The Forester women's volleyball team split a pair of matches at Aurora University on Thursday, defeating Rockford University in five sets before falling in three to the hosts.
Lake Forest had a season-high 57 kills against Rockford and setter
Lilly Robinson recorded assists on a career-high 44 of them. She added seven kills and eight digs and led all players in the match with five aces as the Foresters set a season high in that category as well with 14.
Freshmen
Alivia Barker and
L'Rae White recorded double-doubles for Lake Forest and classmate
Elise Kelley came close to joining them. Barker's 18 kills led all players in the contest and tied the highest total by a Forester this season. Her 14 kills were also a season-best. White was next on the team with a season-high 14 kills and she finished with 11 digs. Kelley had a dozen kills and nine digs.
Margaret Almonte also established a new career high on Thursday with 22 of the Foresters' season-high 82 digs. She also served up three aces, as did Kelley.
Three of Robinson's aces came during a 5-0 run to begin the match and kills by White accounted for three points during a 5-0 run to close out the first set. Set two also began with five in a row for Lake Forest and White ended it with an ace. The third set was tied at 14 before the Regents outscored the Foresters 11-5 the rest of the way. Lake Forest fought off a pair of set point opportunities in the fourth before Rockford tied the match at two sets apiece. The final set was close until a 4-0 run that Kelley began with a kill and finished off with back-to-back aces. That made the score 11-6 and White eventually finished off the contest with a kill.
Lake Forest's number were far more modest against Aurora, a team receiving votes in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association Top 25 Coaches Poll. White led the team with nine kills while Barker and Kelley added eight apiece. Robinson tallied 20 assists and
Alisa Kevric recorded a match-high 15 digs.
The Spartans won nine of the match's first 10 points but the Foresters eventually closed to within one at 19-18. Aurora, however, finished off the set with a 6-1 run. Set two also began with a 9-1 Aurora run and Lake Forest got no closer than seven the rest of the way. The visitors led the third set 11-9 before dropping 16 of the last 20 points of the night.
The Foresters are now 6-8, Rockford 3-9, and Aurora 17-2 this season.
Lake Forest will host Moody Bible Institute for Homecoming at 2:00 Saturday afternoon.
