The Lake Forest College women's volleyball team outlasted visiting Luther College 25-15, 19-25, 20-25, 25-18, 15-12 Friday night to clinch a spot in the Midwest Conference Tournament for the first time since 2023.
The back-and-forth battle began well for the Foresters, who jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the opening set thanks to back-to-back-to-back aces by
Lexi Peña. A pair of kills by
Crystyna Yates fueled a 4-0 run that made the score 12-3 and the Norse got no closer than six the rest of the way. A kill by setter
Lilly Robinson finished it off.
Luther won the first three points of set two and led throughout. Lake Forest trailed by as many as seven points before closing to within three at 21-18. The visitors, however, took four of the next five points and the set.
Set three was extremely close early on with the eighth tie coming at 9-9. The Norse won the next four points and led by no more than four or fewer than two until set point.
Lake Forest took the first three points in set four and never trailed. The only ties of the set was at 10-10 and 11-11 and the Foresters doubled up their guests 14-7 the rest of the way. Five players on the team had at least two kills in the set with
Elise Kelley's second closing it out.
The Foresters jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the fifth and final set but Luther responded with a 7-1 run to pull ahead by two. They led by two again at 11-9 before Lake Forest rattled off five in a row, the last on a kill by
Simisola Osinaike. The Norse fought off one match point but committed a service error to end the contest and secure the Foresters' spot in the six-team MWC Tournament.
L'Rae White led the home team with a dozen kills and added nine digs. Osinaike and Alivia Barkeer were next with eight kills apiece while Yates and Robinson each had seven.
Robinson and
Alisa Kevric shared team-high honors in digs with 11 apiece and Peña served up a match-high five aces to go with her nine digs on the night. Robinson also tallied 33 assists.
The victory lifted Lake Forest above the .500 mark at 11-10 overall this season and the team improved to 4-2 in Midwest Conference play. Luther fell to 5-19 overall and 1-5 in the league.
The Foresters will host Cornell College Saturday afternoon at 1:00.
