WEBSTER GROVES - The Webster men's tennis team earned its first win of the 2021 season here Sunday afternoon with a 9-0 shutout win over Illinois College at the Webster Groves Tennis Center.

With the win, Webster improves to 1-5 on the season and posts its first 9-0 win in match since earning a 9-0 win at home over Fontbonne on April 11, 2019. Illinois College fell to 0-5 on the year with the loss. 

The Gorloks opened Sunday's match by winning all three doubles matches for the first time this season. 

At the No. 1 doubles spot, fifth-year senior Riley Muren (O'Fallon, Mo./Illinois-Springfield) and freshman Matthew Birchmeier (Swartz Creek, Mich./Flushing) won 8-1 over IC's duo of Connor Barton and Shane Koshikawa. The win improved Muren and Birchmeier to 3-3 on the season in doubles. 

Freshman Cody Neal (Fenton, Mo./Rockwood Summit) and junior Tanner Haugen (Jefferson City, Mo./Jefferson City) improved to 1-1 on the season in doubles following their 8-4 win at the No. 2 over Ethan Sabotta and Jovan Norris and then senior Courtland Butler (St. Louis, Mo./McKinley) and freshman Noah Thomas (Wentzville, Mo./Holt) won 8-4 at No. 3 doubles over Ibrahim Kamil and Senaf Fayissa.

Leading 3-0 in the match, the players turned their focus to singles play and in singles action on Sunday, Webster lost just 18 games in winning all six singles matches for the first time since winning all six singles matches last season against Gettysburg during their spring break trip to Hilton Head, S.C.

Muren notched a double bagel over Sabotta at the No. 1 spot, 6-0, 6-0 and the singles win improved Muren to 4-2 on the season. The singles victory was Muren's 32nd of his career and that ties him for fourth on the school's career singles win chart.

Neal would notch another double bagel win at the No. 2 spot as he won 6-0, 6-0 over Barton. 

Birchmeier won his first singles match of his collegiate career as he won at the No. 3 spot over Koshikawa by identical set scores of 6-4, 6-4. 

At the No. 4 spot, Thomas improved to 3-2 on the season in singles as he won 6-0, 6-1 over Norris 

Junior Justin Kohler (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) also picked up his first singles win of the season on Sunday as he won 6-0, 6-1 over Fayissa. 

Webster's sixth and final win in singles came from Butler at the No. 6 spot as he won 6-3, 6-4 over Kamil to earn his first win of the season as he is now 1-3 on the year in singles. 

The Gorloks will be back in action this coming Thursday, March 25 as they host Greenville University for a 6 p.m. match at the Webster Groves Tennis Center. It will be the first of two matches this season against the Panthers as Webster will travel to Greenville for a match on April 8.