Tonight, the Naperville Central Redhawks take on the Mustangs of Metea Valley in badminton. The Mustangs are looking to pick up a win to wrap up the regular season DVC schedule after falling to Naperville North last week, 15-0. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.
Tian gets the Redhawks going early
Starting with one singles, Redhawk Zoey Tian is going up against Mustang Saanvi Gupta. Tian gets the birdie flying at the start of the match, going for a backhand hit for the point.
The game continues for both opponents with long-distance loops. Gupta fires back at Tian with a return right past her for a point. Then, Tian gets the upper hand by going for a fiery backhand return that travels over the net. Zoey Tian goes on to win straight sets 21-10, 21-8.
Zheng follows up with the four singles win
Singles play continues with four singles between Metea’s Aashitaa Kumarappan and Central’s Eileen Zheng. Zheng and Kumarappan get off to a good start with back-and-forth returns.
Zheng nails a backhand over the net for a point. Metea Valley continues to compete in this matchup with Kumarappan hitting the birdie over to Zheng for a Mustang point.
In the end, Kumarappan hits the birdie to the net, resulting in a point for the Redhawks. Zheng wins in straight sets 22-20 and 21-17.
Central gets one doubles victory
Moving on to one doubles is Zoey Tian and Eileen Zheng against Metea’s Saanvi Gupta and Medha Kotagiri. Both opponents get off to a good start with Zheng putting the Redhawks on the board with a backhand over the net for a point.
Central continues to dominate the one doubles with some help from Zoey Tian, picking up the long-distance returns before sending the birdie back down towards the Mustangs. Central takes the first set 22-20. Set two is underway, with Medha Kotagiri coming in with the backhand for a point.
The Mustangs dominate in this set with the help of Saanvi Gupta hitting a hard shot return to Zheng, and winning set two, 21-15.
It’s the third and final set as the Redhawks get back at the Mustangs with some help from Eileen Zheng, firing the birdie between Gupta and Kotagiri for a point. Both teams traded back and forth returns, with Zheng overpowering Gupta to hit the birdie on the net. Set three ends in a 21-15 victory for the Redhawks.
The Mustangs defeat the Redhawks
The final match is two doubles with Central’s Kavya Peter and Emily He against Metea’s Aditi Singh and Joanna Romauld. Metea gets off to a good start from Romauld, picking up on He’s return, sending the birdie long distance to Redhawk territory for a point.
Central responds from Peter, picking up Singh’s long-distance return, and shooting the birdie down for a point. He also gets in on the action with a return from Romauld as the Redhawk hits a hard return in between the Mustangs for a point.
Later in the match, Singh goes into action by hitting a hard return for Metea to score. Both Singh and Romauld hold the match together, with Singh sending a quick serve right over He for a point. The overall match sees the Mustangs come out on top with a score of 11-4 over Naperville Central.
For more prep sports highlights, visit the Naperville Sports Weekly page.
