The Forester men's tennis team defeated visiting St. Norbert College and Knox College by the same 5-4 score on Saturday. Lake Forest sophomore Jordan Stoler was 2-0 on the day and earned the clinching point against St. Norbert.
The Foresters' first contest of the day was played outdoors on the College's courts. St. Norbert took the early lead by winning two of the three doubles matches. Lake Forest's point came at #1, where freshman Ellis Lora-Arceo and sophomore John Snider prevailed 8-5.
The home team evened the score when senior Jerry Wang finished off a 6-1, 6-3 triumph at #5 and took the lead when Snider completed a 6-4, 6-3 victory at #3. After falling 7-5 in the first set at #2, Forester freshman Dragan Trivanovic took the second 6-4 and the third 6-1 to give Lake Forest a 4-2 advantage. After the Green Knights earned a point at #1, Stoler clinched the Forester victory with a 6-2, 6-3 win at #6. St. Norbert prevailed at #4 to close out the match.
Lake Forest also fell behind early in its match against Knox, which was moved indoors to the Racquet Club of Lake Bluff. Forester juniors Anthony Mykhaylovskyy and Derek Schaltz won 8-3 at #3 but losses at the top two spots in the doubles lineup put the Foresters in a 2-1 hole.
Stoler did not lose a game at #6 singles, Wang won 6-1, 6-0 at #5, and Mykhaylovskyy's 6-2, 6-0 triumph at #4 left the home team one point away from a win. Knox prevailed at #2 singles but Snider took both sets 6-4 at #3 to secure the victory. The Prairie Fire won in a third set super tiebreaker at #1 to account for the final score.
The sweep evened the Foresters' overall record at 10-10 and they are now 1-0 in Midwest Conference North Division play. St. Norbert is now 3-11 overall and 1-1 in the division while the non-conference losses dropped Knox to 5-13 on the year.
Lake Forest will travel to Appleton, Wisconsin, on Sunday to take on Lawrence University at 2:00 p.m.
