The Lake Forest College men's tennis team finished in sixth place at the Midwest Conference Championships over the weekend. All three of the Foresters' doubles teams won at least once on Sunday and senior John Adams and freshman Mike Riley were the runners-up at #1.
Adams and Riley were not one of the top four seeds in the bracket but avenged an early season loss to the top tandem from Grinnell College by prevailing 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals on Sunday. They also posted a convincing 6-1, 6-3 victory over the best from St. Norbert College before falling 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) to Monmouth College in the championship match.
It was the final career match for Adams, who was one win shy of his fifth conference title. After winning the championship at #3 singles as a freshman, #2 singles as a sophomore, and #2 doubles last season, he came out on top at #1 singles on Saturday before posting his third runner-up finish overall and second in doubles on Sunday. Adams also finishes his career as the program record holder with 132 victories in singles and doubles play combined. He also ranks first in team annals in career singles wins with 74 and second with 58 doubles triumphs.
Sophomore Anthony Mykhaylovskyy and freshman John Snider posted a 6-2, 6-4 victory over the #2 doubles team from Ripon College in the first round before falling 6-1, 6-1 to Carroll in the quarterfinals.
Senior Kevin Lasky and junior Jerry Wang also won once at #3, defeating Illinois College 6-1, 6-0 in round one. They were eliminated by the eventual runner-up from St. Norbert 7-5, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.
The six positional singles tournaments were played on Friday. Lake Forest finished the weekend with 41 points, just one shy of St. Norbert. Grinnell claimed the conference title during Friday's team tournament and finished singles and doubles play with a league-high 86 points. Lawrence University earned second place in the team tournament but finished with just 43 points while Monmouth tallied 59 and Carroll 49. After St. Norbert and Lake Forest, Cornell College (26 points), Knox College (22), Ripon College (11), and Illinois College (2) rounded out the team standings.
The Foresters will lose Adams, Lasky, and fellow senior Eric Caplan to graduation next month.
