The Oswego badminton team's hopes for a seventh straight Southwest Prairie Conference title were dashed on Saturday, when the two-day tournament wrapped up at Plainfield Central.
Plainfield North's score of 44 edged out the Panthers, who finished with a 42 and in second place out of seven teams.
"North placed in spots they needed to and things just weren't clicking that day," Oswego coach Scott Freischlag said. "It really came down to the last few matches, but Plainfield North has a great, solid team."
Oswego East placed third with a 34, followed by Romeoville (31), Plainfield South (16), Plainfield East (3) and Plainfield Central (1).
"The expectation was to win conference, but we came up short," Oswego East coach Marko Jurkovic said. "We had some opportunities to win some matches and improve our point totals, but we couldn't close out a few key matches and ended up on the losing end. This has been as good as the conference has been during my time, with four teams in contention for the title on the last day of conference."
Oswego senior Anne Jakubowski defeated Oswego East junior Annie Carmody for the No. 1 singles title. Carmody and junior Simi Sharma, however, won the No. 2 doubles title over the Panthers' Katelyn Beamish/Jenna Metcalf.
Oswego's No. 5 doubles duo of Lauren Arnold/Isabella Gugliotta won the top spot after beating their opponents from Plainfield North. Marliee Garrett/Jacilyn Swanson, the Panthers' No. 4 team, also won first place over their opponents from Romeoville.
Beamish also ended up winning the No. 9 singles title.
Metcalf at No. 4 singles placed second, as did Oswego's Bri Ecton at No. 5 singles, Xanthe Deck at No. 6 for the Panthers. Jakubowski/Ecton also placed second at No. 1 doubles.
Oswego East saw the following place second – senior Amna Hoda/senior Amber Williams at No. 4 doubles, junior Gina Tito at No. 8 singles and senior Ibtesam Kamal at No. 3 singles.
Deck and Jesse Jakubowski went third for Oswego at No. 3 doubles, as did Hoda/Williams at No. 4 doubles and Tito/Kamal at No. 1 doubles.
Hoda also finished third at No. 7 singles, as did Jessie Jakubowski at No. 8 singles and Swanson at No. 10 singles.
Next up for Oswego and Oswego East is postseason action at the Joliet Central Sectional. The Wolves will play at Andrew while the Panthers will play at T.F. South.