Experience pays dividends as BG takes second at own badminton invite
Buffalo Grove's badminton team is fortunate from a personnel standpoint.
While several teams in the Mid-Suburban League have lost most of their players from a year ago, the Bison have at least half of their roster back.
That not only helped the Bison win a quad meet on Friday night -- including a 7-5 victory over defending MSL champion Fremd -- but it led them to a second-place finish at Saturday afternoon's Buffalo Grove Invitational.
Evanston, featuring a first-year coach, won the meet for the first time.
The Wildkits scored 35 points to Buffalo Grove's 26.
Schaumburg, which suffered heavy graduation losses, placed sixth with 10 points in the six-team field.
"They put the hammer down," said Buffalo Grove coach Chris Van Grondelle of Evanston, which won five of the eight matches against the Bison.
"I'm unbelievably excited about this meet. We had 12e players playing and out of those 12, six had no varsity experience before."
Still, the Bison held their own against a revived Wildkit squad.
"We're playing well," Van Grondelle said. "It's fortunate for us that we've been able to get athletes.
"I was happy with the whole team. Everyone got some great experience. We played a couple of meets the last two days, so hopefully that will get us prepared for what's coming up."
Jessie Garrity of the Bison, captured first place at second singles. Garrity also won all three of her matches in Friday's quad.
BG's Nicole Caplan and Gina Yi finished first at second doubles, as did Kate Meyers and Nicole Wodka at third doubles.
At first doubles, Ashton Nisbit and Heather Nisbit placed second, as did Jen Immen and Sylvia Dziubinski at fourth.
Schaumburg's best finishes were at first and second singles, where Christina Lange and Nisargi Thakkar, respectively, finished second.
"I have seven new (players)," said Saxons coach Kelly Lagiola. "We were still able to pull out second place at first and second singles. I'm really proud of the way we played. I had some splits. Having so few returning, this is what I expected them to do. We're playing well."