The Lake Forest College volleyball team traveled to Illinois College Thursday night and came away with a convincing 25-10, 25-14, 25-13 victory. Forester sophomore Brittany Avonts pounded out a match-high 14 kills and added three blocks on the night.
Avonts had just two attack errors in 24 attempts for a .500 hitting percentage. She is now hitting .377 on the season and .355 in her career.
Sophomore Paige Jespersen was next on the team with eight kills and senior Torie Pasiewicz added a career-high seven. Pasiewicz also tallied 31 assists, served up three aces, and reached double figures in digs with 11. Forester junior Brianne Honda led all players in the match with 23 digs.
Lake Forest won the first four points of the night and never trailed in the opening set. The Lady Blues pulled to within a point at 5-4 but were outscored 20-6 the rest of the way. The Foresters posted a .370 hitting percentage in the set, which ended on a kill by Avonts.
The visitors broke a 7-7 tie in the second set with a six-point run and did not lose consecutive points the rest of the set. A kil by Avonts ended the second set as well.
Illinois College led early in the third set until a 6-1 gave the Foresters a 14-11 advantage. Lake Forest extended the lead to 21-14 but a 9-2 run by the Lady Blues tied the score at 23. A kill and an ace by Jespersen, however, closed out the match.
It was the Foresters' four consecutive victory and they are now 8-11 overall this season and 2-0 in Midwest Conference play. Illinois College fell to 4-10 overall and 1-1 in the league.
Lake Forest will continue conference play on the road next weekend. The Foresters will take on Monmouth College next Friday night at 7:00 and Knox College at 11:30 Saturday morning.