Junior Allison Watts and freshman Tyranny Miller won both of their matches at #2 doubles as the Lake Forest College women's tennis team defeated Cornell College 5-1 in the semifinals of the Midwest Conference Tournament before falling by the same score to Grinnell College in the final.
Watts and Miller secured the Foresters' first point against Cornell with an 8-5 victory in doubles. Lake Forest freshman Emma Wang and Grace Gould prevailed by the same score at #3 and Cornell earned the other point with an 8-6 win at #1.
Watts wasted little time in adding to her team's point total during singles play, taking the first set 6-0 and the second 6-1 at #2. Miller followed with a 6-2, 6-1 triumph at #6 and Gould's 6-4, 6-0 victory at #5 clinched the match. Freshman Julie Lord, sophomore Leeza Bodnar, and Wang had won the first set at #1, #3, and #4, respectively, and were playing in the second when the match ended. Gould's 26th singles victory of 2017-18 tie the team record set by Christi Valicenti in 2015-16
Grinnell won two of the three doubles matches in the MWC Tournament final. Watts and Miller finished the season with a program record-tying 21 victories as a doubles team after doubling up their counterparts 8-4. It was the also the school record 51st overall win of the season for Watts, surpassing the previous mark set by Valicenti in 2015-16. Watts was 26-4 in doubles and 25-5 in singles on the year.
Victories at the top three spots in the singles lineup clinched the match and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament for the Pioneers.
Lake Forest finished the year with a program record 23 wins against just three losses, two of which were to Grinnell. Cornell finished 12-8 and the Pioneers will take a mark of 19-4 to the NCAA Tournament.
Looking ahead, the Foresters will not lose anyone to graduation in May.
