The Lake Forest College volleyball team came back to defeat visiting Illinois College 21-25, 21-25, 25-16, 25-20, 15-12 Friday night and secure the program's first appearance in the four-team Midwest Conference Tournament since 2014.
Forester junior Mary Gegen led all players in the match with a season-high 20 kills and added 11 digs for her seventh double-double in the last 10 matches and ninth this season. Junior Madison Stevens continued her hot streak, finishing with 14 kills and a .419 hitting percentage. She has 99 kills and a .304 hitting percentage in the last eight contests. Junior Grace Franz also also reached double figures in kills with 10 and served up four aces.
Match-high honors in assists and aces went to sophomore Juli Barrientos, who set up her Lake Forest teammates 27 times while the Lady Blues were unable to return five of her serves. Barrientos also led the home team with 14 digs while senior Izzi Visnjevac chipped in with 12.
While the final score of the first two sets were the same, they played out differently. Lake Forest fell behind by nine in the first before closing to within two at 21-19 and again at 23-21. Illinois College won the next two points to take it. The Foresters led for most of set two and were ahead 17-12 and 19-17 before a 10-2 Lady Blue run gave them a two-set cushion.
Lake Forest jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the third set and Illinois College got no closer than three points the rest of the way. Freshman Holland Smith led the Foresters with five kills while Visnjevac had six digs in the set.
Gegen, Stevens, and Franz combined for 15 kills while Gegen and freshman Lilly Robinson each had six digs in set four. Barrientos added eight assists and five digs. The teams were separated by no more than one from the time the score was 5-4 in favor of the Foresters until the home team added to its 16-15 lead. Barrientos assisted on kills by Stevens, Gegen, and freshman Lilli Evans to tie the match at two sets apiece.
The decisive fifth set was tied at one before the Foresters rattled off six straight points, including two on kills by Evans. Illinois College closed back to within two at 7-5 but Lake Forest won five of the next six points to pull away. The visitors did not go down easily, fighting off a pair of match point opportunities before a service error gave the home crowd reason to celebrate.
With eight victories in their last 10 matches, the Foresters are now 12-11 overall this season. They are also 4-1 in conference play. Illinois College fell to 9-16 overall and 3-3 in the league.
Lake Forest will host Knox College Saturday afternoon at 1:00.
