It’s Senior Night at Waubonsie Valley High School for the 10 badminton team members. The Warriors welcome Naperville Central to wrap up the DVC regular season just before the conference tournament gets underway. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.
Naperville Central starts strong in one singles
The match starts with Waubonsie’s Tisha Dubey and Redhawk Zoey Tian battling in one singles. Both opponents have strong returns of the birdie, with Zoey Tian using a long-range tap to the corner for a point as the Redhawk narrowly takes the opening set 23-21.
Dubey returns the favor in the second set as she hits a hard line drive past Tian for a point. The Redhawk comes out on top with a drop over the net, closing out the match in two straight sets, 23-21 and 21-16, after an exciting matchup between two strong players.
The Warriors get on the board
Up next is the two-singles match between Vaishnavi Cheedepudi from Waubonsie and Naperville Central’s Emily He. The match is underway with He and Cheedepudi hitting back and forth returns, until He finds the corner for a point.
Later in the match, Cheedepudi goes for the point by getting a return over the net and landing the shot right on the red line. Cheedepudi gains the upper hand in her match as she backhands the birdie over the net, landing in Redhawk territory for a point. The Warrior goes on to win 21-13 and 21-9.
The green and gold take one doubles
The one doubles match features Central’s Zoey Tian and Eileen Zheng against Waubonsie’s Tisha Dubey and Vaishnavi Cheedepudi. Both teams explode at the start with hard returns. Zheng trips and falls as Dubey hits the return to Zheng, landing out of bounds, giving a point to Waubonsie.
After the fall, Zoey Tian steps in for Zheng as she picks up a return from Cheedepudi by tapping a shot over the net for a Redhawk point.
Later in the match, Cheedepudi responds with a return of her own, hitting a smash right past the Redhawks for a point. Waubonsie dominates the second set with Cheedepudi closing out the match with a backhand return. Cheedepudi and Dubey win in straight sets 21-17 and 21-15
Waubonsie gets the win
Wrapping things up with two doubles where Harshita Baskaran and Kari Dong from Waubonsie square off against Kavya Peter and Emily He from Central. The Warriors get off to a good start. Baskaran sends back Kavya’s return with the Warrior tapping the birdie down over the net for a point. Waubonsie rolls in the first set.
The match continues into the second set with Emily He looping a backhand return over the net, landing into Redhawk territory. Kari Dong serves for the Warriors, with Central’s Kavya Peter going for the backhand return. Dong seals the deal with a strong shot for the victory, 21-4 and 21-10. Waubonsie Valley closes out Senior Night with a narrow 9-6 win over Naperville Central.
For more prep sports highlights, visit the Naperville Sports Weekly page.
