Lake Forest hosted the annual Red& Black Triangular on Saturday and split it's two matches. The Foresters defeated North Central College 25-19, 8-25, 25-17, 25-15 in the morning before falling 24-26, 25-18, 25-15, 25-22 to Benedictine University in the afternoon. Sophomore Molly McCloskey had a team-high 27 kills on the day.

Tied 15-15, Lake Forest closed out the first set against North Central on a 10-4 run and McCloskey and fellow sophomore Cori Cooper each had three kills during that span.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 14-3 lead in the second set and never looked back.

The Foresters took advantage of North Central's five attack errors and a ball handling error during a 7-2 run in set three. That gave the home team a 15-9 lead and the teams basically traded points the rest of the way.

Cooper was serving during 10 consecutive Lake Forest points in set four. McCloskey had three kills and senior Mandi Mulliner added two during a run that gave the Foresters a 17-7 lead. Cooper added three more kills late in the contest, including the point that closed out the match.

McCloskey and Cooper shared team-high honors with 13 kills apiece. Freshman Tori Drasler led the home team with 18 assists and Cooper had 18 digs. Mulliner finished with three blocks.

Benedictine won the first two sets against North Central but the Cardinals took the next two to even the match. A 16-14 Benedictine victory in set five set up the final contest of the day between the winners of the first two matches.

The first set was tied 18 times. The Eagles pulled ahead 24-22 before a kill and three consecutive aces by Forester sophomore Megan Trubich closed out the set and gave the home team an early lead.

Benedictine broke a 5-5 tie with three straight points and led the rest of the way in set two.

Lake Forest trailed for most of set three but pulled to within 18-15 before the visitors rattled off seven consecutive points to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

Set four was tied 16-16 before a 5-0 run gave the Eagles the lead for good. The Foresters closed to within 24-22 but were unable to complete the comeback.

McCloskey led Lake Forest again with 14 kills. Mulliner was next with 11 and had just three attack errors in 21 attempts for a .381 hitting percentage. Senior Deena Blanchard tallied a team-high 18 assists and sophomore Tia Rupnik had 17 digs.

The Foresters will begin Midwest Conference play at 6:30 Friday night against visiting Beloit College. The team will then make the trip to Iowa to face Grinnell at noon the next day.