The Lake Forest College volleyball team hosted and defeated Rockford University 25-18, 25-14, 25-16 Tuesday night.
Forester junior Mary Gegen pounded out a match-high 14 kills, including six in the opening set. Her .355 hitting percentage in the contest was her second-highest mark this season and she finished just one dig shy of her third straight double-double.
Junior setter Juli Barrientos led the home team with 17 assists while freshman setter Lilly Robinson had 11 and senior libero Izzi Visnjevac added 10. Visnjevac and Robinson led the squad with 10 digs apiece and Visnjevac also served up five aces, including the 100th of her career.
Lake Forest won eight of the match's first 11 points and Rockford got no closer than two for the rest of the opening set.
A 10-1 Forester run turned a three-point deficit into a 16-10 advantage in set two. The home team led 17-13 before closing out the set with a 8-1 run that ended with Gegen's 10th kill of the night.
The Regents were ahead 11-7 in the third set but three Visnjevac aces during a 7-0 run put Lake Forest on top for good. Kills by Robinson and junior Grace Franz finished off the match and helped raise the Foresters' overall record on the season to 6-10. Rockford fell to 3-10.
Lake Forest will begin Midwest Conference play at Monmouth College Saturday at 11:00 a.m.
