The Foresters are in competing in the 2026 United States Handball Association National Collegiate Championships in Springfield, Missouri, where the preliminary rounds are complete and the brackets set after Thursday's action.

On the women's side, Lake Forest will have two players in the Open Singles and two more in the A bracket. The Forester men are spread over six of the eight singles divisions.

At #4, junior Emma Kinane was the top-seeded player on the team entering the event and she won 21-8, 21-4 in her opening match. Kinane will be joined in the Open Division by senior Audrey Peters, who followed up a loss in her first match with a 21-20, 21-10 triumph in the second.

Sophomore Satoe Tohi and senior Arielle Augustyn will compete in the Women's A Division this weekend. Tohi split her preliminary matches while Augustyn prevailed three times to outplay her seed.

The Forester men's team's top player is sophomore Luca Zenati-Parsons, followed up a loss with a win to put himself in the A1 bracket. Junior Jake Emold also split his matches to earn a spot in the A2 Division.

Freshmen Ben Koch, Jonah Davis, and Jorge Cuetera-Godoy combined for a 6-0 record in the preliminary rounds. Koch and Davis moved up into the B1 Division and Cuetero-Gooy will play in B2. Davis needed a tiebreaker to come out on top in his first match and Cuetero-Godoy did the same in his second.

After dropping his first preliminary match and winning the second, freshman Oliver Priestland will play in the C2 Division. Sophomore Ayush Sharma dropped into the C3 bracket, where he will be joined by senior Gota Akagiri. Akagiri split his two preliminary round contests.

Doubles matches were also played on Wednesday and Thursday and several Foresters have advanced in their respective divisions. 

Both women's tandems were victorious in the quarterfinals with Kinane and Peters rolling 15-3, 15-0 in the Open and Tohi teaming up with Augustyn on a similarly convincing 15-4, 15-1 decision in the A Division.

On the men's side, Zenati-Parsons and Emold came took their quarterfinal contest in the A Division 15-9, 15-13 while Davis and Koch outscored their opponents 60-11 during a pair of victories in the B bracket.

Round of 16 and quarterfinal singles matches will be played on Friday.