The girls badminton team hosted and won their sectionals match on May 5.
Six teams competed in this tournament of the 23 across the state. The top two singles players and top two doubles teams will go on to compete in the state tournament at Eastern Illinois University May 13-14.
The team has a competitive record this season, having won the majority of their games. In fact, head coach Deborah Ofcky said that their season highlight was winning Featherfest, a 16-team tournament that New Trier hosts each year. They also won their conference tournament the week before, placing first of nine teams.
“Individually, we all placed pretty high,” Captain Kaylin Steinberg said.
Singles players who will be competing at state are junior Julia Matyas and sophomore Ele Scalia. The first doubles team is made up of seniors Kaylin Steinberg and Natalie Mardoian. The second is made up of seniors Sarah Zhang and Emily Wisner.
Qualifying for state is entirely dependent on placement in the sectionals tournament. “You have to finish either in the top two of the winning bracket or the top two of the consolation bracket,” Steinberg said.
Even though most big tournaments feature only a small portion of the team, most of the season is equally focused on the rest of the athletes.
Junior Caroline Christopher said, “I think a major team goal was to really focus on everyone on the team, not just our top six players. We really pride ourselves on having a ‘deep’ team, and so it was important for us to cater practices to the whole team instead of just our top lineup.”
Since the players can constantly move up and down in the roster, it’s usually strategic to train all of them equally.
Junior Julia Matyas talked about some players’ improvements over the past couple years, saying, “This season, I have been playing at the #1 rank for singles, where last season I played at #7 overall and #4 at tournaments, and there have also been other players moving up in the ranking as well.”
Although the team has accomplished several victories this season, winning is not their main goal.
According to Ofcky, “We play a very strong schedule and going against the top players every weekend you will face opponents that are just better on occasion.”
“So a loss can happen, but we always take something away from that loss and get better, often beating that same opponent later in the season,” Ofcky said.
The players try not to feel defeated by their losses, instead using them as motivation to play better in the future.
“Usually when we lose, it’s not really about the other team. It’s just that we weren’t playing our best,” Steinberg said.
As the season comes to a close, many players are looking forward to continuing off-season training. The season only lasts from March until May, so many girls play in clubs outside of school over the summer and throughout the rest of the year.
“Otherwise, more mental preparation is needed,” Steinberg said. “Because the season is so short and we want to do the best we can.”
As for graduating seniors, there aren’t too many future opportunities for badminton. While it is played as an Olympic sport and has been since 1972, only 16 US colleges sponsor varsity teams. “[Colleges] don’t have teams usually, but they usually have clubs or some way to get involved,” Steinberg said.
The seniors’ graduation will also have an effect on next year’s team. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without our amazing seniors this year,” Christopher said. “I don’t even know if I want to think about next season.”
As this year’s team is made up of mostly seniors, eight spots will be left when they leave. “It will definitely be a lot of underclassmen,” Christopher said, “which might be a little chaotic but also a ton of fun.”
Despite the changes to come, the team is still looking ambitiously to next season. Ofcky said that her goals for next year are to “continue to be a strong force in the CSL, work hard in the off-season and enjoy the game.”