East Meadow nets another badminton title

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After East Meadow badminton had won Conference III for the second consecutive season last year, head coach Patricia Burnside expected her squad would hover around .500 when facing tougher competition in 2017. The Lady Jets surprised their coach, however, with another league crown in Conference II on the strength of 11 straight wins that stretched into the playoffs.

“I figured when we moved up we’d end up in the middle of the pack in the conference,” Burnside said. “And we started out at 2-2, but then we started to get it together and we just kept winning.”

East Meadow produced four All-Conference players: junior Hannah Arbuse, senior Maggie Lin, junior Nicole Giblin and sophomore Kelly Anglim, who all qualifying by winning eight of 12 matches in conference. First singles Stephanie Tavel, a senior captain who was a double champions and All-Island and All-County selection last year, won seven matches.  

Arbuse, the team’s second singles player, went 9-3 and notched a playoff win.

“Hannah is very athletic and fast, and she’s a quick learner and can figure out quickly who she’s playing in a match,” Burnside said.

Lin was 10-1 overall, including winning her first three matches in doubles competition before she switched to third singles. First doubles duo Giblin and sophomore Alexis Caruso went 6-4 in the regular season. Giblin, who graduated from third doubles last year, also won three singles matches to give her nine wins altogether. “Nicole is very powerful and also very athletic,” Burnside said.

Anglim started the year at fourth doubles before joining forces with Amanda Mercado, who missed part of the season, as second doubles. In early May, East Meadow defeated Syosset and Long Beach, two Conference I teams, by 4-3 scores.  The Jets also avenged an early-season 4-3 loss to conference rival Great Neck North by winning the rematch with the same score.

In a first-round match, No. 4 East Meadow downed No. 13 Farmingdale, 6-1. Arbuse, Anglim and Mercado each had wins in the match. The Lady Jets beat No. 5 Syosset in the quarterfinals after Travel won the final match to keep the season alive. The postseason run ended with a 7-0 semifinal defeat to Calhoun last Tuesday.

Burnside said her team had a great season and she looks forward to next year as the squad moves up to another conference based on ability, not school enrollment.

“We will be playing in Conference I,” she said. “So it’s going to be a new challenge.”