This Week in the Forest: Nov. 5-11

Men's and women's basketball open the 2018-19 season at home this week, the fall season comes to an end, and three other winter sports continue.

The Forester women's basketball team was originally scheduled to start the year at the University of Chicago Tuesday evening but the game was officially moved to Lake Forest on Monday. The Foresters qualified for the four-team Midwest Conference Tournament last year for the first time since 2012 and made their first apperance in the event's final in a decade. Chicago enters the season as the seventh-ranked team in the nation by D3hoops.com after posting a 24-3 record last year. The Maroons defeated Lake Forest in the 2017-18 season opener but the Foresters lead the all-time series 18-12.

The men's basketball team will tip off 24 hours after the women and will host Carthage College. The Foresters were 17-9 overall and made their program-best third consecutive MWC Tournament appearance last season while the Red Men finished 13-12. The teams' last meeting came in the championship game of the 2017 Carthage Classic with Lake Forest coming out on top of a 71-65 decision. Carthage, however, still leads the all-time series 26-12.

While two of the College's winter sports start competition this week, two of the fall teams will be closing out their 2018 seasons. The Forester football team routed Illinois College in its home finale 56-27 last Saturday to improve to 6-3 overall and secure second place in the MWC South Division standings at 4-1 in the league. Lake Forest will travel to the University of Chicago, which owns identical overall and conference records in the North Division, on Saturday as part of MWC Championship Week. The Foresters hosted the Maroons after posting runner-up finishes in their respective divisional standings a year ago and Lake Forest will be looking to avenge that loss. This will be the 40th meeting between the two programs with the Foresters holding a 25-12-2 advantage in the all-time series.

After a weekend off, the Lake Forest men's and women's cross country runners will compete as a team for the final time in 2018 at Saturday's NCAA Division III Midwest Regional, which will be hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. The Forester men finished third and the women fifth at their last meet, the MWC Championships, on October 27. Both teams were 18th at the regional meet in 2017.

Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play will contine for the Foresters this weekend with the women playing at home and the men on the road. The women opened league play by sweeping a series with visiting Concordia University Wisconsin last Saturday and Sunday and are now 2-2-0 overall on the year. They will host Aurora University (2-2-0, 1-1-0 NCHA) this Friday and Saturday. The Foresters took all three meetings with the Spartans in 2017-18, Aurora's first year of NCAA hockey.

The Lake Forest men's hockey team started NCHA play by tying Northland College and falling to the College of St. Scholastica at home last weekend and is now 0-2-2 overall. The Foresters will travel north of the state line to face off at Marian University (2-0-0, 2-0-0 NCHA) Friday night and Lawrence University (0-2-0, 0-2-0 NCHA) on Saturday. Lake Forest swept the season series against both opponents a year ago and own a 46-22-4 edge in the all-time series with the Sabres and Vikings combined.

After participating in dual meets each of the last two weekends, the Forester swimming and diving teams will compete in the Monmouth Invite this Saturday. The men defeated visiting Carroll University 121-55 on Saturday to even their record at 1-1 while the women fell to 0-2 after a 127-110 defeat. Lake Forest was also at the 2017 Monmouth Invite, where the women won the four-team event while the men finished second.

Home events in Bold.
* Conference game 

All-Sports Calendar