The Lake Forest College women's volleyball team split the first two sets but were not quite able to do the same in the next two in a 25-13, 19-25, 25-20, 28-26 loss to Illinois Institute of Technology at home Friday night.
Forester freshman
Alisa Kevric led all player in the match with a season-high 23 digs while juniors
Meghan Winston and
Lexi Pena and senior
Lilly Robinson also reached double figures with 15, 11, and 10, respectively. Winston also finished with a team-high eight kills while Robinson paced the squad with 13 assists and junior
Simisola Osinaike with six blocks.
Runs of six and seven consecutive points gave the visitors a big lead in set one and the Foresters fought off four set point opportunities before Illinois Tech closed it out.
Ahead 19-14, the Scarlet Hawks seemed destined to take set two as well but Lake Forest rattled off 11 straight points with freshman
Rio Dirksen serving to pull even in the contest.
The third set was tied nine times before four points in a row for the Scarlet Hawks gave them a 19-16 advantage. The Foresters got no closer than two the rest of the way.
Back-to-back kills by Dirksen started a six-point run for the Foresters that gave them a 17-13 lead in set four. The margin grew to five on three separate occasions, the last at 23-18, before Illinois Tech caught fire and won six straight. The visitors were unsuccessful on each of their first three shots at match point but converted on the fourth.
The loss dropped Lake Forest's record on the season to 4-10 while Illinois Tech improved to 6-11.
The Foresters will be in action again next weekend when they play Midwest Conference matches at Monmouth College Friday night and Illinois College Saturday afternoon.
