Out of all the Paly badminton players that participated in the Frosh/Soph tournament only sophomore Isaac Yao and freshmen Young Hsu remained by the end of the first day.

On May 5 and 6, a total of 14 schools from both the De Anza and El Camino Leagues came to Paly to play in the Frosh/Soph badminton tournament. Each school is allowed to enter one player or team for each of the five categories: boys and girls singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. For the Vikings, Yao and Hsu played boys and girls singles, respectively. Freshmen Connie Yang and Crystal Wang took the girl’s doubles position, while Freshmen Justin Hsi and Kevin Dai represented the boy’s doubles position. For mixed doubles, freshmen Hansen Moon and Cassie Wedemeyer played.

Each category has a separate double elimination tournament. After a single loss, a player moves to the lower bracket and plays other players that are in the same bracket. In the end the winner of the lower bracket and the winner bracket play. If the player from the lower bracket wins against the player in the winner bracket, they must play again since losing two matches can only eliminate players.

“Whether or not the outcome was better than last year is really irrelevant,” Prentice said. “It’s just a fun tournament where the new kids get experience playing in a tournament, and get a little taste of what SCVAL [Santa Clara Valley Athletic League] is like.”

Moon and Wedemeyer were the first from Paly to be eliminated from the tournament. In the first round, they played against Gunn. Moon and Wedemeyer won the first game by a close score of 17-16. However, they lost the next two, 13-15 and 7-15. Moving to the lower bracket, Moon and Wedemeyer played against Los Gatos High, whom they lost to again, resulting in their elimination from the tournament.

Paly doubles performed better with both girls and boys doubles passing the first round and playing until fourth round before being eliminated from the tournament. Yang and Wang lost in the second round against Saratoga, 10-15, 4-15, and in the fourth round against Gunn, 4-15 and 7-15. For the boy’s doubles, Dai and Hsi lost to Lynbrook in the second round, 3-15, 1-15, and Homestead in the fourth round, 4-15 and 9-15.

In girl singles, Hsu lost immediately against Cupertino’s Mari Yamashita, 4-15 and 9-15, bumping her into the lower bracket. However, Hsu managed to advance through the next two rounds, allowing her to play on Saturday. The next day, Hsu won her first match and in the fifth round, Hsu played against Yamashita again. Yamashita took the lead in the first game but Hsu managed to tie the score 10-10. Hsu lost the tough match 11-15, and after talking with head coach Kara Prentice and Paly’s junior Brandon Chen before the second game, it was apparent that the tables have turned. Hsu was in the lead 9-4, but Yamashita rallied Hsu had the lead at 14-12, but Yamashita slowly gained a few points in between alternating serves. The game ended 14-17, eliminating Hsu from the tournament and placing her in third place overall.

“I was exhausted,” Hsu said. “I only had a short break from the match before. This was Mari’s [Yamashita] first game of the day though.”

For boys singles, Yao advanced through the second round easily after dominating a Saratoga player, 15-2 and 15-0, and winning a hard earned match against Homestead, 15-11 and 15-10. Unfortunately, Yao had to play against the No. 1 seed, Joshua Ho from Monta Vista in his third round match of Friday. The first game against Ho ended with a 4-15 blowout. In the second game, Yao had better luck, managing to rally for two more points before Ho hit the clinching point to win, 15-7.

With the loss, Yao was bumped to the lower bracket where he played Saratoga’s Jeremy Chen in the fourth round. In the first game, Yao struggled. His serves were not high enough letting Chen hit the shuttlecock however he wanted, earning easy points according to Paly’s junior Brandon Chen. In the end, Yao lost, 17-14, and before the second game started, head coach Kara Prentice and Chen gave advice, which let Yao turn the tables around and dominate in the second game, 15-9. By the third game, Chen was tired and Yao won 15-8.

“It took practically 30 rallies to get the last two points,” Yao said. “My form was incorrect, so halfway through the second game, I pulled an arm muscle. I couldn’t move my arm afterwards last night [Friday night] but it felt okay in the next morning.”

With only one loss on Friday, the win against Saratoga ensured Yao would advance to play on Saturday. There was a slight chance, however, that Yao would still be eliminated on Saturday by default since he had to take an SAT II subject test on Saturday morning. Luckily, Yao still made it to his game was able to play in the fifth round against Homestead’s Patrick Ng. In the first game, Yao lost, 9-15. The pain of Friday’s injury against Saratoga worsened in the second game against Ng, causing Yao to pause a few times during the game, letting Ng score multiple times. The game ended 8-15, knocking Yao out from the tournament, earning fourth place overall.

“I think all of our kids did a really great job this year and I’m proud of all of them.” Prentice said.

With Frosh Soph tournament over, SCVALs and CCS (Central Coast Section) are the only tournaments left in the season. SCVALs, the official tournament between all 14 schools, will take place on May 11 until 13 at Gunn High School.