wins 2007 Great Lakes
Campus Invitational
(February 10, 2007 - Gary, Ind.) - Eastern Illinois University won its first Great Lakes Campus Invitational on February 10, 2007 with an undefeated 4-0 win-loss record in the event's round-robin format. The Great Lakes Campus Invitational, an annual event since 1998, was held at Indiana University Northwest and also included teams from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of Chicago and Indiana University Northwest.
The NBL format takes the sport of badminton, traditionally an individual sport, and lets men and women compete in a co-recreational team format 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 any time, and unlike traditional badminton, coaching is allowed during play.
For the Eastern Illinois University team, the key match was their fourth round encounter with University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Going into this round, both teams were undefeated with 3-0 records, and this match would determine first place.
Eastern Illinois got off to a quick start by taking both men's doubles games and one of the women's doubles games to lead 3-1. UW-Milwaukee closed the gap slightly by winning the first women's singles game. After that, EIU never looked back. They won the remaining women's singles and both men's doubles games to forge ahead 6-2.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee had one last hope. Although they were the trailing team, they could send the match into Overtime and attempt a comeback if they won the mixed doubles. EIU's Ben Hussey and Marissa Smith were too tough for UWM's Nongluk Buranabunyut and Rupesh Gupta, winning 17-11 to finish a 7-2 victory.
Results
First Round. University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Black) d University
of Chicago 5-4. Eastern Illinois University d University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
(Gold) 9-0.
Second Round. Eastern Illinois University
d University of Chicago 7-2. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Black) d Indiana University
Northwest 9-0.
Third Round. Eastern
Illinois University d Indiana University Northwest 9-0. University of Chicago d University
of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Gold) 8-1.
Fourth Round. Eastern Illinois University d University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
(Black)
7-2. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Gold) d Indiana University
Northwest 7-2.
Fifth Round. University of Chicago d Indiana University Northwest 9-0.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Black) d University of Milwaukee (Gold) 8-1.
Final Standings
1. Eastern Illinois University 4-0
2. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Black) 3-1
3. University of Chicago 2-2
4.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Gold) 1-3
5. Indiana University Northwest 0-4
