Scots Take Down Lake Forest for 2-0 MWC Start

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill (10/06/2024) — The Monmouth College volleyball made it two Midwest Conference wins in two days as they won at Lake Forest Saturday afternoon. The Fighting Scots (12-8, 2-0) avenged last year's home lost to the Foresters with a 27-29, 25-15, 26-24, 25-20 win.

"Lake Forest is a very tough place to play so to walk out with a victory is special" said head coach Derrick Broekemier. "Starting 2-0 this weekend in MWC play with two tough matches is a great weekend. Lots of good things but also some thing we know we have to clean up before next week but for now we are very happy.:

The opening set was tight the whole way with Monmouth rallying to tie the set with a 3-0 run after being down 23-20. Layne Wright (Davenport, Iowa) had an ace to tie the set and Kaylee Celus (Annawan, Illinois) pit Monmouth up 24-23 with a kill. Lake Forest scored two straight before Paige Foltz (Vinton, Iowe) tied the set at 25 with a kill, Savannah Robinson (Delavan, Illinois) had an ace to tie at 26 and Celus had a kill to tie at 27. But the Foresters won the next two points to take the set 29-27

Monmouth jumped out to a big lead in the second set with Tyla Mattson (Morton, Illinois) on serve. She had an ace in the opening 3-0 run and Robinson added an ace between two Celus kills for a 9-2 lead. Alana Robertson (Mapleton, Illinois) had a kill as did Zoe Nizzie (Pekin, Illinois) for a 12-5 Monmouth lead. Mattson had another ace while Foltz added two kills for an 18-8 lead. Monmouth put three more on the board with Paige Bergschneider (Alexander, Illinois) serving and Lauren Aldrich (Wauconda, Illinois) made it 23-13 with a kill. Wright gave the Scots a set point and LFC had an error to end the set at 25-15.

The Scots kept the momentum going in the third set with Wright serving to a 6-0 lead. Chloe Strachan (Reynolds, Illinois), Celus and Foltz had kills in the run but Lake Forest pulled even at 8-8 and took a lead. Trailing by four at 22-18, the Scots went on a 6-0 run. Wright had a save and two LFC errors helped Monmouth regain the lead. Lake Forest pulled even at 24 before kills from Foltz and Celus finished the set at 26-24.

The teams stayed even early in the fourth set before Monmouth began to pull away. With a 9-8 lead Wright got two kills and Foltz added another. A series of LFC errors gave Monmouth a 14-9 lead before the hosts closed the gap back to one. Celus had three kills in a 4-0 run and added another for a 21-17 lead. Wright had two kills and Mattson's third ace made it 24-20. Strachan finished off the match with a kill for the 25-20 set win.

Celus led the Scots with 17 kills while Wright had 16. Mattson had 29 assists and Bergschneider had 21. Celus, Mattson and Wright all had three aces. Mattson had 18 digs, Wright had 13 and Robinson had 10. Foltz had four blocks.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Celus has at least 10 kills in 17 of her 18 matches on the season ... Wright moved into a tie for sixth with Kendra James on the career aces list ... The Scots hit .407 in the second set and held Lake Forest to .000 ... Monmouth is 21-17 all-time against Lake Forest ,,, They have won two in a row in Lake Forest ... The next match is against Illinois College at 7 p.m. Friday.