CLAYTON, Mo. - Webster University played its final scheduled match of the 2021 spring season here Monday afternoon as the Gorloks suffered a 9-0 shutout loss to Washington University in St. Louis at the Tao Tennis Center on the WashU campus.

With the setback, Webster fell to 10-6 on the season, while WashU improved to 8-1. In addition, Webster is now 8-2 this season in NCAA Division III matches. 

Now that Webster has completed all of its scheduled matches, the Gorloks will now wait to find out if they get the chance to earn an at-large berth in the 2021 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Tournament as the NCAA will unveil the tournament field on Monday, May 10. The Gorloks, who won the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament this past Friday with a 5-4 win over Greenville, does not have an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament as the league doesn't have enough teams participating to have its championship school earn an automatic bid in women's tennis.

Monday's match, which was the first meeting between the two schools in women's tennis since 2012, began with doubles as the Bears, who have now won eight straight matches on the season, won all three matches and dropped only three games to the Gorloks in doubles action.

At No. 1 doubles, sophomores Erin Brezovar (Muskego, Wis./Muskego) and Katarina Serbentas (Iron River, Mich./West Iron County) paired together for the first time this season and fell 8-2 to Washu's duo of Ally Persky and Karen Gao. 

Freshman Bailey Higgins (Jefferson City, Mo./Jefferson City) and sophomore Emily Casey (Duluth, Minn./Marshall) fell 8-1 at No. 3 doubles to Emma Verpoucka and Maggie Yang. 

The Bears won 8-0 at No. 2 doubles over Webster's tandem of juniors Navone Armstrong (St. Louis, Mo./McCluer North) and Emma Ferguson (Troy, Mo./Troy Buchanan). 

Holding a 3-0 lead in the match, the teams would turn their focus to singles play. In singles, the Bears were even more dominant against the Gorloks as they dropped a total of seven games in six singles matches. 

WashU opened singles play by picking up a win at the No. 4 spot as Webster's Casey fell 6-1, 6-1 to Natalie Muldowney and earned the match win with Persky's win at No. 1 singles over Brezovar, 6-1, 6-0. The loss snapped Brezovar's seven match win streak in singles.

The third singles match that was completed was a the No. 6 spot as Verpoucke defeated senior Lauren Denny (O'Fallon, Mo./Francis Howell), 6-0, 6-0. 

Ferguson moved up two spots in singles on Monday and fell by identical 6-0, 6-0 scores at No. 2 singles to Laurel Wanger.

Armstrong played No. 5 singles and fell 6-1, 6-1 to Leslie Ligier and the Bears capped its 9-0 win with a 6-2, 6-0 victory at No. 3 singles as Higgins fell to Emma Sass.