Senior Allison Watts became Lake Forest's leader in career victories Friday night during the Foresters' 8-1 victory over Kalamazoo College, the region's 18th-ranked team.
Lake Forest, listed a spot above Kalamazoo in the April 11 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Central Region rankings, started the match with a sweep of doubles play. The 8-5 victory at #2 was the 158th in singles and doubles combined for Watts, breaking the tie she had with Christi Valicenti, who graduated from the College in 2016. Watts' doubles partner for 44 of those victories, including the record-breaker, was sophomore Tyranny Miller.
Freshman Tebatsu Duba and sophomore Emma Wang won 8-3 at #3 and sophomore Julie Lord and junior Leeza Bodnar finished off the sweep with an 8-6 victory at #1.
Already the program's career leader in overall and doubles wins, Watts tied Valicenti's mark of 75 career singles victories when she completed a 6-2, 6-1 triumph Friday night at #2. That set up freshman Katie Wegrecki to clinch the match for the home team with a 6-4, 6-3 win at #6. After prevailing at #1 doubles, Lord made it a sweep atop the lineup with a 6-2, 6-3 victory in singles. Wang fell 7-5 in the first set at #5 but took the second 6-2 and the third set super-tiebreaker 10-6 to remain perfect in singles this season and extend her school record singles winning streak to 25 matches. Bodnar also had to come from behind at #4 after dropping the first set 6-2. She came out on top of a 7-5 tiebreaker to claim the second set before winning the super-breaker 10-7.
Kalamazoo earned the point at #3 singles in the final match to finish on the night.
The victory improves the Foresters' record on the season to 18-3 while the Hornets fell to 8-6.
Lake Forest will close out the regular season against Edgewood College Saturday afternoon at 3:30. Like Friday night's contest, the match will be played indoors at the Racquet Club of Lake Bluff. Watts, the team's only senior, will be honored along with Forester alumni and parents in attendance before the match.
