ST. LOUIS - After completing an undefeated regular season in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play, Webster University Women's Tennis was pushed to the limit here Friday afternoon in the championship match of the 2021 SLIAC Tournament against No. 2 seeded Greenville at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in Forest Park, before prevailing at No. 1 singles to pull out a 5-4 victory over the Panthers and take home its first SLIAC championship in women's tennis since 2018.

The title was the fifth for Webster in women's tennis in school history and the first since collecting a 5-3 win over Westminster (Mo.) College in the championship match of the 2018 SLIAC Tournament. The Gorloks advanced to Friday's championship match after collecting a 5-0 win Friday morning over fourth-seeded Westminster in the semifinal round of the tournament. 

"It's been a crazy year and we've improved tremendously throughout the year," said Webster second-year head coach John Black said following the Greenville match. "We fought hard, never gave up, kept working and were positive and supported each other and they played amazing tennis today and we earned a championship."

Webster, who defeated Greenville 6-3 during the regular season en route to posting a perfect 3-0 lead in league play, trailed 2-1 after doubles in Friday's championship match as the Panthers picked up wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles by scores of 8-6 and 8-1 respectively. 

With Friday's win, the Gorloks improved its record to 10-5 on the season, while Greenville, who earned a spot in the championship following its 5-0 semifinal round win over No. 3 seeded Principia College, falls to 9-4 on the season. 

The SLIAC title match came down to the No. 1 and No. 6 singles matches after senior Maggie Federhofer (St. Louis, Mo./Lutheran South) gave the Gorloks a 4-3 lead in the match after her 7-5, 6-3 win at No. 3 singles over Greenville's Shaling Reynolds. Federhofer, who improved to 6-5 on the season with the season, gutted out a hard-fought 6-3, 7-5 win over Reynolds to give Webster its fourth point. 

Federhofer, who was the only Gorlok that played in Friday's match that also played on the 2018 championship team, says that it feels great to end her career with this championship title. 

"Last year, I thought we weren't going to play even this year and to make it this far with having a short season and having it be so strange not having a fall season and then coming together as a team right at the end to win this just means everything to me. We had a lot ups and downs this year and played a lot of close matches like we did today," said Federhofer, who improved her career record in singles to 25-21 with the win. The 25 singles wins are 13th on the school's all-time chart. 

Following Federhofer's win, the only two matches left on the court were at No. 1 singles as sophomore Erin Brezovar (Muskego, Wis./Muskego) was locked in a battle with Greenville's Mireia Birosta and sophomore Emily Casey (Duluth, Minn./Marshall) was facing Greenville's Samantha Siefken at No. 6 singles. 

Casey, who lost the first set 6-1, would win the second set, 6-1 to force a third set, meanwhile, on the next court over, Brezovar would lose the first set 6-1 to Birosta, before earning a 7-6 (7-5) win in the second set to force a third and deciding set. 

At No. 6 singles, Casey appeared headed towards giving Webster that fifth point and the champion as she led 5-2 in the third set, before Siefken would win the final five points of the set and post a 7-5 win to even the score at 4-4 and put the title in the hands of the winner of the No. 1 singles match. Casey fell to 4-4 on the season with her loss. 

While Casey was finishing up her match at No. 6 singles, Brezovar and Birosta would battle point-for-point in the third set, including Brezovar trailing at one point 40-15, before rallying to win the game and maintain her lead in final set. Brezovar would eventually prevail over Birosta, 6-4 to give the Gorloks its fifth tournament title in school history. The win at No. 1 singles for Brezovar was her seventh consecutive and improved her record to 9-4 on the year. 

"Erin has had a really good year, but everyone on our team has had a good year," Black added. "Being able play this year has been amazing and winning the tournament and winning some matches has been a bonus. I'm really proud of the team, tt hasn't been easy, but they worked hard and competed."

Along with Federhofer and Brezovar, Webster's other wins in singles on Friday came at No. 4 as junior Emma Ferguson (Troy, Mo./Troy Buchanan) picked up a 6-1, 6-4 win over Claudia Principal for the Gorloks first singles win and freshman Bailey Higgins (Jefferson City, Mo./Jefferson City) tied the match a 3-all following her 6-3, 6-1 win over Emily Buratovich at No. 5 singles. With the win, Higgins improved her single record to 9-4 on the season. 

Greenville would open singles play with Addison Brannon picking up a straight set win (6-1, 6-1) over Webster sophomore Katarina Serbentas (Iron River, Mich./West Iron County) at No. 2 singles. 

Meanwhile, in doubles play, the Gorloks prevented a sweep by the Panthers as Higgins and junior Navone Armstrong (St. Louis, Mo./McCluer North) won at No. 3 doubles, 8-3 over Siefken and Noelle Beans. Higgins and Armstrong won their third consecutive doubles match and improved to 5-3 overall on the season. 

The Gorloks opened play in the SLIAC Tournament on Friday by dispatching Westminster 5-0 in the semifinal round. 

Webster only had to play two doubles matches against the fourth-seeded Blue Jays as they had only four players available for the match and that gave Webster wins at No. 3 doubles and No. 5 and 6 singles to hold a 3-0 lead before the match started. 

In the two doubles matches that were played, Brezovar and Federhofer posted an 8-0 win at No. 1 doubles over Westminster's duo of Erika Watanabe and Earthis Pascua and Ferguson and Serbentas earned an 8-3 win at No. 2 doubles over Rebecca Zile and Maggie Sherman.

With the loss, Westminster (0-7) fell into the third place match against Principia and in the third place match, Principia would hang on for a 5-4 win. 

The Gorloks are scheduled to continue its spring season on Monday, April 25 with 4:30 p.m. match at Washington University in St. Louis.