Trailing two sets to one and by 10 in set four, the Lake Forest College volleyball team came back and won its Midwest Conference opener at Monmouth College on Saturday.
The comeback began with a kill by Forester senior Madison Stevens, who led all players in the match with a career-high 19 in the contest. A pair of kills by junior Mary Gegen fueled a six-point run that made the score 21-19 and the visitors eventually tied the set at 23. A block gave Monmouth a match point opportunity but Stevens knotted the score again with her fifth kill of the set. A Fighting Scot attack error gave Lake Forest the lead and sophomore Juli Barrientos served up an ace to tie the match at two sets apiece.
After dropping the first point of set five, the Foresters won the next four. Leading 8-6, they rattled of six straight points before junior Grace Franz's 11th kill of the day closed out the match.
Gegen, who had six kills in the dramatic fourth set, finished with 14 kills and a season-high 17 digs for her fifth double-double of the year.
Four other Foresters reached double figures in digs, led by senior Izzi Visnjevac with a season-high 28. Barrientos and freshman Lilly Robinson, the team's setters, chipped in with 14 and 12, respectively, and Franz had 10 to complete her first double-double since the season opener.
Both setters also recorded season-highs in assists, Robinson with 31 and Barrientos with 23, and the team's 63 were Lake Forest's highest single-match total since a five-set triumph over Monmouth in 2019.
Gegen and sophomore Riley Stapley tied for the team lead in blocks with three apiece.
The victory was the Foresters' fifth in their last six matches and they improved to 7-10 on the season. Monmouth fell to 5-10 overall and 0-3 in the league.
Lake Forest will be on the road again next weekend, playing at Beloit College Friday night and Cornell College on Saturday.
