This Week in the Forest: April 24-30

The Midwest Conference Tennis Tournaments highlight a week loaded with important contests for the Forester spring sports.

The week in Lake Forest College Athletics will begin with a softball doubleheader at Ripon College on Tuesday. The Foresters are coming off a pair of lopsided victories at Knox College on Sunday and are now 18-14 overall and 9-5 in MWC play this season. A sweep of the Red Hawks would likely clinch Lake Forest's 18th consecutive appearance in the four-team MWC Tournament. Ripon enters the week 12-20 overall and, at 7-7 in the league, has not yet been eliminated from conference tournament contention. The Foresters own a 43-13 advantage in the all-time series between the two programs and have won the last five meetings.

The women's tennis team will be in the Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wisconsin, on Thursday for the four-team conference tournament. The women, who are 10-9 overall on the year and earned the #4 seed in the tourney with a 6-3 MWC record in the fall, will face league champion Grinnell College (14-6, 9-0 MWC) in the semifinals. Lake Forest is 12-27 all-time against Grinnell and has dropped the last two meetings. St. Norbert College (21-11, 8-1 MWC) and Cornell College (18-6, 7-2 MWC) will play in the other semifinal with the winners playing later in the afternoon for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Friday's men's tennis tournament at the same location will decide the league champion and Lake Forest is the #3 seed after winning three times in Wisconsin last weekend. The Foresters are now 13-10 overall and finished 6-2 in the league. Their semifinal contest in the morning will be against Cornell College, who enters the weekend 17-10 overall and won seven of eight conference matches this spring. The Rams lead the all-time series 5-3 after edging out the Foresters 6-3 earlier this month. Grinnell (16-9, 8-0 MWC) will face Lawrence University (11-9, 5-3 MWC) in the other semifinal. The championship match will be played in the afternoon and will also decide which team represents the league in the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Play will continue in Madison for the men as the entire conference gathers for the MWC Individual Tournaments on Saturday and Sunday. League titles will be earned at each of the six singles and three doubles positions in the lineup.

The Forester women's golf team will close out its season with a dual match against visiting Wisconsin Lutheran College on Friday. A Lake Forest victory at Highland Park Country Club would make the team 4-0 in dual matches for the third time in as many seasons as a varsity program. Friday's competition will also be the final collegiate event for senior Allie Girard, who has been the team's top player in 18 of her 19 appearances over the last three seasons.

The Lake Forest men's golf team will also be in action this weekend at the St. Norbert College Invitational. The team's final event of the regular season will be played on Saturday and Sunday at Royal St. Patrick's Golf Links in Wrightstown, Wisconsin, where the Foresters finished third out of eight teams a year ago.

The softball team will also close out its regular season this weekend when the Foresters play a doubleheader against Illinois College (21-9, 13-3 MWC) on Saturday in Janesville, Wisconsin. All 10 teams in the league will gather at the neutral site for the final conference games of the year.

Home events in Bold.
* Conference contest 

All-Sports Calendar