The Journal

Issue date: 11/16/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Martin Ribaudo Sophomore Megan Floarke (left) awaits a return from freshman Laura Jensen of Rhodes College.

Media Credit: Martin Ribaudo Junior Chrissy Engel (left) and sophomore Erin Grobe reach to block their Rhodes opponent Nov. 9 at Washington University.

Webster women's volleyball season may be over, but the Gorloks achieved the goal set at the beginning of the season: advancing to the NCAA tournament.

The Gorloks played Rhodes College at Washington University in the first bracket of NCAA games. Although the Gorloks lost to Rhodes in five games, the team played hard and fought for each point.

"It was tough to lose that game because we knew we could beat them, but we fought hard," senior Melanie Klingelhoefer said. "Rhodes is a very good team. I'm glad the season ended in a five-game match like that."

Many Webster students, staff and family of the players came Nov. 9 to Wash U. to support the Gorloks in their first NCAA appearance.

"It was amazing to have such great fan support," Head Coach Merry Graf said. "It was almost as though we played a home match and it certainly helped us out."

Webster fans reacted to every play and cheered for every one of the 71 kills the Gorloks made.

"We were disappointed that we couldn't close the match out, but Rhodes was a good team ­- ranked 17th in the nation," Graf said. "This year we played four nationally ranked teams and we took every one of those teams to game five."

Rhodes players showed their strength in game one of the match and won 22-30. In the second game, the Gorloks gained the lead early and kept it. When the score reached 28-20, Rhodes kept the Gorloks locked in at 28 points. After a time out called by Webster, the Gorloks regrouped and took the last two points of the game to win 30-26.

In the third game, Rhodes and Webster traded point for point until the end of the match when the Gorloks pulled ahead and won 30-22.

The two teams seemed to trade dynamics in the fourth game when Rhodes pulled ahead early and left the Gorloks behind. Webster lost the match 30-17.

The fifth game started with a lead in points for Rhodes and Webster struggling to catch up. In the middle of the match, the Gorloks scored several points in succession. These points weren't enough to catch up. Rhodes took the last match 15-11, but not without a fight from the Gorloks.

Rhodes College was later defeated by Wash U. in its game to advance to the nationals.

"We'll miss our seniors, but since we have several young players that now have this experience under their belt," Graf said. "I feel confident that next year will be another strong season for us."

On the season, junior Crystal Shelton and sophomore Erin Grobe together made 757 kills out of 1,736 kills the team made throughout the season. Freshman Jackie Schall made 277 kills alone and sophomore Megan Floarke made 224 kills.

"I couldn't have asked for a better way to end my volleyball career," Klingelhoefer said. "We were in the NCAA Tournament, had a ton of family and friends cheering us on and it was a close game. It's something that I will never forget. Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us Nov. 9, and throughout the entire season."

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