Badminton: Hersey devours the competition at Glenbard East
As freshmen, Hersey senior badminton players May Napora and Kimmy Hay were doubles partners for roughly a month but never again.
That was until this season.
"I feel really comfortable with Kimmy. We're really good friends and we both know when to be serious and when we can't," Napora said. "We can both be goofy and chill on the court, just to calm our nerves. I think that's a really nice thing to have with a partner, to have that sort of connection."
Their full-circle success continued Saturday as they won the No. 1 doubles title to help the Huskies dominate Glenbard East's annual seven-team tournament in Lombard. The teams played robin-robin matches of four singles and three doubles.
Hersey swept the doubles titles with juniors Mo Littrell and Olivia Redding at No. 2 and sophomores Kendall Krueger and Alisha Fong at No. 3. In singles, senior Isabel Fudali won at No. 2, senior Sammi Lee at No. 1 and junior Mary Xu at No. 3 were second and junior Sara Jeon was third at No. 4.
Beforehand, Hersey assistant coach Ken Ricker told the players he would treat them to pizza if they won. The Huskies won 38 of their 42 matches.
"That's our new motto. We'll play for food," joked Hersey coach Jeanine Konkolewski. "We have four (seniors) returning for varsity, so all of those (on junior varsity in 2015) had to play up and they're coming along. We don't have one weekend off so they just keep playing. I think that play does help them progress."
Schaumburg and Glenbard East shared second with 29 points but the Saxons were awarded second by beating the Rams 4-3 head-to-head.
Senior Ann Reji won No. 4 singles. Taking second were senior Wasinee Siewsrichol at No. 2 singles and juniors Alicia Kwak and Julia Iwin at No. 3 doubles. Senior No. 1 singles player Dhun Patel and the No. 2 doubles team of seniors Yumi Otsu and Celina Perez were third.
Napora and Hay pulled out a 21-16, 21-19 victory over Glenbard East. They said they may find out within the next two weeks if they will play together at sectionals and go for their first state berths.
"Our coaches usually tend to switch partners a lot throughout the season to see who fits best," Hay said. "I don't know how to explain it. We're just really comfortable with each other. Going into today, we definitely thought we could win it all and I think that mentality helped us."
Last year, Lee missed qualifying for state doubles by one victory, a 21-19 third-game loss with senior Danielle Lee, who was out of town Saturday and is not related.
The sprained ankles that limited Sammi Lee to sectional doubles are healed. Saturday's singles loss to Waubonsie Valley sophomore Shalu Manoharan (16-0), fifth at state in 2015, was only Lee's third this season.
"I think I have a good chance (of qualifying). Our team has placed higher in the (sectional) rankings so far so I think we have a good chance overall," Lee said.
Patel is a two-time state doubles qualifier with graduated Emily Knipp. Patel has found a strong new partner in Siewsrichol.
"Initially I was (focused on singles) because I didn't know who my partner would be. We're doing really well so we'll see where it goes," Patel said. "Everyone's been coming together and it's an amazing season so far."