FULTON, Mo. - Webster University men's tennis opened St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play here Friday by posting a 7-2 win over Westminster (Mo.) College at the Robert Elder Memorial Courts. 

With the win, Webster improves to 3-6 overall and 1-0 in the league, while Westminster opens the season 0-1.

The Gorloks have now won three of its last four matches since opening the season with five straight losses. 

In Friday's match, the Gorloks opened the match by sweeping the all three doubles matches for the third time this season. 

Fifth-year senior Riley Muren (O'Fallon, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) and freshman Matthew Birchmeier (Swartz Creek, Mich./Flushing) improved to 5-4 on the season in doubles as they won 8-1 at No. 1 doubles over Westminster's duo of Phillip Udinyiwe and Joshua Udinyiwe. 

The Gorloks No. 2 team of junior Tanner Haugen (Jefferson City, Mo./Jefferson City) and freshman Noah Thomas (Wentzville, Mo./Holt) improved to 3-2 on the season following its 8-4 win over Cooper Pennington and Aiden Petterson. 

Junior Justin Kohler (Waterloo, Ill./Waterloo) and senior Courtland Butler (St. Louis, Mo./McKinley) won at No. 3 doubles, 8-2, over Giovanni Strickland and Brandon Rettke. Kohler and Butler won their first match of the season as they are now 1-3 on the season. 

Following doubles play, the teams turned their attention to singles as the Gorloks won four of the six matches to seal its win.

Webster's singles wins came at No. 1 from Muren, No. 3 from Birchmeier, No. 4 from Haugen and No. 6 from Kohler. 

Muren won 6-1, 6-1 over Pennington at the No. 1 spot to improve to 6-3 on the season, while Birchmeier improved to 3-6 with a double bagel win over Strickland at the No. 3 spot. Haugen won 6-2, 6-3 at No. 3 singles over Phillip Udinyiwe and Kohler is now 3-6 on the season after his 6-2, 7-5 win at No. 6 singles over Rettke. 

Westminster would pick up its two wins in singles at the No. 2 spot as Petterson defeated Neal, 6-4, 7-5 and Joshua Udinyiwe won 6-2, 7-6 (3) over Thomas at the No. 5 spot.

The Gorloks will return to action on Saturday, April 3 as they host two matches at home as they open the day at the Webster Groves Tennis Center with a 9 a.m. match against St. Louis College of Health Sciences (formally known as St. Louis Pharmacy) and a 2 p.m. match against Westminster.