Oswego's Vergonet Wins Second Straight SPC Badminton Title

Oswego’s Bre Vergonet successfully defended her title of a year ago with a 21-8, 21-19 win over Plainfield North’s Amanda Mear at the Southwest Prairie Conference badminton meet Saturday at Plainfield North.

Plainfield North won the SPC with 59 points.

Two-time defending conference champ Oswego took second with 37 points.

Plainfield South (24 points), Oswego East (19), Plainfield East (9), Romeoville (7) and Plainfield Central (5) rounded out the field.

“It means a lot for me and the school because I won it last year,” Vergonet said of capturing the No. 1 singles title for the second year in a row.

Vergonet and Mear were seeded Nos. 1 and 2.

“It’s a toss up who is going to win each year (at No. 1 singles),” Vergonet said of the increasing tough SPC. “We’re not used to seeing this many good teams all at once. There was definitely some good competition here all the way around.”

It was one of two individual championships for the Panthers.

Oswego’s Hajar Zaki rallied for an 18-21, 21-17, 21-17 victory over Plainfield North’s Kyndal Currie at No. 2 singles.

Next up for Oswego is the Neuqua Valley sectional. Seeds and host sites will be determined Monday.

Oswego East moved to 3-2 in Southwest Prairie Conference duals after a 5-2 triumph over Plainfield East.

Blaine Hrovat won 6-1, 6-0 at No. 1 singles to move his league record to 5-0. He is unbeaten in regular-season dual meets over the last two SPC seasons.

At No. 1 doubles, Austin Hwang and Daniel Milenkovic are 4-0 after a 6-1, 6-3 win.

Nikas Bilinskas and Kushal Bakshi at No. 2 and Matt Denor and Ali Adnan at No. 3 each won their doubles matches in straight sets.

The Wolves’ No. 4 doubles team of Omer Rehman and Abhipsit Srivastava posted a 6-4, 7-6, 7-4 victory.

Oswego hit the road to take home a 6-1 Southwest Prairie Conference boys tennis dual victory. The Panthers swept the doubles matches and won two of the three singles contests to remain perfect (4-0) in league duals.

Minooka’s Brian Falvey beat Oswego’s Austin McWethy 6-3, 7-5 at No. 1 singles.

At No. 1 doubles, Nate Kyes and Jake Roberts beat Casey Erce and Kevin Murphy 6-2, 6-4 in an all-senior battle.

R.J. Salerno and Dan Nagel turned around a 6-2 loss in the first game to beat Scott Michaels and Dakota Collofello 2-6, 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2 doubles

Oswego’s defense stepped to the front during their 25-22, 22-25, 25-21 Southwest Prairie Conference win over Plainfield South.

Alex Pena (23 digs), Tommy Schabinger (16 digs) and Boyer Kornfeind (10 digs) combined for 62 digs for Oswego.

Billy Burke’s 14 assists led the Panthers’ offensive attack. Schabinger had nine kills, while Freddy Miller and Matt Purcell came up with eight kills each.

Oswego started fast, but couldn’t hold on during a 22-25, 25-20, 25-19 SPC loss to Plainfield East. Oswego dropped to 8-17, 4-4.

Purcell (nine kills), Miller (eight) and Kevin Oppe (six) were the top producers for the Panthers. Burke (15 assists, seven digs) and Kornfiend (eight assists, five digs) combined for 23 digs.

Pena led Oswego with 10 digs. Jason Hines turned in a quality performance with eight digs, five kills and an ace, while Schabinger came up with seven digs, two kills and a serving ace. Danny McGuire was credited with a pair of digs.

Oswego East dropped a 25-12, 20-25, 25-20 league decision to Plainfield East.

The Wolves are 5-9 overall and 0-6 in the SPC.

Plainfield Central outlasted Oswego East 3-2 in penalty kicks.

Oswego East led 2-1 at the half, but couldn’t hold the lead and fell to 8-4-2, 3-2 in the SPC.

Oswego rallied from a 4-1 deficit after four innings to beat Plainfield South 8-6.

Oswego scored three runs in the fifth to tie it.

The Panthers put it away by scoring four times in the bottom of the sixth.

Jessa Garcia went 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI to spark the Panthers’ offense. Tayler Lofthouse had two hits and also knocked in two runs. Ashley Blocker and Mallory Brainerd each had two hits and an RBI for Oswego (5-10, 4-4).

During a steady and sometimes heavy rain and temperatures in the middle to low 40s, Minooka needed just five innings to beat Oswego 10-0 in Minooka. The Panthers had just one hit.

Plainfield Central posted an 8-0 SPC road win over Oswego East in Oswego.

Lindsey Anderson, Brittany Warnecke and Briana Wright had hits for the Wolves. Morgan Ettinger struck out four batters in five innings. Jenna Brown pitched the sixth and seventh innings and struck out one as the Wolves fell to 6-8, 3-4.

Minooka scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to beat Oswego 8-6.

The day before, the Indians scored eight runs in the sixth inning to beat Oswego East 9-6.

Oswego dropped to 8-7, 4-6.

Plainfield Central took advantage of 20-30 M.P.H. wins blowing out to blow out the Wolves 16-2. Oswego East sits at 4-10 overall and 2-7 in the SPC.