WEBSTER GROVES - Webster University concluded its season-long three match homestand here Tuesday evening by suffering a four-set loss to Fontbonne University (23-25, 20-25, 25-18, 24-26) in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action at Grant Gymnasium.

The loss dropped Webster to 4-2 overall and 4-2 in the SLIAC and snapped three-match win streak, while Fontbonne won its second straight match and improved its record to 3-4 overall and 3-4 in the league. Despite the loss, the Gorloks remained in third place in the league standings with eight regular season matches remaining. 

Tuesday's match was competitive throughout as it featured 18 ties and eight lead changes, but the Gorloks continued to struggle with miscues as they committed a total of 31 attack errors and a combined 42 errors that led 42 of Fontbonne's 94 points in the win. 

While Webster struggled with mistakes, so too, did the Griffins, who snapped an eight match losing skid to the Gorloks, as they committed 27 attack errors and totaled 44 errors that led to 44 of WU's 92 points on the night. 

Webster's offense, which totaled a season-high 51 kills, but hit just .108 as they had 31 attack errors on a season-high 186 attack attempts. Pacing the way offensively for Webster was sophomore outside hitter Lauren Borik (Belleville, Ill./Althoff), who had a team-high 13 kills and added career-high 21 digs for her first career double-double, while junior setter/right side hitter Ali Spohr (Quincy, Ill./Quincy) added nine kills, but tallied her team-best fourth double-double with 19 assists and 16 digs. 

Four Gorloks posted six kills each in the loss as junior middle hitter Kylie Burke (Belleville, Ill./Belleville West) had six kills, while sophomore outside/middle hitter Jordan Mueller (Naperville, Ill./Naperville) had a career-high six kills. Sophomore middle hitter Julia Frey (Teutopolis, Ill./Teutopolis) had six kills and hit a team-high .222 and freshman right side hitter Alexis Wolf (Quincy, Ill./Quincy) also had six kills for the match. 

Webster's defense was strong on the night as they recorded a season-high eight blocks, including a career-high tying five blocks from Burke and a career-high tying three blocks from Frey. Burke now leads the Gorloks in blocks on the season with 13. 

In addition to Borik's 21 digs and Spohr's 16 digs, junior libero Kyra Gensel (Clarkton, N.C./Harrells Christian) had 14 digs and five assists. 

Freshman setter Delaney Demman (Omaha, Neb./Central) had 16 assists and added eight digs in the match. 

While Webster hit .108 in the match, Fontbonne hit .152 with 52 kills, including Jadyn Fitzgerald tallied a double-double of 19 kills and 14 digs and hit .311. Hannah Gallagher had 14 kills and 19 digs, while Oliva Tallo had 10 kills and 14 digs in the win.

The Griffins had 95 digs on the night as five players recorded double-digit digs for Fontbonne.

Webster will look to rebound this coming Friday, March 5 as they travel to Carlinville, Ill., for a 7 p.m. match at Blackburn (3-4 overall, 3-4 SLIAC), who took 18th-ranked Westminster to five sets in a 3-2 loss Tuesday. 

Set 1: Webster jumped out to a 5-2 lead, but Griffins would answer with an 11-3 run, including capping the run with two straight kills from Gallagher, to take a 13-8 lead. The Gorloks, though, would score seven of the next eight points to retake the lead at 15-14. Burke and Borik capped the run with back-to-back kills. From the point, the teams would trade points until the Griffins used kills from Gallagher and Fitzgerald to turn a 21-all tie into a 23-21 lead. After a kill by Burke brought the Gorloks within a point at 23-22, FBU would close the set by scoring two of the final three points to seal its 25-23 lead. In the set, Webster hit .133 with 14 kills, while Fontbonne had 15 kills and hit .297. The set featured 11 ties and five lead changes.

Set 2: The second set was marred by errors as the two teams combined to commit 17 attack errors and combine for 20 kills. Neither team hit over .075 as FBU hit .073 with 11 kills and eight errors, while WU hit .000 with nine kills and nine errors. Fontbonne used a 7-0 scoring run to turn a 5-2 deficit into a 9-5 lead.early in the set. The Griffins' lead would grow to 12-7, when the Gorloks scored five consecutive points with four of those points coming on FBU errors to tied the set at 12-all. That would be as close as Webster would get as FBU scored seven straight points to take a 17-12 lead and after back-to-back errors by the Griffins brought the Gorloks within 19-18. Fontbonne, though, would close the set by scoring six of the final eight points to earn a 25-20 win and take a 2-0 lead in the match.

Set 3: Webster would rebound in the third set as they used an 8-4 run to turn a 1-all tie into a 9-5 lead. After a Gallagher kill stopped WU's run, the Gorloks would use an 8-6 run to push its lead to 17-12. The Gorloks lead would eventually grow to 23-17 and after a kill by Tallo dropped WU's lead to 23-18, Webster would score the final two points of the set on back-to-back kills from Burke and Spohr to post a 25-18 win. In the set, Webster hit .205 with 13 kills and four attack errors, while FBU had 12 kills and eight errors for an .087 attack percentage. 

Set 4: Neither team would lead by no more than two points in the early part of the set before kills from Fitzgerald and an attack error by Mueller gave the Griffins a 17-14 lead. The Gorloks would come back and score four of the next six points to pull within 19-18 and capped the run with kill from sophomore defensive specialist Tori Cichelero (St. Louis, Mo./Ursuline). FBU would respond by scoring four of the next six points to push its lead to 23-20. After the teams traded points to give FBU a 24-21 lead, Webster took advantage of three straight errors by Fontbonne to tie the set at 24-all. Gallagher would record a kill to give the visitors as 25-24 lead and then capped its 26-24 win with an attack error by Mueller. In the set, Webster had 15 kills and hit .093, while Fontbonne had 14 kills and hit .175.