This past Thursday and Saturday, the varsity girls’ badminton team was able to reward its hard work and dedication that’s been put in throughout the entire season by placing third out of nine teams at its DVC tournament. At the end of the entire conference, awards were given out to the top four players in each individual and doubles event to celebrate the success each athlete put in during its match.

“[We] work on each other’s skills and help each other out, so it helps the underclassmen learn useful skills on how to play badminton and it helps the upperclassmen gain leadership experience and be more confident on the court,” junior Nikita Varshney said.

As the conference progressed throughout the day, the team continuously kept a positive mindset. While the team continued the hard work and stayed strong during each match, support was seen from both its teammates and coach on the sidelines. Many of the athletes from Metea were able to place in the top four and receive medals for their outstanding effort as well as getting the opportunity to place third overall.

“I think [the best part is] improving everyone on the team and not just the top people and inspiring the rest of the team too,” junior Iris Xu said.

Success was seen from last year’s varsity team, including winning the 2015-16 Sectionals tournament and a variety of athletes who participated in the IHSA tournament. The girls’ badminton unit has been working harder to reach that goal again and set another fantastic legacy this spring season as they did in their 2015-2016 spring season.

“Last year we graduated a lot of seniors, but this year we’re still not giving up. We’ve been working harder and getting better and stronger against all these teams and we’ve been able to keep ourselves up,” Varshney added.