The Forester volleyball team hosted a triangular Friday evening and, eight hours after the beginning of a five-set loss to Benedictine University, Lake Forest finished off a five-set triumph over Elmhurst University.
Junior Mary Gegen posted a pair of double-doubles on the evening, beginning with a 16-kill, 15-dig performance against Benedictine. She also served up three aces and added a pair of blocks in the contest.
Senior Izzi Visnjevac tied Gegen's ace total and led the home team with a season-high 27 digs. Sophomore Juli Barrientos joined them in double figures in digs with 10 and edged out freshman Lilly Robinson 22-21 for team-high honors in assists. Senior Madison Stevens was next on the Foresters in kills, matching her uniform number with 12.
Barrientos served five times in a row as the Foresters turned a 14-11 deficit into a 16-14 advantage in the opening set. They led the rest of the way and a kill by Gegen finished it off.
Two of Visnjevac's aces came during a 6-0 run that gave the home team a 16-10 lead in set two. Benedictine got no closer than five points the rest of the way and the set ended on a kill by senior Riley Stapley.
Neither team led by more than three during a third set that featured a dozen ties. Lake Forest was unable to convert a pair of match point opportunities and dropped the set.
Set four included eight lead changes, the last giving the Eagles a 16-15 lead. The visitors won eight of nine points to make the score 22-16. A few minutes later the match was tied at two sets apiece.
Lake Forest won the first two points of set five by Benedictine took six of the next seven and never relinquished the lead. Kills by junior Grace Franz and Gegen thwarted the Eagles' first two match point chances but they were successful on the third, taking the match 20-25, 19-25, 27-25, 25-18, 15-12.
Benedictine also went on to come from behind and defeat Elmhurst University 13-25, 25-23, 27-25, 25-19.
After matching her season high for kills in the first match, Gegen broke it with 17 against the Bluejays. She also had 11 digs for her second double-double of the day, fourth this fall, and 10th as a Forester. In addition, Gegen and Stevens tied for the team lead with five blocks apiece.
Visnjevac led the Foresters with 19 digs while Barrientos and Robinson added 14 and 11, respectively. Robinson tallied 22 assists and Barrientos 13. Freshman Holland Smits doubled her previous career-high with 10 kills and hit .500 for the match. Franz also had 10 kills and served up a season-high six aces.
There were 17 ties in the opening set. The Foresters squandered four set point opportunities and Elmhurst took advantage, rattling off the final three points to win it 28-26.
Seven of Gegen's kills came in the first set and she added four more as Lake Forest dominated the second 25-12.
The Foresters also took the third set, despite trailing 19-14. Senior Riley Stapley had three kills as the home team won 12 of the next 14 points and the set.
Lake Forest was behind 19-13 in the fourth set before rattling off seven straight points to take the lead. The score was tied at every number from 19 to 25 before back-to-back points by the Bluejays knotted the match at two sets apiece.
The fifth and final set featured three of Franz's aces, two in a row early on and one more during a four-point Forester run that finished off the match. The teams had been separated by no more than two points until that decisive span.
The Foresters have now won three of their last four matches and are 5-10 on the season. Benedictine improved to 6-6 while Elmhurst fell to 3-8.
Lake Forest will host Rockford University Tuesday night at 7:00.
