Four players from the Palo Alto High School badminton team are heading to the Central Coast Section finals after placing at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League competition on Saturday.
The three-day tournament started on Thursday, and determined who goes to the Central Coast Sections finals and ultimately, the CIF-Norcal competition. The team went into Leagues winning five of the 12 dual games, according to sophomore Emily Yu.
According to Yu, the top four players in each division heads to CCS. There were 24 players from Paly who competed at Leagues.
Sophomore Michael Chau and senior Eric Chiang placed first in the boy’s doubles division, according to Chiang. The pair won six of their seven games.
“I think we played pretty well,” Chiang said. “For the past week or two, I have had a shoulder injury which prevented us from playing at our best. There are still things we can approve as this is just the second time we played doubles together this season.”
The pair hopes to final at CCS and advance to the CIF-Norcal competition.
“The only goal we have in mind right now, considering the regular season is over, is to get to NorCal and hopefully place at NorCal,” Chiang said.
The Vikings also did well in the girl’s double division, with senior Priya Misner and junior Flavia Stiglich finishing second, winning five of their seven games.
Other notable performances included sophomore Tilak Misner, who got to the quarterfinals in the boy’s single division before dropping. He won four of his six games, placing him in seventh place.
More information on rankings and records can be found at this website.