THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2008
Wheeling's Lepcin Reaches Back For Sectional Crown
By DWIGHT ESAU
Journal Sports
Taking center stage last weekend all over the state was girls badminton.
This is not the placid, gentle backyard variety, with teens and seniors lobbing shots in every direction and losing birdies in the trees.
This is the tough, competitive, physically demanding version, played indoors with players making impressive and seemingly impossible shots and chasing each other all over the courts.
It's state tournament time in this sport. If you don't think this sport is exciting to watch, you should have seen the impressive array of shots and breathtaking quickness and reactions of players at the Wheeling IHSA sectional last Friday. If you don't think this sport is physically challenging, you should have watched Ashley Lepcin of Wheeling and Karolina Walker of Palatine try to catch their breath and walk slowly off the court after a grueling, 45-minute, three-game marathon for the sectional championship.
Lepcin is Wheeling's number-one singles player and a past state qualifier. Walker is the same for Palatine. Lepcin's come-from-behind, 13-21, 21-17, 23-21 win will make her one of the top state seeds this weekend at the finals in downstate Charleston. Walker also qualified for state by finishing second.
Lepcin won her first two sectional matches easily, then hooked up with Walker, a familiar foe in the Mid Suburban League this spring. Walker dominated game one, but Lepcin rallied to win game two, 21-17.
In the third and final game, Lepcin quickly fell behind by eight points and looked like she was out of gas.
When the score reached 11-4, Lepcin called time and conferred with coach Carl Watschke and an assistant coach. For the next few minutes, Walker continued to return most of the shots Lepcin tried. But then, with the score 18-11 and Walker on the verge of a sectional final upset, Lepcin reached down and found some more energy. Mixing drop shots with drives, smashes and long lobs to the backline, Lepcin outscored Walker 12-3 the rest of the way to take a dramatic 23-21 win and the sectional crown.
You would have thought it was a state championship match. In the minds of these two players, it was, according to coach Watschke.
"This win gives Ashley a much more favorable seed at state, and that was motivating her," said Watschke. "She qualified for state as a top seed in doubles last year, and our goal this year has been to get her mentally ready to play in singles. She wanted this sectional title badly, and you saw how she rallied."
Walker defeated Lepcin's teammate, Karolina Sabaliauskaite, in the semifinals, but Karolina made it to state, since the top four in singles and doubles at a sectional make it to state.
Maine South's two singles entrants, Abby Hayden and Erin Deda, fought hard through the backdraw in search of a state spot, but came up just short. Both of them won backdraw matches, but dropped their third and fourth place consolation contests.
"We had two seniors and four underclassmen at the sectional, and we competed well," said Ever Muir, Hawk coach.