Foresters Drop Season Finale at Ripon

Foresters Drop Season Finale at Ripon

Junior Isabel Donnelly led Lake Forest with 13 kills Friday night in the team's season finale, a 22-25, 25-19, 25-21, 25-23 loss at Ripon College.

Donnelly also had seven digs, two blocks, and an ace on the night and finished the season with a team-high 213 kills.

Fellow juniors Olivia Smith and Olivia Drevs added a dozen kills apiece and freshman Izzi Visnjevac led all players in the contest with 26 digs. Senior Olivia Rhodes tallied 33 assists in her final collegiate match.

The Foresters trailed by three early on in the first set before rattling off seven straight points to take a 14-10 lead. The margin was four again at 18-14 when Ripon won five points in a row to regain the advantage. Down 20-19, Lake Forest won six of the next eight points, the last on a kill by Drevs, to take the set.

Ripon jumped out to a six-point lead in the next set before a 5-0 Forester run made the score 9-8. Leading 11-10, the Red Hawks took the next six points and led by at least four the rest of the way.

Lake Forest came back from five points down to tie the third set at 13 and the erased a four-point deficit to tie it again at 19. With the teams knotted at 21, Ripon won the next four points and the set.

Set four was tied at 19 when the home team won four points in a row. The Foresters responded with four consecutive points of their own but the next two, and the match, went to the Red Hawks.

Lake Forest finished the season with an overall record of 11-14 and a Midwest Conference mark of 4-5. Ripon improved to 5-19 overall and 3-6 in the league.

In addition to Rhodes, the Foresters will also lose fellow seniors Allison Trutna, Hannah Hornacek, Anna Denslow, and Emily Mosher to graduation in May.