Deerfield badminton coach Edee Madsen envisions the day when the state badminton meet will be filled with players from her team.
Madsen spent most of Saturday, May 16 watching some of the elite players in the sport battle in front of large crowds at the Eastern Illinois Recreation Center in Charleston.
Although her two doubles teams were eliminated in the first day of the two-day state meet and her top singles player, senior Gerri Soren, lost in the fifth round of the consolation bracket on Saturday, Madsen said her program is moving in the right direction.
“We’re always trying to get kids to play more in the offseason,” Madsen said. “We have a good group of freshmen and sophomores coming up, and my juniors this year were solid. We’re going to keep building and keep the enthusiasm and interest going in our program.”
Madsen will have a big void at No. 1 singles, with Soren turning in back-to-back solid performances at state. She won her first two matches at state during her junior season, but lost to Naperville North’s Kylee Jan in the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket.
Last weekend, Soren defeated her first two opponents, but dropped a hard-fought, three-game decision to Naperville North’s Jessica Hu. She split her final two matches, losing to Waubonsie Valley freshman sensation Vaishali Manoharan in two games in the fifth round of the consolation bracket.
“This year I felt good,” Soren said. “It was definitely a different tournament. There were a lot more younger girls that came out, which was really nice for the sport, but they were definitely tougher matches. I’m really happy with the way I played at state. My toughest match was against the Waubonsie Valley girl. She was very good. I knew it was my last time playing, so I made sure to have fun and not just worry about what the scores were.”
Madsen said Soren dedicated herself to working on the technical aspects of the game, while also concentrating more on her fitness level.
“Gerri is a really good player,” Madsen said. “She has great finesse and tremendous power. She played all of her matches tough and had some very good wins on Friday.”
Narang is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter: @bobnarang
