Senior birders glide into NWOSSAA

The Muskie senior badminton team sent three entries to next week’s NWOSSAA playoffs after strong performances yesterday at the NorWOSSA final in Kenora.
Simone Desjardins went 5-0 in the senior girls’ singles division to take top spot. The grade nine student—a five-year veteran of the Fort Frances Badminton Club—did not lose a set all day in beating her opponents by a 15-3 average.
In girls’ doubles play, the Grade 11 team of Jennifer Lawson and Sarah Paterson also swept through their round-robin loop with a 5-0 record to take first place.
Teammates Ashley Dyson and Ann Phung missed the second NWOSSAA berth by finishing with a 3-2 record. They lost to Lawson/Paterson and a team from St. Thomas Aquinas (Kenora), which proved to be the make-or-break match.
Meanwhile, Muskies Adrian Bondett and Tyson Storkson finished in second place with a 4-1 record in the boys’ doubles division to advance to NWOSSAA next Tuesday in Wawa.
They roared through the first four matches before falling to Matt Halwachs and Brandon McLeod (Atikokan) in three sets. Atikokan took top spot.
“There weren’t many surprises in the results,” said senior team head coach Manami Alexander. “I’m was happy with everyone. They all played hard.”
The top two teams from each division at NWOSSAA will advance to the all-Ontarios in Sudbury.
Unfortunately, the Muskie juniors didn’t fare as well in Kenora.
Jason Pattison got off to an 0-2 start in boys’ singles play after dropping matches to a pair of Beaver Brae students—Daniel Loucks and Chris McCaffrey—that went the full three sets.
Pattison finished fifth out of the six players with a 1-4 record.
And the first-year team of Jana Kennedy and Bryce Martin went 0-5 in mixed doubles play.