Vikings drop heartbreaker at Lake Forest

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Lawrence University volleyball team’s rally fell just short in a 3-2 Midwest Conference loss at Lake Forest College on Saturday.

The Foresters won 21-25, 25-23, 25-23, 14-25, 16-14.

Paige Jespersen and Erin Sully had 15 kills apiece to lead Lake Forest (12-13, 6-2 MWC), and Torie Pasiewicz had 53 assists.

Arianna Cohen paced Lawrence (9-16, 5-4) with 12 kills, and Terese Swords added eight. Lauren Ray led the Vikings with 21 assists and Sydney Nelson picked up 15. Cyra Bammer led the Lawrence defense with 26 digs.

Lawrence got a kill from Megan Conley to close out a win in the first set, but Lake Forest pulled out a pair of close wins to take the second and third sets.

The Vikings evened the match at 2-2 by rolling through the fourth set. Lawrence jumped out to a 13-3 lead, and the Foresters never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.

Lake Forest built a 9-3 lead in the fifth set, but the Vikings rallied to cut the advantage to 11-9. Lake Forest then rattled off the next three points to lead 14-9. The Vikings came right back with a kill from Noelle Hele and a pair of aces from Bammer sandwiched around an attack error from Jespersen to tie to cut the lead to 14-13.

Kayla Storm’s kill for the Vikings tied the final set at 14-14. Jespersen came back with a kill to give the Foresters a 15-14 lead, and a block from the Foresters gave them match point.

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