The Midwest Conference Tournaments for men's and women's tennis highlight the action for the Foresters this week.
While tennis may have the more important contests, golf will get the week started on Tuesday. After tying for 11th place at the 18-team Take Back the Night Challenge last weekend, the men are headed just north of the state line to compete in the Carthage College Spring Invitational at Kenosha Country Club. Lake Forest was third out of 14 teams at the event a year ago.
The women's golf team will travel in the opposite direction on Tuesday for the Elmhurst Bluejay Spring Invitational at Oak Brook Country Club in Oak Brook, Illinois. The Foresters placed second in Elmhurst's five-team invitational in the fall and are coming off a 10th-place finish out of 16 teams at last weekend's UW-Whitewater Spring Fling.
In large part due to the weather this spring, the Forester softball team still has four conference doubleheaders to play before the end of the regular season and the first will occur at home against Beloit College on Wednesday. Lake Forest split with St. Norbert College on Saturday and is now 14-14 overall and 7-3 in the league while the Buccaneers are coming off a pair of losses at Ripon College and are 7-27 overall and 1-11 in the MWC. Lake Forest has taken the last eight meetings between the two teams.
Softball will continue its busy week with a trip to Lawrence University on Thursday. The Vikings split a doubleheader with the University of Chicago on Saturday and enter the week 10-16 overall and 6-4 in the conference. Like Beloit, Lawrence has also dropped its last eight games against the Foresters.
MWC Tennis Tournaments at the Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wisconsin, begin on Thursday with the women's four-team tournament. The Foresters are the top seed after going undefeated during league play in the fall and claiming the fourth MWC title in team history. They are coming off an 8-1 victory over Kalamazoo College and 9-0 triumph over Edgewood College last weekend and will face St. Norbert College (11-14, 6-3 MWC) in the semifinals. Grinnell College (15-8, 8-1 MWC) and Cornell College (12-8, 7-2 MWC) will face off in the other final and the winners will meet later in the afternoon for the right to represent the league in the NCAA Division III Tournament. Lake Forest, which is 19-3 on the year, defeated St. Norbert 9-0, Cornell 8-1, and Grinnell 6-3 in the fall.
The four-team MWC Men's Tennis Tournament will take place on Friday and Lake Forest, after finishing the regular season 12-9 overall and 6-2 in conference play, will be the #3 seed and take on Lawrence University (11-8, 6-2 MWC) in the semifinals. Top-seeded Grinnell (23-4, 8-0 MWC) will face fourth-place Cornell (13-9, 5-3 MWC) in the other semifinal with the championship match to follow. Lawrence edged out the Foresters 5-4 on April 14 and Lake Forest split with the teams from Iowa, falling 9-0 to Grinnell a day after defeating Cornell 5-4.
The men will remain in Madison throughout the weekend for the MWC Individual Singles and Doubles Tournaments. The league's six positional singles champions will be crowned on Saturday and the doubles titles will be decided on Sunday.
The Lake Forest women's golf team will close out the 2018-19 season with a dual match against visiting Benedictine at Lake Bluff Golf Club on Friday. The Foresters edged out the Eagles 367-391 in another dual on September 7 and took both meetings between the two teams in 2017-18.
The track team will travel to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Saturday for the Drake Alternative Meet, the Foresters' final tuneup before the MWC Championships May 10-11. Lake Forest runners have split up and attended two different meets each of the last two weekends but will be together this week.
Softball will play its final two doubleheaders of the season in Janesville, Wisconsin, this weekend. After taking on Knox College (6-26, 1-11 MWC) on Saturday, the Foresters will face Monmouth College (13-15, 10-2 MWC) on Sunday in games that could decide this year's league champion and the host of next weekend's four-team MWC Tournament. Lake Forest swept Monmouth last season and Knox each of the last 10 years.
| DATE | TIME | SPORT | OPPONENT/EVENT | LINKS |
| Tue, April 23 | 9:00 a.m. | Men's Golf | at Carthage College Spring Invitational Kenosha Country Club - Somers, Wis. |
|
| Tue, April 23 | 11:00 a.m. | Women's Golf | at Elmhurst Bluejay Spring Invitational Oak Brook Golf Club, Oak Brook, Ill. |
|
| Wed, April 24 | 3:00 p.m. | Softball | Beloit College (DH) * | Video | Live Stats: 1 | 2 |
| Thurs, April 25 | 11:30 a.m. | Women's Tennis | MWC Tournament Semifinal vs. St. Norbert College Nielsen Tennis Center - Madison, Wis. |
|
| Thurs, April 25 | 3:00 p.m. | Softball | at Lawrence University (DH) * | Video |
| Thurs, April 25 | 4:00 p.m. | Women's Tennis | MWC Tournament Final vs. TBD (if win at 11:30) Nielsen Tennis Center - Madison, Wis. |
|
| Fri, April 26 | 10:00 a.m. | Men's Tennis | MWC Tournament Semifinal vs. Lawrence University Nielsen Tennis Center - Madison, Wis. |
|
| Fri, April 26 | 2:00 p.m. | Women's Golf | Benedictine University Lake Bluff Golf Club - Lake Bluff, Ill. |
|
| Fri, April 26 | 2:30 p.m. | Men's Tennis | MWC Championship Match vs. TBD (if win at 10:00) Nielsen Tennis Center - Madison, Wis. |
|
| Sat, April 27 | 8:00 a.m. | Men's Tennis | MWC Individual Tournaments Nielsen Tennis Center - Madison, Wis. |
|
| Sat, April 27 | 10:30 a.m. | Men's Golf | Forester Invitational White Deer Run Golf Club - Vernon Hills, Ill. |
|
| Sat, April 27 | 11:00 a.m. | Softball | vs. Knox College (DH) * Optimist Community Park - Janesville, Wis. |
|
| Sat, April 27 | 11:00 a.m. | Track | at Drake Alternative Meet University of Wisconsin-Whitewater |
|
| Sun, April 28 | 8:15 a.m. | Men's Tennis | MWC Individual Tournaments Nielsen Tennis Center - Madison, Wis. |
|
| Sun, April 28 | 12:00 p.m. | Softball | vs. Monmouth College (DH) * Optimist Community Park - Janesville, Wis. |
Home events in Bold.
* Conference game