GALESBURG, Illinois – The Prairie Fire won the first two sets, but Lake Forest College escaped with a 3-2 Midwest Conference victory on Saturday during Homecoming at Memorial Gym.

Knox, coming off a 3-2 win against Beloit College on Friday night, stormed out to a 2-0 lead in the match against the Foresters.  Lake Forest also won a five set match on Friday night, 3-2 at Monmouth College.

The Prairie Fire raced out to a 10-4 lead in the first set.  The hosts extended the advantage to 16-8, but the Foresters clawed back in with an 8-3 run to trim the deficit to 19-16.  Knox, following a time out, finished with a 25-19 victory to go up 1-0.

The Prairie Fire fought through four ties in set two, the last one 17-17, before taking the lead for good at 18-17 on a service error by Lake Forest.  Knox outscored the Foresters 7-4 the rest of the way to win the set 25-21 and take a 2-0 match lead.

The tide started to turn against the Prairie Fire in the third set.  Following a 6-6 tie, LFC scored six of the next seven points for a 12-7 lead.  The Foresters' advantage ballooned to nine on two occasions (18-9 and 19-10).  Knox cut it to 19-13, but Lake Forest closed with a 6-1 surge for a 25-14 set victory that whittled the Prairie Fire's match lead to 2-1.

The Foresters (10-11, 4-0 MWC) grabbed an 8-2 lead in the fourth set, and then extended to a double-digit advantage, 17-7.  Knox trimmed the lead to seven, 23-16, but the hole was too deep to dig out of and Lake Forest tied the match 2-2 with a 25-16 set four win.

The Prairie Fire scored the first point of the fifth and deciding set, but the Foresters countered with three straight and never trailed in winning it 15-9 to take the match 3-2 for their sixth straight victory.

Knox (3-21, 1-4 MWC) was trying for its first win against Lake Forest since November of 1990.

First-year hitter Rose Griffin (Maryland Heights, MO, Rosati-Kain) had another big game with team-highs of 18 kills, three solo blocks, one block assist, and 11 digs for the Prairie Fire.  First-year Kyleigh Guthals (Clovis, NM, Clovis) chipped in with eight kills and eight digs, junior Casey Stachelski (Joliet, IL, Plainfield Central) tallied 29 assists, six kills, and 10 digs, and sophomore Nicole Heckman (Chicago, IL, Chicago Latin) had five kills, two blocks, and one block assist.  Sophomore Holly Bieber (Chicago, IL, Walter Payton College Prep) added nine digs and five assists.

Knox visits Midwest Conference leader Cornell College on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.  The Rams (14-6, 5-0 MWC) defeated St. Norbert 3-1 at home on Saturday for their fifth straight win.