Leeds 7 – 1 Sheffield
Leeds University Women’s Badminton racked up an impressive 7-1 victory against Sheffield Hallam.
Last season saw the Women’s Badminton 1st team promoted into Northern Division 1A, after sailing through Northern division 2B with a massive 30 BUCS points, as well as winning Northern Conference Cup and being awarded LUU’s ‘Most improved sports team.’
This year there are three strong new additions to the team: Ellie Travers, Vanessa Jill and Harriet West. The team has set its goals high, aiming to be promoted again to the Premiership division this season.
After a comfortable 5-3 win against Manchester 1st’s last week, they knew that they had to up our game against Sheffield Hallam, who had only lost 4 matches out of 10 in last year’s Northern 1A division.
However, on our opponents’ arrival, the team realised Hallam only had five players, meaning Leeds were already winning 2-0 in matches before they even stepped foot on court, as Hallam had to forfeit both 2nd singles games.
The first round of singles games saw sports scholar and current senior International, Helena Lewczynska beat Sheffield Hallam’s 1st singles player 21-7, 21-3, without breaking a sweat.
The same went for the second singles player, Georgia Lee, who stepped up for the second time to play in the 1st team, winning the first set 21-16, before finding her rhythm and winning the second set with ease, 21-11.
The doubles got off to a great start, with a brand new 1st doubles pairing of Vanessa and Ellie (both ex-junior international players) winning 21-16, 21-18.
The 2nd doubles pairing of Lizzie Hunt and Harriet West, both who are top county players, played two consistent sets with very few errors, winning 21-12, 21-9.
The second round was Vanessa/Ellie playing Hallam’s 2nd doubles pair. They set up each other nicely for winning smashes, winning comfortably 21-10, 21-8. The last game was Lizzie/Harriet against Hallam’s 1st pair.
It was a tough game as the Leeds girls tried to keep the shuttle away from the stronger Hallam player, however they outplayed Lizzie and Harriet with better shot quality, and Leeds lost narrowly 21-10, 21-8.
The overall match score was a 7-1 win for Leeds Uni, even without their Captain, and Yorkshire county player, Rae Larmour, who unfortunately had an exam.
Man of the Match was Fresher Ellie Travers, who has been training hard with her new doubles partner Vanessa Jill, and has so far won four out of four matches, only dropping one set.
Author: Helena Lewczynska