Fremd, Prospect win pair of doubles titles
As Fremd aims for its seventh consecutive Mid-Suburban League girls badminton title this weekend at Buffalo Grove, several other schools had strong performances in Friday’s doubles competition in hopes of capturing this year’s crown.
Fremd and Prospect each won two titles, with Hersey claiming the last one, while Buffalo Grove took third or better in four of the five flights.
“I’m real pleased with how we played tonight,” said Prospect coach Jean Rezny. “We’ve worked hard all year and this is what you hope for.”
Prospect’s top doubles duo of Shea Gallus and Noreen Caporusso took down Fremd’s crew of Kelly Owens and Ji Young Seo. Gallus and Caporusso lost the first set 12-21 before regrouping to win the final two 21-16 and 21-14.
“There was a lot of good communication,” Gallus said. “Sometimes we are lacking that. It was about working as a team to find weak points and aiming at them.”
Prospect also captured a title at fifth doubles, as Laura Dietrich and Kara Kendall defeated Fremd’s Christine Williams and Katie Iuorio. And once again, the Knights lost the first set but recovered to win the last two.
“Those are two seniors who have been playing for four years in the program,” Rezny said. “They stepped it up and did a nice job for us.”
As usual, Fremd positioned themselves well for today’s singles competition with championships at second and third doubles. Annie Huang and Angela Wu, two of the top singles players, allowed only 44 points against them all day while Rina Seo and Mayu Sugikawa rolled to a title at third doubles, defeating Jenni Tucker and Sai Bhalero of Palatine in the finals.
“It’s certainly always a feather in your cap if you can beat (Fremd), because of the fact that they have been so good for so long, and they have such a great team again,” said BG coach Chris VanGrondelle.
The Bison got a second-place finish from the second doubles team of Julie Jambrone and Mary Zawlocki and had three other third-place finishes.
“There were times when we certainly got down throughout the day but we didn’t give up,” VanGrondelle said. “We certainly found a way to come back and get some good victories.”
Hersey’s Megan Salt and Paula Yang topped Prospect’s Hannah Buenzow and Sami Forsythe to win the title at fourth doubles.