WEBSTER GROVES - The Webster men's tennis teams (0-3) opened the home portion of its 2021 schedule here Thursday evening by suffering a 9-0 shut out loss to NCAA Division II member Maryville University at the Webster Groves Tennis Center. 

Thursday's match was the first at home for the Gorloks since a 5-4 home loss to Illinois Wesleyan on March 3, 2020, a span of 366 days between home matches. 

In double play, the most competitive match came at the No. 1 spot as graduate student Riley Muren (O'Fallon, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) teamed with freshman Matthew Birchmeier (Swartz Creek, Mich./Flushing) to fall 8-4 to Maryville's tandem of Jack Beuttell-Triggs and Sebastian Trigosso. 

The Saints won at No. 2 doubles, 8-1 and 8-0 at No. 3 doubles to take a 3-0 lead in the match.

Following doubles action, the two teams turned to singles play and in singles, the Gorloks struggled as they won just three games against the Saints. 

One of those games the Gorloks won came at the No. 2 spot as freshman Cody Neal (Fenton, Mo./Rockwood Summit) won a game in the second set against MU's Juan Segura as Segura won, 6-0, 6-1. 

Webster's second game came in the first set at No. 3 singles as Birchmeier took a game off of Tom Schmitt, who won 6-1, 6-0.

The third and final game the Gorloks won came at the No. 1 singles spot as Muren would take a game off of Beuttell-Triggs in the opening set as Beuttell-Triggs defeated Muren, 6-1, 6-0.

Maryville would won by idential 6-0, 6-0 scores at Nos. 4, 5 and 6 singles. 

The Gorloks will now take eight days off before returning to action on Saturday, March 13 as they host Evangel University for a 12:30 p.m. match at the Webster Groves Tennis Center.