SLIAC selections, she also was named a two-time SLIAC Fall All-Academic Team selection in 2018 and 2019 and was a SLIAC Offensive Player of the Week honoree in 2018. In her three years (2017-19) as a Gorlok, Kruse played in 86 matches and 287 sets and recorded 660 career kills, 901 career digs, 77 career aces and 89 career blocks. She is 13th in career attack attempts (2,262), 16th in career digs per set (3.14), 17th in career kills (660) and 20th in career digs (901). In addition, she hit .181 in her Webster career. Recorded 200 or more kills over her last two seasons and had 200 or more digs in two of three seasons, including 419 digs as a sophomore in 2018.
 
Jordan Vehlewald (Wildwood, Mo. – 2011-14)
In her four years with the Gorloks from 2011-14, Vehlewald, who played both as an outside hitter and libero, was one of three players on the All-Decade Team to earn All-SLIAC honors four times. In addition to earning All-SLIAC honors four times, she also earned the SLIAC Tournament MVP honor in 2011 and was named to the SLIAC Fall All-Academic Team in 2012. Additionally, she was named both a SLIAC Offensive Player of the Week in 2011 and a SLIAC Defensive Player of the Week in 2014. As a Gorlok, she played in 129 matches and 430 sets and her 129 matches played are third most in school history. She finished her career with 548 kills, 1,690 digs, 71 blocks, 70 assists and 78 service aces and hit .210. Vehlewald is third on the school's all-time list in digs (1,690), fifth in career sets played (430) and sixth in career digs per set (3.93). As a senior in 2014, she recorded 628 digs, which is fourth on the school's single season chart and her 124 sets played in 2014 is fifth on the school's single season chart.
 
Middle Hitters
Sam Kersting (St. Louis, Mo. – 2012-14)
Perhaps one of top middle hitters in the program's history, Kersting was a three-time First-Team All-SLIAC selection in her three seasons as a Gorlok. Along with earning three first team All-SLIAC accolades, she was also a three-time member of the SLIAC All-Tournament Team, including earning Tournament MVP honors in 2013 and was named the SLIAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2013. In addition, she is the only Gorlok volleyball player in program history to earn All-American honors as she was Third-Team AVCA All-American in 2012 and also earned AVCA All-Region honors that same year. In the classroom, she was a two-time member of the SLIAC Fall All-Academic Team and was a six-time SLIAC Player of the Week as she earned Offensive Player of the Week accolades five times, including three times in 2012 and earned a Defensive Player of the Week accolade in 2013. On the court, she played 100 matches and 344 sets and sits second on the school's all-time chart in attack percentage (.336), third in both career blocks (436) and block assists (263), fourth in career solo blocks (173), sixth in career blocks per set (1.27), seventh in career kills (967) and 14th in career attack attempts (2,145). She hit over .300 in all four years, including a .363 attack percentage in 2012, which is third on the school's single season chart. In fact, she has three of the Top 11 attack percentages in a single season in program history as along with hitting .363 in 2012, she hit .346 in 2013, which is fifth on the single season chart and hit .305 in 2014, which is 11th on the school's single season chart. Her 127 sets played in 2014 is tops on the school's single season chart.  
 
Rachel Nelson (Papillion, Neb. – 2014-15)
Nelson played just two seasons for the Gorloks in the decade and in those two seasons, she earned All-SLIAC honors both seasons, including being a First-Team All-SLIAC selection in 2015. Along with her two All-SLIAC honors, she was also a member of the SLIAC Fall All-Academic Team in 2015 and also earned a spot on the SLIAC All-Tournament Team in 2015. Additionally, she took home a SLIAC Defensive Player of the Week accolade in 2014. In her two seasons, she played in 69 matches and 243 sets. Recorded 572 career kills, 141 digs, 246 blocks and 49 service aces in her time as a Gorlok and hit .296. She stands fifth on the school's career attack percentage chart (.296), is ninth in career blocks (246) and 20th in career kills (572). In 2014, she had eight block assists against Illinois Wesleyan, which is fifth on the school's single match list, while her 11 blocks in that same match is tied for seventh on the school's single match chart. In addition, she had six service aces against Eureka in 2014 and those six aces are tied for ninth on the school's single match list.
 
Emily Ratkewicz (Granite City, Ill. – 2011-13)
In the early part of the decade, Ratkewicz played three seasons for the Gorloks and in that time, she was a three-time All-SLIAC selection, including earning First-Team All-SLIAC honors in 2013. Along with earning All-SLIAC honors all three years she played at Webster, Ratkewicz was also a two-time member of the SLIAC Fall All-Academic Team and was named to the Molten Spike-It All-Tournament Team in 2012. She played in 93 matches and 306 sets in her time at Webster and recorded 475 kills, 133 digs, 321 blocks, 29 service aces and hit .242. Her 321 blocks are sixth on the school's career chart, while her 130 solo blocks are tied for sixth on the school's all-time list. Additionally, she had 11 blocks at Millikin in 2013 and those 11 blocks are tied for seventh on the school's single match chart, while she also had six aces at Eureka in 2013 and those six acers are tied for ninth on the school's single match list.     
 
Defensive Specialists
Kristen Farrah (St. Charles, Mo. – 2017-19)
Farrah is the second of two players on the All-Decade Team that played in the final three years of the decade for the Gorloks. In her time as a Gorlok, Farrah became one of the top liberos, not only in school history, but in all of NCAA Division III Volleyball as she was a two-time First-Team All-SLIAC selection in 2018 and 2019. In addition to her two first team All-SLIAC accolades, Farrah accomplished a rare feat as she was named both the SLIAC Player and Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore in 2018 and repeated as the league's Defensive Player of the Year in 2019. Along with those honors, she was a two-time AVCA Honorable Mention All-Region selection and was a member of the SLIAC All-Tournament Team in 2018. Additionally, she was a two-time member of the SLIAC Fall All-Academic Team, an eight time SLIAC Defensive Player of the Week as she captured the honor four times in both 2018 and 2019 and was the Webster Athletics Female Student-Athlete of the Year in 2018-19. Farrah was also the NCAA Division III National statistical champion for digs per set as she averaged a single season school record 8.32 digs per set in 2018. In her three years at Webster, Farrah played in 90 matches and 312 sets and she leaves Webster as the school's all-time leader in both career digs (1,952) and digs per set (6.26) and also holds single season school records for digs (882 in 2018), digs per set (8.32 in 2018). She is one two players in school history to record 1,900 or more career digs and both of those players are on the 2010s All-Decade Team. Her 671 digs in 2019 is second on the school's single season chart, while her 57 digs against Westminster (Mo.) College in the semifinals of the 2018 SLIAC Tournament is also a school record. She closed out her collegiate career by recording double-digit digs in 64 consecutive matches, including recording 20 or more matches in 55 of those final 64 matches. Her 882 digs in 2018 were second most in Division III and the 8.32 digs per set in 2018 was the second highest figure at the Division III level since the sport changed to a 25 points per set system in 2008. Over the final two years of her career, she recorded 1,576 digs.
 
Katie O'Toole (St. Louis, Mo. – 2013-16)
O'Toole was another top libero in the decade for the Gorloks as she played from 2013-16 and was a two-time All-SLIAC performer in 2015 and 2016, including earning first team accolades in 2016. Along with being a two-time All-SLIAC honoree, she was also named the SLIAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2016. Additionally, she was a three-time member of the SLIAC Fall All-Academic Team and a two-time SLIAC Defensive Player of the Week honoree. In her time at Webster, she played in 132 matches and 439 sets and is second on the school's all-time list in career digs with 1,929 and her 4.39 digs per set is third on the school's career chart. Her 132 matches played and 439 career sets are second and third respectively on the school's all-time chart. In addition to being second on the school's all-time list in digs, she is third on the school's single season chart for both digs (659 in 2016) and digs per set (5.63 in 2016). Along with her 1,929 career digs, she also recorded 523 assists and 101 aces as a Gorlok. O'Toole is one of two Gorloks to record 50 or more digs in a match in school history as she had 50 digs against Augustana (Ill.) College in 2013.  
 
Setters
Kelsey Hamann (Waterloo, Ill. – 2015-18)
During the decade, Hamann played at Webster from 2015-18 and was named to the SLIAC All-Sportsmanship Team in 2018 and was a three-time member of the SLIAC Fall All-Academic Team. In her four years at Webster, she played in 110 matches and 365 sets and shared primary setting duties from 2016-18 in Webster's two-setter system. She closed her career with 173 kills, 76 aces, 1,757 assists and 989 digs and is sixth in career assists and eighth in career assists per set (4.81) and is 15th in career digs. In addition, she hit .244 as a Gorlok and that .244 attack percentage is 15th on the school's all-time chart. She tallied 400 or more assists in three of her four playing seasons and had 250 or more digs in two of her four seasons. 
 
Allie O'Toole (St. Louis, Mo. – 2011-14)
O'Toole played four years early in the decade and was one of three players on the All-Decade Team to earn All-SLIAC honors all four years as a Gorlok. Along with being a four-time All-SLIAC selection, she was also named to the SLIAC Fall All-Academic Team three times and named to the SLIAC All-Sportsmanship Team in 2014. In her time as a Gorlok, she played in 134 matches and 450 sets and she holds the school record for matches played and is also tied for first in career sets played. She recorded 2,497 assists, which is third on the school's all-time chart and her 5.55 assists per set is fifth on the school's all-time chart. Along with her 2,497 assists, she also had 191 career kills, 106 service aces and 616 digs.