The Lake Forest College volleyball team dropped the first set 25-23 but won the next three 25-22, 25-23, and 25-21 at Illinois College on Saturday. Senior libero Brianne Honda finished the contest with a career-high 33 digs.
Honda, whose previous career-best in digs was 24, also recorded six assists and served up two of the team's four aces. She was joined in double figures in kills by freshman outside hitter Grace Larson with 20 and sophomore setters Tori Tinman and Lexi Kleva with 12 and 10, respectively.
Larson led Lake Forest with 20 kills to become the first Forester since Molly McCloskey in 2012 to record at least 20 kills and digs in the same match. Junior outside hitter Paige Jespersen was next on the team with nine kills while senior right side hitter Bailey Everhart added eight.
The Foresters set a program record with 18 blocks in the match and junior middle blocker Brittany Avonts contributed to 11 of them, including three solos. She now has 105 on the season, matching the seventh-highest total in program history, and she climbed into sixth place in team annals with 251 blocks in her career. Junior outside hitter Maxie Mottlowitz finished with six block assists and sophomore middle blocker Rebecca Lynch had five.
Kleva led the team with 21 assists, one more than Tinman.
The Foresters trailed by as many as five in the opening set before rattling off five straight points to tie the score. The Lady Blues won six of the next seven points to regain their five-point advantage at 21-16 but another 5-0 Lake Forest run to catch up again. Illinois College took four of the next six points and the set.
The visitors had a 19-14 lead in set two before losing seven of eight points and falling behind 21-20. A pair of kills by Jespersen fueled a 4-0 run and, after losing the serve, a kill by Lynch tied the match at one set apiece.
The third set was tied 10 times, the last at 20, before kills by Larson and Everhart put Lake Forest ahead for good. The final point of the set came on an attack error by Illinois College.
A 15-10 Forester lead in set four was erased by a 6-0 Lady Blue run. Lake Forest tied the score at 16 and it was knotted again at 18, 20, and 21. Two of Larson's 20 kills on the night came during the visitors' 5-0 run to close out the match and she combined with Lynch on a block to end the contest.
The vistory raises the Foresters' overall record on the year to 7-13 and their league mark to 3-2. Illinois College fell to 8-11 overall and 2-4 in the league.
Lake Forest will play its final non-conference match of the regular season next Tuesday at Trinity International University. The contest will begin at 7:00 p.m.
