Badminton: Strong first days for Fremd, BG and Stevenson

Fremd's badminton team is in a tie for third place after the first day of the state tournament on the Eastern Illinois campus.

The Mid-Suburban League champs have 10 points, tying them with Naperville North for third place. Neuqua Valley (11 points) has the team lead and Stevenson (10.5) is in second place.

The Vikings still have both singles players and a doubles team alive in the championship draw.

Jenny Li won her first two matchups in two sets before pulling out a 21-19, 12-21, 22-20 decision against Stevenson's Ashley Richardson in the third round.

Fremd's Kellie Liu was able to win all three of her matchups in two-setters.

In doubles, the Vikings' Hannah Chen/Sharon Wu survived three rounds of the front draw, topping TF South's Frances Romero and Cassie Cintron 19-21, 21-11, 21-14 to advance to Saturday's quarterfinals.

MSL runner-up Buffalo Grove is in sixth place but has both of its doubles teams headed to the quarterfinals.

Megan Gamber and Katie Jarosz topped their opponents from Naperville North 21-18, 21-16 in their third matchup Friday, and teammates Gabby Yordanova and Sarah Katz advanced to the quarterfinals by edging Palatine's Samantha Ortiz and Kamila Czyszczon 21-18, 21-15.

Stevenson's Esther Shi advanced to the singles quarterfinals by topping Naperville North's Clara Duan 21-9, 21-11 in the third round.

The Patriots' Richardson went on to win a fourth-round singles consolation match after dropping her last championship bracket matchup.

Stevenson's May Ling and Jenny Yang will also play in the doubles quarterfinals after Naperville North's Grace Chen and Kathleen Nie suffered an injury default.