Knights' Glennon takes title

Updated: April 29, 2011 12:02AM

On occasion, winning a battle can be very rewarding even if you don’t win the war.

Lincoln-Way Central badminton singles player Jessica Glennon won the No. 1 singles championship and helped her Knights team place a strong third overall in the SouthWest Suburban Red conference tournament at Lincoln-Way West on Thursday.

The Andrew Thunderbolts won the overall championship with 75 points over Bradley-Bourbonnais (62), LWC (43) and Lincoln-Way West (39). Lincoln-Way North (4 points) and Stagg finished in fifth and sixth place respectively.

“I am very proud of Jessi the way that she played tonight,” Central coach Liz Karalas said. “Strategy-wise she did a really nice job, probably the best she has played all season.”

Glennon defeated Andrew’s Marissa Ripoli 21-16, 26-24 in the championship match in what was definitely the highlight of her season so far.

“I knew going into the championship that I was going to have a hard game in front of me,” Glennon said. “I knew that I was going to play my heart out and whatever comes out, comes out.”

“I am proud of all of our ladies,” Karalas said. “They all played great tonight and gave a hundred-percent effort.”

Lincoln-Way West No. 2 singles player Kristyna Marks lost in the championship match to Neha Chandan of Bradley-Bourbonnais 21-14, 19-21, 21-14 but surprised even herself with some of her play leading up to the final match.

“It was actually exciting,” Marks said. “It’s surprising. Tonight was the first time that I beat a player from Andrew. Sometimes you get frustrated but you take a deep breath and play shot by shot.”

The Warriors Ann-Marie Scharnhorst took third place in No. 3 singles, as did Megan McDonald, Jessica Albano and Brooke Jessen in the No. 5, No. 6 and No. 8 singles respectively.

“The girls came out ready to play today,” West coach Donna Thompson said. “Everyone battled and we just lost our matches against Andrew by a couple of points. Last year we only got one medal here and this year we should be taking home eight or so.”

Marks and the rest of the Warriors now have something to build on as they head into the IHSA sectionals that begin next week.

“Overall our team has gotten gradually better than last year,” Marks said. “We more than doubled our medals from last year so that I think is pretty awesome.”

SouthWest Suburban Blue

At Joliet Central, Lincoln-Way East’s placers were Julia Piech (2nd, 1st singles), Nadine Kahl (2nd, 2nd singles), Ashley Bennett (2nd, 8th singles), Natalie Templin (3rd, 10th singles) and Ali Dwier (5th, 3rd singles).

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