The Lake Forest College men's tennis team edged out Monmouth College 5-4 in the semifinals of the 2015 Midwest Conference Tournament on Friday but fell 5-0 to Grinnell College in the final later in the day. Sophomore Ellis Lora-Arceo defeated the Fighting Scots' #3 singles player in three sets to send the Foresters to their first conference tournament final since 2010.
Lake Forest and Monmouth's Derek Rineberg were already tied 4-4 when Lora-Arceo and his opponent were still in their second set. He had won the first 7-5 but trailed 5-2 in the second before rallying to force a tiebreaker. Rineberg fought off a match point, won the tiebreaker 8-6, and had the lead early in the third set. Lora-Arceo came back and took the set 6-3 to avenge a three-set loss to Rineberg at Monmouth just five days earlier.
The Foresters, who fell to Monmouth 6-3 on Sunday, took the early lead in the match by winning at two of the three doubles positions. Freshman Dan Pivonka and junior John Snider posted a convincing 8-1 victory at #1 while Lora-Arceo and freshman Nick Rehm came out on top of an 8-4 decision at #3.
Monmouth took the lead with wins at the bottom two spots in the singles lineup but Lake Forest regained the advantage after Pivonka and Snider prevailed by the same 6-3, 6-2 score at #1 and #2, respectively. A Fighting Scot triumph at #4 evened the match at four and set the stage for Lora-Arceo's dramatic match-clinching victory.
The Foresters were not as fortunate against Grinnell, falling in each of the three doubles matches as well as #4 and #6 singles.
Lake Forest finishes the season with an overall record of 14-12 and the fifth-highest win total in program history. Monmouth fell to 15-10 and Grinnell will enter the NCAA Division III Tournament with a mark of 28-10.
All 10 teams in the conference will compete in the six positional singles tournament and three doubles brackets in Madison, Wisconsin, over the next two days.
