The Lake Forest College volleyball team was defeated 25-19, 25-22, 19-25, 25-20 at Carroll University Wednesday night. The Foresters are now 5-2 in Midwest Conference play while the Lady Pioneers raised their league record to 5-3.
Lake Forest is also 12-12 and Carroll 12-14 overall.
Forester juniors Cori Cooper and Tia Rupnik led all players in the match with 20 kills and 25 digs, respectively. Classmate Molly McCloskey added 13 kills. She and Cooper also reached double figures in digs with 15 and 13, respectively.
Freshman Torie Pasiewicz led the visitors with 22 assists and sophomore Tori Drasler added 16.
Mistakes were the Foresters' downfall as they committed 34 hitting errors, six service errors, six receiving errors, and five ball-handling errors. That total of 51 was nine more than the Lady Pioneers, who finished the match with just eight more points than Lake Forest.
Carroll won the first four points of the match but the Foresters battled back and tied the first set at nine. The home team, however rattled off six straight points to regain the lead and Lake Forest got no closer than four points the rest of the way.
The Foresters started set two with four points in a row but Carroll tied the score four points later. The teams were knotted again at nine with the Lady Pioneers once again took a lead they would not relinquish. Lake Forest pulled to within a single point three times but were unable to complete the comeback.
An 11-1 run by the Foresters in set three gave them a 17-7 lead and the margin reached as many as 11 points three times before Carroll gained some ground. Once the lead shrunk to 23-18, the teams split the next four points and the Foresters took the set.
Lake Forest led by as many as four points early in set four and the score was tied at 12 before an 8-1 Lady Pioneer run put the home team in position to close out the match, which it did.
There are still six teams in the league pursuing spots in the four-team conference tournament. St. Norbert College (7-0 MWC record) and Monmouth College (7-2) will make up half of the field. Lake Forest and Lawrence University are 5-2, Grinnell College 6-3, and Carroll 5-3.
The Foresters will host St. Norbert Friday night at 7:00 and Lawrence at 11:00 Saturday morning before closing out the regular season against Alverno College at 3:00 Saturday afternoon. Carroll will travel to St. Norbert on Saturday.