The Lake Forest College volleyball team dropped the first set 25-19 but took the next three 27-25, 25-16, 29-27 against visiting Grinnell College in Saturday's regular season finale. The same two teams will face each other in the semifinals of the Midwest Conference Tournament next Friday.
It was the Foresters' Senior Day so Annika DeHorn, Izzi Visnjevac, Madison Stevens, and Haley Bryant were honored before the contest.
Stevens led the home team with 15 kills and a .324 hitting percentage on the day. Juniors Grace Franz and Mary Gegen also reached double figures in kills with 13 and 12, respectively. Franz added three aces and Gegen finished with 10 digs for her 10th double-double of the year.
Visnjevac tallied a team-high 19 digs while the team's setters, freshman Lilly Robinson and sophomore Juli Barrientos, had 16 and 14, respectively. Barrientos led the squad with 24 assists, six more than Robinson.
Lake Forest led for most of the early part of set one before an 8-1 Pioneer run put the visitors on top 17-12. The Foresters got no closer than three points the rest of the way.
Grinnell won eight of the first nine points in set two but the home team battled back and, eventually, a four-point run had the Foresters on top 24-23. The visitors fought off a pair of set point opportunities before back-to-back kills by Gegen knotted the match at one set apiece.
Barrientos served during 7-0 run in set three that turned Lake Forest's 11-8 deficit into a 15-11 lead. The Foresters also took 10 of the next 15 points to run away with the set.
The Foresters matched their highest score of the season in set four. They led by as many as five points early on but trailed 23-21 as the set neared its end. A kill by Stevens followed by a Grinnell attack error and an ace by Franz gave the home team its first shot at match point. The Pioneers extended the contest and were the first to 25, 26, and 27 points. Lake Forest, however, won the next three, the last on a kill by Franz.
The victory raised the Foresters' overall record on the season to 15-12 and 7-1 conference record is the program's best since 2005. Grinnell fell to 17-10 overall and 6-2 in the league.
League champion Cornell College will host the four-team MWC Tournament next weekend and Friday's 4:30 p.m. semifinal will feature Lake Forest and Grinnell. Illinois College will be the other team at the event, which will conclude with Saturday's 2:00 p.m. final determining which of the league's teams will advance to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
