The Lake Forest College women's tennis team defeated Grinnell College 5-4 but fell to Carroll University 6-3 on Saturday. Forester freshman Christi Valicenti was 3-1 on the day.
The victory over Grinnell was the team's first against the Pioneers since the 2003 Midwest Conference championship match and the Pioneers' first regular season conference loss since 2002, a streak of 37 matches.
Grinnell took two of the three doubles matches with the Foresters' only victory coming at #3, where junior Aimee Fadden and sophomore Lucy Cooper prevailed 8-5.
The Pioneers took a 3-1 lead before freshman Emily Rabin finished off a 0-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory at #6 singles to begin the Corester comeback. Freshman Grace Dowling won 6-0, 7-6 (7-4) at #3 to tie the score and Lake Forest took the lead on Valicenti's 7-5, 6-4 triumph at #2. The clinching point was earned by sophomore Gracie Mullins at #5, where she won 6-0, 6-2.
Because of the length of the match, the Foresters' contest against Carroll University was moved indoors to the Racquet Club of Lake Bluff and did not begin until approximately 6:30 p.m.
Lake Forest took just one of three doubles matches again, although this time the point came at #1, where Valicenti and senior Melika Celebic came out on top of an 8-1 decision.
Valicenti posted a 6-1, 6-2 victory at #2 singles and the Foresters' third team point was earned by Fadden, who won 6-1, 3-6, (10-6) at #4. Two of home team's four singles losses were in third set super tiebreaks.
The Foresters are now 9-2 overall this season and the victory over Grinnell gave them a perfect 3-0 mark in MWC South Division play. Grinnell defeated Carroll 6-3 to raise its overall record to 2-3. The match against Lake Forest was the first league contest of the season for Grinnell. Carroll is now 6-2 after splitting non-conference matches.
Lake Forest will compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Tournament at Washington University-St. Louis September 28-October 1.
