LOCKPORT – The Lockport Invitational has a long history of being a good showcase for girls badminton teams and Saturday's 12-team competition proved to be no different.

Three area teams finished in the the top-five and many singles players and doubles teams placed fifth or better. Homewood-Flossmoor won the title with 25 points while Lincoln-Way West and TF South tied for second with 23 points. Lockport was fourth with 22 points and Lincoln-Way East and West Aurora tied for fifth with 21 points.

Lincoln-Way West was led by its third doubles team of Lindsay Czarnowski and Kourtney Faber who won 22-20, 21-19 over Lincoln-Way East for the championship.

Also for the Warriors, Emilia Evans and Kayla Wojcik took second at second doubles after falling to Metea Valley. Alli Hullinger and Shaunna O'Malley were fifth at first doubles and Noel Nielsen and Olivia Rusch placed fifth at fourth doubles.

"This is always a great competition and everyone got at least four matches and that's great at this of the year," said Warriors coach Donna Thompson, who will retire this season after having a lot of success in her 20 years in the Lincoln-Way District. "I'm so lucky since our girls are so nice and they work hard and it's one of the best teams that I've had as far as camaraderie goals. It's great that so many of my friends are coaches and many are former players of mine and it's fantastic just to see the love of badminton."

Lockport's top finishers were Sawyer Hollatz (third at first singles), Sam Keta (fifth at second singles), Korryn Swedko (fifth at fourth singles) and Tess Peckman and Caroline Perry (fifth at second doubles).

"This is a tough tournament," Porters coach Stacy Sparlin said. "It's nice because we play everything out and everybody is guaranteed four to six matches, so there's a lot of fun competition. We have a lot of things that we still need to work on but we're at the midpoint of the season and I see a lot of good things. With not a lot of clubs close by, so they don't play that much in the offseason so every week in the season, it's fun to see them grow."

Lincoln-Way East was led by Megan Blaney and Lilly Genis (second at third doubles), Kea Roppolo (third at fourth singles), Brooke Anderson and Stephanie Shoaf (third at fourth doubles) and Haley Elmer (fourth at third singles).

"So far we're having a pretty good season and we have some definite room to grow," Griffins coach Steven Evenhouse said. "The biggest thing is that they're willing to practice where they struggle. A lot of girls want to practice what they're really good at but this team wants to know what the next step is. We've had some teams that beat us the first time and we saw them later and beat them the second time."

Romeoville's Isabelle Edrada rallied to win the title at third singles, 17-21, 21-15, 21-14. Hannah Davis took third at second singles and Shana Bordas was fourth at fourth singles.

"This competition resembles a sectional," Spartans coach Chaz Kuhn said. "I tell my kids that this in unlike a tournament that we've been to since I've been a coach. "We really enjoy the competition and we had a lot of our younger players do very well today. This kind of allows us to walk into a scenario like a sectional with some experience."