Kicking off the varsity girl’s badminton season, the team experienced a narrow loss against Waubonsie on Thursday. 

The team played five doubles matches and ten singles matches, winning a total of seven matches. 

Going into this match, junior Aanya Roy said that she felt excited for the first game of the season. 

“Instead of stressing too much, I’m looking forward to seeing how my skills work in the game and if I can develop a game strategy,” Roy said. 

Roy also said that this excitement for the season was present across the entire varsity team, creating an encouraging and supportive team environment.  

“Everyone is really thrilled to be a part of the team, and the practices are always lively and active,” Roy added. “All of our members continuously encourage each other and uplift team spirit.” 

To prepare for the match, junior Trisha Shukla said that she practiced extensively in the off season. 

“I am doing some drills in my free time as well as other workouts,” Shukla said. “I feel like this has helped me prepare for the season.”

While the team suffered a couple of losses in their doubles matches, they quickly gained many wins during the singles matches. 

During sophomore Jensen Coonradt’s singles match, they said that they felt excited and enjoyed strategizing against their opponent. 

“Badminton itself is really exciting to see the opponent’s next move and strategize against it,” Coonradt said. “The third game is the culmination of everything you learned about your opponent, which is why the first two games were really close but I won the third game 21-7.” 

In future matches, Coonradt said that they hope to enhance their placement of the birdie on the court. 

“Normally, my skill is to drop [the birdie close to the net] on the opponent, but this time, it wasn’t as effective as trying to loft the birdie to the back [of the court],” Coonradt added. 

Junior Hanitha Puranam also said that birdie placement was a challenge that she wants to improve on. 

“I want to move my opponent more from one side [of the court] to the other and make the more tired,” Puranam said. 

Senior Pranati Mitta said that she felt positive emotions after her doubles match and hopes to use this experience to improve in the future. 

“After playing the match, I am grateful to have bonded with my teammates,” Mitta said. “My doubles partner and I got to figure out what works best for us for the future games.”

Coach Craig Morris said that he was impressed with how the team played, especially since this was their first match. 

“Every match was very close and I think that we need to work on a little bit of conditioning,” Morris said. “As long as we fix a few things technique and conditioning wise, I think that we will be good.”

Shukla added that no matter what the outcome of the game was, the team had a positive spirit and tried to lift each other up. 

“Whether the score is a win or loss, it is just about knowing that you put all of your efforts into the game, learning from your mistakes and improving for the next time,” Shukla added. 

The varsity badminton team has an upcoming home match against Lemont Township High School on March 22nd. 

Annika Srivastava is a staff writer for Oswego East High School’s online news magazine the Howl