The Lake Forest College volleyball team won 16-25, 25-20, 19-25, 25-20, 22-20 at Monmouth College Friday night and can clinch a spot in the four-team Midwest Conference Tournament with a victory at Knox College tomorrow afternoon. Forester senior Molly McCloskey led all players in the match with a career-high 26 kills.
McCloskey's kill total is tied for second in program history and is just two shy of the record set by Janelle Balcerzak in September of 2006. She also recorded 24 digs and served up an ace in the contest.
Fellow senior Cori Cooper was next on the team with 15 kills and classmate Megan Trubich added 11. Each player also chipped in with eight digs.
Forester senior Tia Rupnik tallied a match-high 32 assists and recorded two aces. Sophomore Brooke Perkins added a season-high 19 digs and sophomore setter Torie Pasiewicz had 12 while leading all players in the match with a career-high 59 assists.
Four straight points early in the first set gave Monmouth the lead and a 5-0 run late put it out of reach.
Lake Forest jumped out to a 5-0 lead and the Fighting Scots called a timeout before scoring a point in the second set. The home team trailed by as many as six points before battling back and eventually tying the score at 17. After a Forester timeout, the visitors earned three points in a row to regain the advantage and, with a 22-20 lead, McCloskey pounded out three straight kills to close out the set.
The third set included several smaller runs by both teams, the last a five-point burst by the Scots to turn a slight 20-19 lead into a set win.
The Foresters led 6-2 early in the fourth set and were ahead 17-15 before rattling off six straight points. Monmouth scored the next four but the visitors finished off the set with a kill by Cooper.
The largest lead in the dramatic fifth set was three points (11-8 Foresters). Monmouth led 14-13 and had six match point opportunities but a kill by Cooper, two by senior Courtney Faulstick and three by McCloskey tied the score each time. Kills by Cooper put the Foresters ahead 20-19 and 21-20 and the visitors finished off the match with a block by Faulstick and Trubich.
Lake Forest is now 16-9 overall on the season while Monmouth fell to 18-10. The Foresters and Scots are tied for third place in the conference standings with a league mark of 6-3.
Four teams qualify for the MWC Tournament and Lake Forest can secure the #3 seed in the tourney with a victory at Knox (2-29, 0-9 MWC) tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. If the Foresters fall at Knox, they can also qualify for the event if Illinois College prevails at Carroll University.
