Purdue University wins
2000 Great Lakes
Campus Invitational
(West Lafayette, Indiana) - Purdue University won the Great Lakes Campus Invitational on February 19th with a 10-3 win over the University of Chicago. The tournament, which was held at Purdue, included additional teams from Indiana University, Valparaiso University, the University of Indianapolis and the University of Cincinnati.
The NBL format takes the sport of badminton, traditionally an individual sport, and lets men and women compete in a co-recreational team effort that includes innovative and fast-paced scoring. Multiple games are played in men's singles, men's doubles, women's singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles.
Each game won is a point in the total team score, and in keeping with the co-recreational emphasis of the NBL format, mixed doubles is always played as the final event. Teams are allowed to substitute players at the end of each game, and unlike traditional badminton, coaching is allowed during play.
In the Great Lakes Campus Invitational championship match, Purdue dominated all the women's events against the University of Chicago. Ruchi Anand won all three of her women's singles events and teamed with Amanda Farberg to win all three of the women's doubles events.
Purdue won the first two men's doubles games, with the team of Ying Pin Chery and Frank Lin, and then Hendra Seleman and Cliff Travis, defeating the Chicago duo of Donny Chen and Chris Naud. Chen and Naud rebounded to win the third men's doubles game over Stephen Monroche and Ramm Tia.
Chicago's best moments came in the men's singles events. After losing the opening game to Guan Ming, Chen defeated Cliff Travis and then Dominic Gunthardt. Heading into the final event of mixed doubles, Purdue established an impressive 9-3 lead. In the mixed doubles, Purdue's Ruchi Anand remained undefeated when she teamed with Jason Meyers to finish the 10-3 Purdue victory.
The closest match of the tournament involved two teams playing off for fifth and sixth place. The University of Indianapolis led the University of Cincinnati 7-5 heading into the final mixed doubles event. Cincinnati won the mixed doubles game which, under NBL rules, sent the match into Overtime. With Indianapolis leading 7-6, Cincinnati needed to win only more mixed doubles game tie the score at 7-7 and force a match-deciding Tiebreak, and they did just that. Indianapolis had the choice of which event to play for the Tiebreak, and opted for mixed doubles. Indianapolis fended off three match points to win the game and beat Cincinnati 8-7.
Match Results.
Pool A: Purdue d Indianapolis 11-2. Valparaiso
d Indianapolis 7-6. Purdue d Valparaiso 13-0.
Pool B: Chicago d Indiana 11-2. Indiana
d Cincinnati 8-5. Chicago d Cincinnati 9-5.
Championship: Purdue d Chicago 10-3
Third/Fourth Place: Indiana d Valparaiso 8-5
Fift/Sixth Place: Indianapolis d Cincinnati 8-7
Final Standings:
1. Purdue University (3-0)
2. University of Chicago (2-1)
3. Indiana University (2-1)
4. Valparaiso University (1-2)
5. University of Indianapolis (1-2)
6. University of Cincinnati (0-3)
