WEBSTER GROVES - Playing its first home volleyball match since Nov. 5, 2019, Webster University came up short here Saturday afternoon as the Gorloks fell in three hard-fought sets to Greenville University (17-25, 21-25, 25-15) in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action at Grant Gymnasium.

Saturday's match was Webster's first home contest of the COVID-19 delayed 2020-21 sports season and the school's first home athletic event on campus since the men's and women's championship games of the SLIAC Basketball Tournament on Feb. 29, 2020. 

In Saturday's home contest against Greenville, Webster (1-1 overall, 1-1 SLIAC) recorded a season-high 33 kills and hit a season-high .138, but couldn't overcome a Panthers offense that recorded 44 kills and hit over .250 in two of the three sets, including hitting .312 in the third and final set. 

Despite the setback, Webster junior right side hitter Ali Spohr (Quincy, Ill./Quincy) came one kill shy of recording just the third triple-double in the school history as she had a career-high nine kills, a career-high 13 digs and a season-high 13 assists, along with hitting .227 in the loss. Spohr had five of her nine kills in the second set. 

Along with play of Spohr, freshman right side hitter Alexis Wolf (Quincy, Ill./Quincy), who was named the SLIAC Offensive Player of the Week last week, led the way for the Gorloks offense with a career-high 10 kills and hit .231. In addition to Wolf, sophomore outside hitter Lauren Borik (Belleville, Ill./Althoff) added six kills and a career-high 13 kills. 
 

Perhaps the biggest difference in Saturday's contest were errors as the Gorloks had 16 attack errors, seven ball handling errors, two service errors, two block errors and a set error and those errors led to 28 points for the Panthers, who committed a total of 17 errors. 

Defensively, Webster finished with 69 digs, including a match and career-high 23 digs from junior libero Kyra Gensel (Clarkton, N.C./Harrells Christian. Both teams finished with a total of four blocks each in the match. 

One area of strength for both teams was serving as the teams combined for nine aces and had just a total of six service errors. Greenville had five of those nine aces with Sacorra Patton picking up two of those aces. Webster got aces from Spohr, Gensel, senior setter Emma Larson (Bellevue, Neb./Bellevue West) and junior middle hitter Kylie Burke (Belleville, Ill./Belleville West). 

Along with the 13 assists from Gensel, Larson added nine assists in the match.

Mia Bonacorsi led the way for Greenville with a match-high 14 kills and added 11 kills and hit .406, while Patton added eight kills and 21 digs and Stahl also had eight kills. Jordan Lempa had 22 assists and Gretchen Bond finished with 16 digs for the Panthers. 

Webster will continue its 2020-21 schedule this coming Wednesday, Feb. 24 as they travel to Eureka, Ill., for a 7 p.m. match against Eureka College. Due to SLIAC rules, no fans will be permitted at indoor sporting events at any conference member institution this season.

Set 1: Neither team would take control of the opening set as their were eight ties until GU used a 6-2 run to turn an 8-all tie into a 14-10 lead. Following GU's run, the Gorloks used a 4-1 run capped by an ace from Spohr to push within a point at 15-14. The Panthers would answer right back as they used back-to-back attack errors by Wolf to jump start a 7-1 run to push its lead to 22-15. The two teams would then trade four points before an attack error by Larson sealed GU's 25-17 set win. In the set, Webster hit .118 as they had 11 kills and five attack errors, while GU hit .250 with 15 kills and two errors. Borik and Wolf each had three kills and Gensel had 12 digs in the set.

Set 2: After the two teams played to six ties in the opening part of the second set, GU used a 4-2 run to take a 10-8 lead. The Gorloks would respond with a 7-3 run to take a 15-13 lead. The run was capped by back-to-back kills from Spohr. The Panthers would score five consecutive points to take an 18-15 lead and after an error by Haley Banks stopped GU's run, the Panthers would score five fo the next six points to push its lead to 23-17. Spohr, though, would slam home her fifth kill of the set to drop GU's lead to 23-18. After a kill from Bonacorsi gave GU a 24-18 lead, the Gorloks would use back-to-back kills from Wolf and a ball handling error by Lempa to pull within 24-21. That would be as close as the Gorloks would get, though, a Emily Stahl put down a kill to give GU a 25-21 set win and 2-0 lead in the match. Both teams hit well in hte second set a WU hit .190 and had 13 kills, while GU hit .240 with 15 kills. 
 

Set 3: Greenville jumped out to a 10-6 lead in the third set, but the Gorloks used a kill by Wolf and an assisted block by Borik and sophomore middle hitter Julia Frey (Teutopolis, Ill./Teutopolis) to cut GU's lead to 10-8. The Panther, though, would answer with a 10-2 run capped by a kill from Bonacorsi to take a 20-11 lead. Kills from Burke and Spohr cut Greenville's lead to 20-13, but the Panthers would close out the set by scoring five of the final seven points to seal its 25-15 lead. Three of GU's five points came off of Webster errors as the Gorloks committed a total of nine errors in the set. For the set, Greenville hit .312, while Webster hit .100.