Paly sophomore Alex Kreitz smashes the birdy onto the opposite court, ending the JV boys’ double match against Los Altos 21-1. This game set the tone for the rest of the matches against Los Altos.

With the 2004 season coming to an end, the Paly badminton team (5-5) is hoping to finish off strong and head to CCS. On Thursday, April 29, Paly defeated Los, Altos, 29-13, in badminton.

“We burned them like firewood,” sophomore Jeremy Lin said “They were definitely not competition.”

“The match against Los Altos was a joke,” sophomore Tim Chang said.

The badminton match is divided into five events: boys’ singles, girls’ singles, boys’ doubles, girls’ doubles, and mixed doubles.

The varsity girls’ singles and doubles, and JV boys’ doubles dominated the match against Los Altos.

Kreitz and Lin helped lead Paly to victory by crushing their opponents, 21-1. Kreitz and Lin started off dominating the match, with a score of 15-0 and continued to lead throughout the match.

Varsity girls’ player senior Sisi Chen won an easy match over Los Altos’ Minnie Moy, with a score of 15-0 in the second set.

However, Paly’s boys’ single struggled against Los Altos.

“I’m probably not going to win,” senior Dan Evers said during a pre-game interview. Evers who currently holds the No. 1 seat in boys’ singles failed to win against Los Altos’ boys’ singles number one seat Eric Osborne.

The first game was close, with Osborne winning 15-12. Los Altos won the second game, 15-9.

“I played sick,” Osborne said, “I didn’t play at my full potential because I can’t really breathe.”

Although Paly suffered a few match losses against Los Altos, junior Yao Yu’s prediction was still accurate. “We’re pretty confident we can win," Yu said in a pre-game interview.

“Los Altos is not a competition. That’s why we decided to switch around our players and have them try different events" senior Jessica Guinn said. "Boys that usually play singles will probably play doubles, and vice versa.”

Even though Paly’s badminton team is doing well in general, their strongest events and many victories are dedicated to the girls’ singles and doubles.

“The girls are our powerhouse,” Paly coach Kara Prentice said, “They are the strongest girls of all the teams in the league.”

The current varsity girls’ team is composed of entirely seniors. This may be a great threat for next year’s team which would be entirely new and inexperienced varsity players.

“It will be difficult next year,” Prentice said, “But right now, we can only focus on this year’s season and just continue to train our JV players.”

The Paly team will play their last match on May 6, 2004 against Wilcox.