Rhodes and Nauert, the Foresters' setters, tallied 23 and 17 assists, respectively, and Nauert also served up three of the squad's eight aces on the night. The team lead in blocks went to sophomore Katelyn Knight with four.
After dropping the opening set 26-24, Lake Forest evened up the match with a convincing 25-12 victory in set two. It took four attempts at set point in the third for the Foresters to grab the lead and Illinois Tech finished off the fourth in identical fashion as the team's exchanged 25-17 decisions. The Foresters fell behind 6-2 early in the fifth before winning eight of the next 11 points. After the visitors pulled back to within one at 13-12, a kill by Smith and a Scarlet Hawk attack error finished off the match.
Lake Forest improved to 3-2 on the season with two of the victories coming against Illinois Tech, which remains winless after four contests.
The Foresters will compete in the Milwaukee Invitational at two different locations this weekend. After playing at Alverno College Friday night at 6:00, the team will move to Milwaukee School of Engineering on Saturday for a 10:00 a.m. match-up with the hosts and a contest at noon against Wheaton College.
