Junior Chase Garber was 4-0 on the day and provided the clinching point in both matches as Lake Forest prevailed 7-2 at Illinois College and 6-3 at Monmouth College on Saturday.
Garber and sophomore Aidan Burke began the day by defeating the #2 doubles team from Illinois College 8-2. The Blueboys earned the point at #1 but had just five players available so the visitors were credited with wins at #3 doubles and #6 singles.
Forester sophomore Brant Christensen was the first to finish in singles, taking both sets 6-1 at #5. Garber then finished off a 6-2, 6-0 triumph at #4 to clinch the victory for his team. Burke came out on top 6-2 in both sets at #2 and senior Joe Bove added a 6-2, 7-5 win at #3.
Lake Forest swept the doubles competition at Monmouth, starting with an 8-2 victory by Bove and freshman Carson Chen at #3. Burke and Garber won by the same score at #2 and the Foresters' top tandem of Christensen and senior Matt Kacyn doubled up their opponents 8-4.
The visitors also took the first three singles matches to finish. Freshman Matthew Pawlowski did not drop a game at #6 and Garber clinched another Forester victory with a 6-3, 6-1 triumph at #4. Christensen accounted for the team's final point with a 6-1, 6-2 win at #5.
The Foresters are now 9-8 overall this season and 4-1 in Midwest Conference play. Illinois College fell to 6-8 overall and Monmouth to 4-9. Both teams are 3-2 in the league.
Lake Forest will continue conference play next Saturday with matches at St. Norbert College at 8:30 a.m. and Ripon College at 2:00 p.m.