St. Louis, Mo., October 1, 2019 – Washington University in St. Louis shook off a slow start to pick up a 3-1 (10-25, 25-16, 25-15, 25-15) win over cross-town match up against Webster University in the Battle of Big Bend on Tuesday evening.

WashU improves to a 12-5 record on the year while Webster falls to 7-8. The Bears push their all-time series record lead to 29-0 with the four-set victory.

Sophomore Michaela Bach paced the Bears offense with a career-high 19 kills, swinging at a .333 clip (19 K – 5 E – 42 A) for the match. Junior setter Kirby Knapp tallied a season-high 48 assists in a four set match, as she also tallied her eighth double-double with a season-high 24 digs.

First set: Webster 25 – WashU 10
The Bears came out slow, only picking up seven kills (.000, 7-7-34). Sophomore Caitlin Lorenz and Bach led with two kills each. The Gorlocks hit .189 (9-2-37) and capitalized on the Bears' five reception errors.

Second set: WashU 25 – Webster 16
WashU kicked it up a gear and tallied 15 kills with five attack errors in 37 attempts to hit .270. Senior Leila King picked up a big solo block to stifle Webster's attempt to start a run. Bach picked up six more kills to push her total to eight.

Third set: WashU 25 – Webster 15
WashU had Webster scrambling, finally getting into a groove. Knapp put the pedal down and served the Bears to eight-straight points . Knapp also tallied 16 assists, connecting with Bach for six more kills.

Fourth set: WashU 25 – Webster 15
The Bears kept the pressure on the Gorlocks, opening up the set on a 5-0 run. Webster battled back to tie the match at 10-all, but WashU quieted their offense answering with an 8-0 run.

Up Next:
WashU heads to Atlanta, Ga. for the University Athletic Association Round Robin #2, hosted by Emory on Sunday, October 6. The Bears will face #1 Emory at 12 p.m. (ET) and Rochester (N.Y.) at 2 p.m. (ET).

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