After the cancellation of badminton last season, almost a year later here we are as the Naperville Central Girls Badminton team hosts the Waubonsie Valley Warriors in the first meet of the year.
Waubonsie wins #1 Doubles
Starting off with #1 Doubles between Waubonsie’s Sonali Manoharan and Nicole George against Central’s Michelle Hu and Hanna An. After some back and forth action Hu finds some open space and gets the Redhawks a point.
Some more back and forth action in the 1st set until Manoharan barely keeps the birdie inbounds giving the Warrior duo the point.
After some quick action Hu hits a nice back hand shot and gets the point.
A lot of the early stages of this match consists of longer rallies but this one is ended quickly by George.
Some really fast paced action eventually ends when Manoharan hits a strong shot that is to much for the Redhawk duo to handle.
The Warrior duo eventually ends the match by winning set one 21-14 and set two 27-25, giving WV their only duos victory on the night.
Naperville Central Girls Badminton wins #2 Doubles
Moving onto #2 Doubles between Waubonsie’s Riya Trikha and Shira Sarkar against Central’s Simi Kama and Jessica Pei. After some action early on Pei is able to return the birdie right in between the Warrior duo giving the Redhawks a lead.
Some quick action here as Sarkar hits a shot right in front of Pei giving the Warrior duo the point.
Returning the serve is Kama getting the point for the Redhawk duo, who are too much for the Warrior pair to handle and Central wins this match 21-11, 21-18.
#3 Singles
Moving onto 3 singles as Waubonsie’s Nicole George takes on Central’s Jessica Pei. Making quick work of this rally is Pei who hits home a point.
Again making quick work of the rally is Pei who gets another point.
Later on, some back and forth action eventually ends with George hitting a strong shot giving her the point.
More quick action ends when George hits a shot that lands behind Pei. Point Warriors.
To close the match… Pei hits a shot that George cant handle giving her the 3 set win, 21-17, 17-21, 21-11.
#1 Singles
Finally, moving onto #1 singles we have some familiar faces from #1 doubles as Waubonsie’s Manoharan takes on Central’s Hu. Some fast action here in the early stages as Manoharan calmly hits a shot towards the outer edge, giving her a point.
Here’s a little back and forth as Manoharan hits a shot in almost the same spot as her last point giving her another tally.
After a decent rally Manoharan can’t deal with the return from Hu giving the Redhawk the point.
Ultimately Manoharan wins the match 21-3, 21-9.
But, despite Manoharan winning both her doubles and singles match the Warriors still fall to Naperville Central by a score of 13-2.
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