Buffalo Grove gets surprise double-double
A surprise twist has Buffalo Grove seeing double doubles in today's quarterfinals of the state badminton tournament in Charleston.
Top-seeded Ashton and Heather Nisbet continued their quest to become the first duo to repeat as state champions with three two-set victories Friday at Eastern Illinois University.
But BG juniors Nell Boyd and Michelle Byjos pulled a third-round stunner with a 21-16, 21-17 win over second-seeded Katie and Maggie Van Grondelle of Palatine.
"This was the best game Nell and I ever played," said Byjos, who also went downstate in doubles last year.
"I'm so proud of the way we played," said Boyd, who is in her first year of playing badminton. "Michelle got everything and we weren't going to let anything get in our way and we were going to do our best to win."
Defending state champion Fremd is in second place with 10 points as senior Erica Lee and the doubles team of Alice Liu and Annie Huang made the quarterfinals. But leader New Trier (12 points) has both of its singles players and doubles teams in the quarters, which start today at 9:30 a.m.
Rolling Meadows senior Kim Martini won three matches to advance to the quarterfinals.
Boyd and Byjos (39-2) also had to fight through the emotion of playing their friends and daughters of BG coach Chris Van Grondelle.
"No matter who would have won, we would have been absolutely happy no matter what," Boyd said. "It was such an amazing match."
Said Byjos: "It was hard playing our good friends but we knew we had to get on the court and play our game. Nell played phenomenal and I'm so glad I got paired with her."
The Nisbets (32-2) gave up only 15 points in their second-round win and overcame some early jitters for a 21-17, 21-13 third-round win over Theresa Lacek and Melissa Carrington of Reavis.
"It was a good confidence booster for (today)," Heather Nisbet said.
"The first match against Hoffman Estates (Avni Bavishi and Meran Liu) got us going because they're not a team we could take lightly," Ashton Nisbet said. "The second one we were just on fire and it turned out really nice. We never got down on ourselves."
Lee, a 3-4 singles seed who finished third for Fremd last year, and the Liu-Huang duo didn't lose a set in their three wins. Senior Carolyn Buesing won her first singles match and a pair of consolation matches for 2 team points.
"Buesing put up one of the greatest fights of her life," said Fremd coach Bob Hanson. "She was unbelievable for playing No. 7 singles all year and almost making the top 16 in state. She gave us everything she could."
Martini beat Buesing in the second round and advanced to the quarterfinals as she avenged a regular-season loss to Conant's Selina Imamura with a 21-16, 17-21, 21-18 win.
"I'm really excited and I'm going to go out (today) and have fun and do my best," said Martini, who made it to state last year. "I'm definitely more relaxed and my coach (Ken Mills) kept telling me to have confidence."
Imamura and teammate Ayaka Yoshinari and Wheeling's Shannen Chechang are still alive in today's singles consolation bracket. The Van Grondelles stayed in the hunt for a second straight medal finish in the doubles consolation bracket.
Prospect's Karly Grouwinkel and Shea Gallus pulled a second-round doubles upset of Glenbard West's Olivia Schwartz and Abbey White. Grouwinkel and Gallus lost in the third round and were eliminated in their fourth-round consolation match.