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Sports
Trio of veterans return : Sports : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisTrio of veterans return
| Hwang headlines Wolves' badminton lineup at No. 1 singles
| by Christine Bolin Dascher
| 3/14/2013
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At this time last year, the Oswego East badminton team had eight juniors listed on the roster. Things have changed quite a bit since then.
The Wolves only return two of those players for their senior season - Nikki Funk and Tyler Keating - along with one sophomore veteran, Leena Hwang. Hwang will lead the trio of returning players in the No. 1 singles spot.
"Lena's my top returner," said eighth-year Oswego East head coach Marko Jurkovic. "She was one game away from making it to state last year, so she did well. She had some wins as a freshman, so we're really banking on her to excel in singles."
Keating is in her third year on varsity.
"(Keating) should do some good things for us this year," Jurkovic said. "She brings a whole lot of experience. She had some success last year at both singles and doubles, but was not able to advance in the sectional."
This is Funk's second year on varsity.
"She's a strong doubles player and a strong singles player - she could be around No. 3 for us," Jurkovic said of Funk. "She brings a lot of experience, she's been in the program for four years and she should help us out tremendously."
The other seven players on the roster - Areeba Asim, Nabiha Asim, Pearl Fox, Allie McCarthy, Asher Ogbebor and Zahra Rehman and Haley Clebanoff -- will all see playing time, even though they are new to the varsity level.
"They are definitely going to be thrown into the fire," Jurkovic said. They'll gain some experience early on in our matches. We're going to be playing some tough matches early on, so hopefully that will help them out before we really get into conference."
Last year, Oswego won the Southwest Prairie Conference tournament. Plainfield North was second, followed by Plainfield East, Romeoville and Plainfield Central. Oswego East was sixth in front of Plainfield South. Jurkovic expects the same tough league competition again this season.
All six of Oswego East's conference games take place in a span of 17 days. The first is against Romeoville at home on April 1 and the last is on April 17 at Plainfield North.
Oswego and Oswego East will battle on April 10 on the Panthers' home floor.
"I'd imagine Oswego and Plainfield North will be up there. Both teams are usually pretty strong," Jurkovic said. "It's a battle with all the other schools fighting their way up. We are just hoping to take that next step."
The first seven outings of the season on the schedule are exactly the same as last year. The Wolves began the season hosting Joliet West on Monday, and the result was a 13-2 win for the visitors. Hwang won her singles match in the No. 2 spot, 21-12, 21-6 and the No. 1 doubles team of Keating and Funk won their match, 21-11, 21-14.
On Tuesday, Oswego East hosted Waubonsie Valley, West Aurora and St. Charles East and the Wolves had several wins. The No. 1 doubles duo of Funk and Keating finished 3-0 with wins over Waubonsie Valley (21-18, 19-21, 21-19), St._Charles East (21-12, 21-17) and West Aurora (21-18, 23-21).
At No. 1 singles, Hwang finsihed 2-1, defeating St. Charles East (20-22, 21-11, 21-5) and West Aurora (22-20, 21-27).
New to the schedule is the Hoffman Estates Invite, which takes place on April 20.
On April 25 and April 27, the conference meet takes place at Romeoville. The sectional meet is scheduled to begin on May 2 with the state tournament taking place on May 10-11 on the campus of Eastern Illinois University.
Last year, Oswego East did not advance anyone out of the Naperville North Sectional and finished fourth of five teams.
After two weeks of practice, the Wolves are still trying to figure things out. Soon enough, Jurkovic said, things will start to come together.
"It's only a matter of time wee get all these girls on the same page," Jurkovic said. "It's too early to tell. After our first couple of tournaments, we'll have a better idea."
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