Mid-Suburban off to an impressive start
All of the Mid-Suburban League's top medal contenders took care of business in Friday's first day of the badminton state tournament at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
Jenna Langhorst and Erica Lee won all three of their singles matches to keep Fremd in contention for the team title. The doubles teams of top-seeded Ashton and Heather Nisbet of Buffalo Grove, Maggie and Katie Van Grondelle of Palatine and Ausrine Rakauskaite and Jen Moss of Wheeling also won their first three matches.
They'll all be in today's championship bracket quarterfinals at 9:30 a.m. today.
The second-seeded Langhorst, who finished third last year and fifth two years ago, got her toughest test in a 21-8, 21-13 third-round win over Rolling Meadows' Kim Martini. Langhorst (26-0) faces Hinsdale South's Olivia Niemann today.
New Trier leads the team race with 10.5 points with Fremd, Andrew and Lincoln-Way Central tied at 10.
"I think everyone else played well and handled the pressure well," Langhorst said. "Erica and I need to pull through and hopefully our doubles team (Claire Lee and Jackie Tiangco, still alive in the back draw) can get some points."
Erica Lee's toughest challenge came in her first match, a 21-17, 23-21 win over Selina Imamura of Conant. Lee could face top-seed Kelly Byar (52-0) of Lincoln-Way Central in the semis.
"I had a pretty rough match the first round but after that I played much more calmly," Lee said. "The last game (21-15, 21-7 win over New Trier's Allison Doren) everything came together.
"I definitely think we should be OK. Jenna and I will play crucial roles (today) and I'm really proud of our team."
If the Nisbet twins, who finished second last year, and the Van Grondelle sisters get past their quarterfinals it would be an interesting semifinal for friends and families.
"That would be fun," said Palatine freshman Maggie Van Grondelle, whose dad Chris coaches BG and the Nisbets.
"It wouldn't be good for our coach, I guess," Heather Nisbet said with a laugh. "It's so hard on him but it would be great to get to that point."
Getting to the quarters wasn't a cruise for the Nisbets. In the second round they were down 5-0, 11-4 and 20-16 before pulling out a 22-20, 21-17 win over Andrew's Nina Cossidente and Jessie Pilarczyk.
"They totally caught us off guard," Heather Nisbet said.
"We knew we had to kick it into gear," Ashton Nisbet said. "This made us realize it wasn't going to be an easy road, but we never thought it would be."
Katie Van Grondelle finished fourth in doubles last year and hopes to medal with her sister Maggie this time.
"Obviously we were very nervous before we started," Katie said. "Once we got started I was very happy with how we played."
Rakauskaite and Moss beat Hersey's Ashley Thomas and Jillian Cabrera for the second time in three tries 19-21, 21-6, 21-17 to advance to the quarterfinals.
"I'm very proud of the game we had with them today," Moss said. "They were very intense games and it was a great, great match."
Said Rakauskaite: "It was definitely intense. More intense than we've played all season. The second game we got our energy back, started moving and started hitting."
Still alive in today's back draw are Martini, Imamura and Wheeling's Karolina Sabaliauskaite in singles and BG's Michelle Byjos and Kate Meyers and Lee and Tiangco in doubles.