Scouting the MSL badminton tournament
By Marty Maciaszek
mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com
Where: Schaumburg High School
When: Doubles at 5 p.m. Friday; singles at 8:30 a.m. Saturday
Defending champion: Fremd
Outlook: Will it be a high-five for Fremd for consecutive MSL titles? Once again, Buffalo Grove appears to be the biggest obstacle after finishing second by 5 and 4½ points in the tournament the last two years. The Vikings and Bison also won the West and East division titles, respectively — which counts toward half of the overall title. “Our girls are playing really good badminton right now,” said Fremd coach Bob Hanson. “It took some time for some of the girls who never had varsity experience to finally get in the swing of things. All 15 girls are really starting to click.” Freshman Angela Wu has lost only twice in singles and junior Annie Huang, who won last year’s No. 2 title, has been playing well. Even more intriguing has been their play in doubles, which has Hanson considering the possibility of putting them together for the postseason. Senior Shannon Fitzgerald returns after winning titles at No. 10 singles and No. 5 doubles last year. “All in all we’re pretty much in the same ballpark to where we’ve been (the last two years),” said BG coach Chris Van Grondelle. “We have to get past Fremd to get the conference title. They may still be ahead of us but we’ll see if we can overcome that.” BG’s top doubles team of Nell Boyd and Michelle Byjos is 25-0 and won the No. 2 title last year en route to finishing fourth in the state, and Alanna Zawlocki and Jenny Krewer are 32-6. Last year Fremd and BG combined to claim all 15 titles. Palatine’s Maggie Van Grondelle and Tomoyo Tsurumi have only lost in doubles to Wu-Huang and Boyd-Byjos in three. Prospect gave BG its toughest East dual, falling 9-6 behind returning state qualifiers Jackie Hertrich and Shea Gallus. Hersey is usually a factor with third-place finishes the last two years after sharing the 2008 title with Fremd, and Barrington has been more competitive this spring. Returning state qualifiers looking to make an impact include Wheeling’s Hannah Park, Schaumburg’s Sara Partington and Hoffman Estates’ doubles teams of Amruta Bhatt-Maiko Matsubara and Avni Bavishi-Meran Liu.
Central Suburban League: Maine West’s top doubles team of Sarah Gangl and Katrina Mira hopes this weekend’s tourney at Deerfield will be the start of their drive toward the state tourney.
West Suburban Conference: Leyden junior Adrianna Sanchez looks to gear up for a second straight trip to state in Saturday’s tourney at Addison Trail.