The Lake Forest College volleyball team defeated visiting Grinnell College 25-21, 25-18, 25-15 Friday night to raise its overall record to 12-6 and Midwest Conference mark to 3-0. Forester senior Cori Cooper led all players in the match with a dozen kills and a .750 hitting percentage.
Cooper did not commit an error and she needed just 16 attempts to register her 12 kills. She also added a pair of digs and a block.
Fellow Forester senior Tia Rupnik's 22 digs and four aces were also match-highs, as were Lake Forest sophojmore Torie Pasiewicz's 35 assists. Pasiewicz added 12 digs.
Grinnell led for most of the opening set and the Foresters trailed 17-15 before rattling off eight straight points to grab the lead. Cooper had a pair of kills and the home team took advantage of several Pioneer errors during the run. A kill by senior Molly McCloskey, who finished with seven on the night, closed out the set.
Lake Forest trailed by as many as five in the second set before scoring five straight points twice during a 15-4 run. The Forester lead was at least five the rest of the set, which ended on a kill by senior Megan Trubich.
Rupnik had three aces and Cooper a pair of kills during a seven-point run early in the third set that gave the home team the lead for good. Only twice in the set was Grinnell able to win consecutive points as the Foresters cruised to victory. Match point was a kill by Pasiewicz.
Grinnell fell to 3-18 overall and 1-3 in conference play.
Lake Forest will host Cornell College tomorrow at noon. The Rams were listed first in the league's preseason coaches poll and are also 3-0 in MWC matches.
