When Livia Suszko stopped by an event sponsored by the Evanston-based Girls Play Sports foundation as a 5th grader, she didn’t know she was starting out on a path that would lead her to DeKalb by the time she was a senior in high school.
DeKalb is the site of the Illinois High School Association state badminton tournament and Suszko was one of three ETHS girls who punched a ticket to keep playing Thursday night.
Suszko earned a runnerup finish in the singles bracket at the New Trier Sectional tournament and the ETHS doubles team of Delcy Garfield and Arnie Gopez finished 3rd to also nail down a qualifying berth. Evanston totaled 10.5 points in the team standings, 3rd overall behind champ New Trier (16) and Maine South (11) in the 7-team field.
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The top four finishers in both singles and doubles automatically advanced to State.
Suszko, who played in the middle portion of the team’s singles ladder for much of the season, put it all together Thursday with wins over Brianna Baumann of Maine East (21-13, 21-9), Sunshine Pang of Whitney Young (21-23, 21-7, 21-15) and Julian Rothenberger of Maine South (24-22, 21-18) before bowing to Madison Liu of New Trier 21-11, 21-10 in the championship match.
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“When I was in 5th grade Girls Play Sports had an event showing different sports, like volleyball and badminton,” Suszko recalled. “I picked badminton --- and I stuck with it. I’ve been playing for eight years now and working hard at it. So it’s very satisfying to finish my senior year with a big bang.
“I’ve always wanted to make it to State. Last year I played No. 2 doubles and didn’t make it, so it was all or nothing tonight. I really felt like I was focused, and most of my shots went right where I wanted them to go.”
In doubles, Gopez accomplished a return trip to State as a junior --- but with a different partner. She teamed with classmate Garfield after qualifying last year alongside Eva Cherkasky, who was sidelined by an Achilles injury in the off-season and didn’t play for the Kits this year.
The team of Garfield/Gopez lost a tough 3-set decision to New Trier’s Kelsea Banh and Elizabeth Dabiza in the third round --- 21-19, 18-21, 21-17 --- but then eliminated a team from Wheeling (21-7, 21-6) and tripped Maine South’s Anna Lind and Selma McDonough 21-12, 21-13 in the 3rd place showdown.
“We’ve been training hard for this all season, and we fought hard tonight,” said Garfield. “I thought our communication was really the key for us, and that’s always a key in doubles. We came in with a lot of positive energy, and we kept it.
“We had the lead against New Trier in that third set, but we let them stay close and we lost it at the end. We made some mistakes when we had that lead. But I’m very excited to make it to State.”
Evanston’s other singles entrant, Emily Schirer, dropped two out of three matches and the doubles team of Bella Martinez and Liviani Sumi posted a 2-2 record.
“A lot of it tonight was mental for us,” said Wildkit head coach Karilyn Joyce. “They tend to get down on themselves and I keep telling them to think about winning, to think about what they did right, not the mistakes they made. I thought they all did a good job.”
