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GBS Badminton: Titans' Title Hopes Fall Short, Finish Second in CSL

After leading the CSL tournament through Friday's doubles matches, Glenbrook South finished second to New Trier.

Glenbrook South had the defending state champions right where they wanted them. After Friday night’s doubles matches at the Central Suburban League badminton tournament, the Titans were leading New Trier by a point and had hopes of tying the Trevians for the conference championship.

Unfortunately the Titans couldn’t muster enough points in Saturday’s 12 singles matches, taking second place at the tournament and finishing as the runner-ups in the conference behind New Trier.

“I’m a little disappointed,” Glenbrook South Coach Teresa Kimura said. “I think some people were up yesterday and didn’t come through today. It’s a little disappointing.”

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Nine of the Titans’ twelve singles players finished in the top 3 on Saturday, just short of Kimura’s goal for everyone on the team to medal. Angela Cho (No. 3 singles), Crystal Thomas (No. 5 singles) and Nabeela Ahmed (No. 9 singles) all won individual championships for Glenbrook South while Diana Diaconu (No. 2 singles) and Caley Howland (No. 8 singles) finished as runner-ups.

No. 1 singles player Olivia Nelson took third place after losing to Evanston’s Lauren Teske in the semi-finals.

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“It’s what I deserved the girls above me, Mari and Lauren, are superb players,” Nelson said. “We were really hoping that we could win this conference tournament and tie with New Trier in conference total. That was our goal.”

Saturday’s outcome contrasted with Friday’s results for Glenbrook South. The Titans won four of the six doubles matches at Deerfield, including three championship game victories over New Trier.

Nelson and Cho (No. 1 doubles) defeated New Trier’s top doubles team. After losing the first game, Nelson and Cho rallied to win the last two games, taking the third game, 23-21.

“I love playing with [Angela Cho] and playing doubles,” Nelson said. “We went to state last year and we’re hoping to go again this year.”

Diaconu and Thomas (No. 2 doubles), Vicki Powers and Mackenzie O’Brien (No. 5 doubles) and Christina Khouri and Claire Plack (No. 6 doubles) also took first place in their respective doubles positions.

“It’s conference and you have to up your game and some people came with it, some people didn’t,” Kimura said. “I guess we just have to play smarter and play our game see what happens.”

Glenbrook South will compete in the IHSA sectionals next weekend. Sectional rankings and assignments will be released by the IHSA on Tuesday.

Although Saturday’s runner-up finish was disappointing, Nelson is confident that the Titans will be able to give New Trier another run in the playoffs and into next season.

“We have a lot of juniors this year so we’re up and coming,” Nelson said. “We’re getting better and more experienced as the years go on.”

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