Purdue University
wins 2008 Great Lakes Campus Invitational

(February 25, 2008 - Gary, Ind.) - Purdue University won the Great Lakes Campus Invitational on February 24, 2008 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 included co-ed teams from Purdue University, University of Notre Dame, University of Iowa, Northwestern University and the University of Chicago.

The NBL format takes the sport of badminton, traditionally an individual sport, and lets men and women compete in a co-recreational team format.  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 in the best-of-nine point format. In keeping with the co-recreational emphasis of the NBL format, mixed doubles is always played as the final event. 

For the Purdue University team, the key match was their final-round encounter with the University of Chicago.  Going into this round, both teams were undefeated with 3-0 records, and this match would determine first place.

Purdue got off to a 2-0 lead as Golden Huang and Anuj Sharma won both men’s doubles games.  In women’s doubles, Vina Zerlina and Bei Fei lost the opening game, but Zerlina then teamed with Gauri Joshi to win the second.  With Purdue leading 3-1, Jason Meyer split his two men’s singles games and Zerlina lost both of her women’s singles to tie the match score at 4-4.  The final mixed doubles game was won by Kamesh Puthur Loganathan and Gauri Joshi, giving Purdue their second campus championship in addition to the title they won in 2000.

Results

First Round.  Purdue d Notre Dame 8-1. Chicago d Northwestern  7-2.
Second Round.  Purdue d Northwestern 8-1.  Chicago d Iowa 8-1. 
Third Round.  Northwestern d Notre Dame 6-4.  Purdue d Iowa 8-1.
Fourth Round. Chicago d Notre Dame 8-1.  Northwestern d Iowa 5-2.
Fifth Round. Iowa d Notre Dame 5-4.  Purdue d Chicago 5-4.

 Final Standings
1. Purdue University 4-0
2. University of Chicago3-1
3. Northwestern University 2-2
4. University of Iowa 1-3
5. University of Notre Dame 0-4

 

University of Iowa