INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Webster University Volleyball opened play here Friday in the two-day American Volleyball Coaches NCAA Division III National Invitational Tournament held at The Academy Volleyball Club by winning one of its three pool play matches to earn a spot in bronze third place bracket on Saturday. 

Friday's matches were exhibition contests for all the teams playing in the event hosted by the AVCA as each pool play match was played as a best of three sets, but Saturday's bracket play will feature the traditional five set matches, which will count in a team's season record. 

In its first match on Friday against the University of Dubuque, the Gorloks were swept by UD as the Spartans won 25-23, 26-24. Against the Spartans, sophomore outside hitter Lauren Borik (Belleville, Ill./Althoff) and freshman right side hitter Alexis Wolf (Quincy, Ill./Quincy) combined for 15 kills as Borik had eight kills and hit .293, while Wolf had seven kills as Webster had 26 kills and hit .229 in the match. The defense was paced by 15 digs and five blocks from Borik, while junior setter/right side hitter Ali Spohr (Quincy, Ill./Quincy) added 11 digs, nine assists and two service aces. Sophomore defensive specialist Tori Cichelero (St. Louis, Mo./Ursuline) had nine digs for the Gorloks as they finished with 47 digs.
 
Webster's second match was against Mississippi University for Women as the Gorloks won that match, 25-20, 25-12. Against the Owls, Webster recorded 24 kills and hit .262 as a team. In the win, Borik led the way with eight kills and hit .500 as she didn't record an error on 16 attacks, while Wolf had six kills and hit .600 as she had 11 attacks with no kills. Sophomore setter/right side hitter Mary Nelson (St. Louis, Mo./Bishop DuBourg) had 11 assists and Spohr tallied eight assists, while Borik, Cichelero and junior middle hitter Peyton Eikel (Dardenne, Prairie, Mo./Liberty) each had six digs in the win. The Gorloks also had five aces in the win with three of them coming from Borik.
 
In the final pool play match, Webster would force a third set against seventh-ranked Millikin University as they won the first set, 25-18, before the Big Blue rallied to win the final two sets as they won 25-18 and 25-17 to complete the pool with an undefeated record. Against Millikin, the Gorloks had 22 kills, four aces and 47 digs. Borik led the way with seven kills and added 11 digs and three blocks, while Eikel had five kills and hit .250. Webster also had four solo blocks and total of seven blocks in the match as Borik had two solo blocks, while Nelson and sophomore middle hitter Julia Frey (Teutopolis, Ill./Teutopolis) each had one solo block. Nelson and Spohr combined for 13 assists in the match. 
 
The Gorloks will return to action on 12 p.m. ET on Court 7 as they face Concordia (Wis.) in the semifinals of the Bronze Bracket Championship for third place pool teams and then they will face either Illinois Wesleyan or Covenant College in their second match at 2 p.m. ET on either Court 9 or 11.