WEBSTER GROVES - The 14th-ranked Webster volleyball team extended its win streak to five straight matches here Thursday evening as the Gorloks posted its seventh sweep in 11 matches with a 25-11, 25-20, 25-21 win over Eureka College in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action on Senior Night at Grant Gymnasium.

Prior to Thursday's match, Webster honored its two seniors and a junior in a pre-match ceremony as this year's seniors are setter Emma Larson (Bellevue, Neb./Bellevue West) and middle hitter Hayley Taylor (Highland, Ill./Highland) and one junior who is graduating this season - middle hitter Kylie Burke (Belleville, Ill./Belleville West). 

With the win, the Gorloks improve to 9-2 overall and 9-2 in the SLIAC, while Eureka fell to 0-12 overall and 0-12 in the league. In addition, the Gorloks closed the home portion of its 2020-21 season with a 5-1 record. 

The Gorloks finished the night with 41 kills and hit .172 as they had 19 errors on 128 attacks, while the limited the Red Devils to a -.025 hitting percentage as Eureka had 20 kills on 23 errors on the night. 

Sophomore outside hitter Lauren Borik (Belleville, Ill./Althoff) continued her hot play on Thursday as she posted a double-double of 13 kills and 19 digs and hit .321 on just four errors. The double-double was Borik's fourth consecutive and fifth of the season. Borik is now hitting .244 on the year with 124 kills on 45 errors and a total of 324 attacks. 

In addition to Borik, Burke and freshman right side hitter Alexis Wolf (Quincy, Ill./Quincy) each had six kills and Burke added three of Webster's 14 block assists. 

On the night, Webster outblocked Eureka, 7-2 and recorded 70 digs. Along with Borik's 19 digs, sophomore defensive specialst Tori Cichelero (St. Louis, Mo./Ursuline) added 13 digs and junior libero Kyra Gensel (Clarkton, N.C./Harrells Christian) had 12 digs on the night. 

Larson and freshman setter Delaney Demman (Omaha, Neb./Central) helped set the Webster attack as they combined for 26 assists, three aces and 13 digs. Larson had 16 assists, five digs and one ace, while Demman just misssed a double-double by two digs as she had 10 assists, two aces and eight digs. 

Webster also had seven aces on the night, but committed nine service errors. 

For the match, Webster had a total of 28 errors and that led to 28 of Eureka's 52 total points. While Webster had 28 errors, Eureka finished with a total of 29 errors. 

Emma Harris paced Eureka with eight kills, while Regan Reed added six kills and a team-high 17 digs and Megan Masching had 13 digs in the loss. 

The Gorloks, who are now tied for second place in the league standings with 19th-ranked Westminster (Mo.) College heading into the final two matches of the regular season, will look to extend its win streak to six consecutive matches as they travel to Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, for a 1 p.m. match on Saturday, March 20 at Iowa Wesleyan. The Gorloks earned a three-set sweep over the Tigers in Grant Gym on Feb. 27. 

 
Set 1: Webster jumped out to a 12-3 lead in the opening set, but watched Eureka score three of the next five points to pull within 14-6. The Gorloks, though, would respond with a 7-2 run that began with an ace from Larson and was capped by a Larson kill to push out to a 21-8 lead. After EC scored two straight points to pull within 21-10, the Gorloks would close the set by scoring four of the final five points, including capping the 25-11 set win with a kill from freshman right side/middle hitter Katie Eskildson (Klamath Falls, Ore./Triad). In the set, Webster hit .273 with 13 kills and five aces, while Eureka hit -.125 as eight of their points came off of Webster errors. 

Set 2: Neither team could get much of a lead in the early going of the second set as the teams were tied at 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 and 5-5 and following that tie, the Gorloks used a 6-1 run to push out to an 11-6 lead. The run was capped by kills from Taylor and Burke. Eureka, though, wouldn't go away as they used a 6-4 run to drop Webster's lead to 15-12. That run seemed to spark the Gorloks as they scored five of the next eight points and capped the run with another kill by Taylor to push out to a 20-15 lead. The Red Devils would come back and score five of the next six points to pull within 21-20. Webster would then close the set by scoring the final four points and capping the 25-20 set with a kill by Wolf. Webster hit .178 and held Eureka to an .000 attack percentage in the set. 

Set 3: Trailing 2-0 in the match, Eureka opened the third set by scoring six straight points, including five of those points coming on Webster errors. The Gorloks, though, would begin chipping away at Eureka's lead as they scored 10 of the next 13 points to take a 10-9 lead on a kill by sophomore outside/middle hitter Jordan Mueller (Naperville, Ill./Naperville Central). The Red Devils would answer back by scoring five of the next seven points to retake the lead at 14-12. Webster would then score five straight points, including two points coming on kills by Borik to push in front, 17-14. Eureka would remain within striking distance for the remainder of the set as they used a 6-5 run to cut Webster's lead to 22-20. That would be as close as EC would get as Webster scored three of the final four points to earn the 25-21 win to complete the sweep. Neither team was effiicent offensively in the set as Webster hit .100 with 15 kills and 10 errors, while Eureka hit .000 with eight kills and eight errors. The Gorloks also had five blocks in the set.