Six out of the 12 Paly Santa Clara Valley Athletic League championship teams look forward to playing against the best players from all 14 schools in the De Anza Leauge after maintaining a spot in SCVALs or consolation.
The girls’ and boys’ singles and mixed doubles matches took place after school on Thursday, while the girls’ and boys’ double matches were on Friday.
Paly freshman Karine Hsu is the anticipated winner in the girls’ singles division. All of Hsu’s opponents struggled to score even a single point while Hsu won without breaking a sweat. After a few minutes of play, Hsu finished the match with her fast reflexes and strong swings. She won her first match, 15-1 and 15-2, and rendered her next opponent unable to score a point, winning 15-0 in both games.
“She [Hsu] wasn’t even challenged yesterday [Thursday],” coach John Prentice said. “The next game should be more challenging. The next two players are pretty good.”
Hsu was one of four seeded athletes, a nationally ranked player who is automatically guaranteed a spot in SCVALs and does not need to play in the first round of preliminaries. Another seeded athlete is Homestead freshman Sharon Ng, Hsu’s doubles partner for national competitions. If Hsu beats Monta Vista Weina Dai, who defeated one of the seeded athletes on Thursday, and Ng defeats Gunn sophomore Phoebe Lin, a finalist from Central Coast Section finals in 2008, Hsu will battle Ng for the SCVALs title in the finals.
Overall, Prentice believes that the Paly athletes in SCVALs have been doing well.
“Yesterday [Thursday] we did pretty well across the board,” Prentice said. “Only one person was eliminated. Young [Hsu] and Karine [Hsu] are both doing well. They have a good chance of making CCS.”
Senior Young Hsu won her first two matches and advanced to quarterfinals, where Ng defeated Young and dropped to consolations. Young Hsu will play Saratoga junior Annie Lee in consolation semifinals.
After junior Kathy Woo lost her first match to Lee, she went into the consolations round and won her next game. Woo got the opportunity to play a rematch against Lee in her second consolation match. Although she lost her first game (6-15), Woo did not give up and fought on with smashes and drops. In a close second game that rendered both players exhausted, Woo lost and was eliminated, 15-17.
“We got really tired at the end, but it was really fun,” Woo said.
Junior boys’ singles player Richard Chern experienced a similar situation. After a tough first game, Chern lost to Gunn junior Cleon Yau from Gunn, 5-15. Chern played with more energy against Yau in the second game, returning Yau’s smashes with equally strong clears and drops. Both players refused to give in to the other, but Chern lost, 16-17. Chern dropped to the consolation round, where he defeated his next opponent, 11-15, 15-11 and 15-13. Chern’s third match pitted him against Yau again but this time in consolations. Chern lost and was eliminated, 11-15 and 12-15.
“I did pretty good because I hit tough players and did my best against them,” Chern said of his Thursday performance.
Junior Ivan Zhou played in boys’ singles division as well. Zhou’s first two opponents, Wilcox junior Kevin Diep and Saratoga sophomore Guillaume Bellegarda, were unable to keep up with with Zhou’s powerful smashes and quick drives. He won 15-6 and 15-3 against Diep and 15-2 in both games against Bellegarda, who seemed tired from his previous match.
Paly’s mixed doubles seniors Allen Chen and Kathy Ma, and seniors Alyssa Burton and Kyle Clarke, both dropped to consolations.
Paly placed two pairs, seniors Kevin Dai and Auster Chen, and seniors Justin Hsi and Adam Hwung, into boys’ doubles. Paly sent three girls’ doubles pairs, seniors Connie Yang and Crystal Wang, senior Amanda Le and junior Asami Kazeyama, and juniors Christina Lee and Ruby Maa to play against the 14 schools in SCVALs.
Hsi and Hwuang won their first SCVALs match and moved on to play a Gunn pair. They struggled against their next opponent and lost the first game, 9-15. Although the second game was closer, with many tense and quick rallies that tested the duo’s speed and agility, Paly lost, 15-17. All in all, the Gunn opponents drove a tough match against Hsi and Hwung.
Chen and Dai seemed energetic at the start of their second match. However, as the game continued, the duo seemed to tire and struggled to finish the first game, but eventually won. In the second game, Chen and Dai struggled against their quicker opponents. Although their good rotation and cover of each other did not make up for their fatigue and mistakes, the pair were defeated when the shuttlecock flew into the net after a long rally.
After a loss a Cupertino doubles pair, Lee and Maa played against Mountain View. Paly gained an early lead because of their opponent’s mistakes. However, the Mountain View Spartans gradually caught up after Paly’s pair began to feel tired from the earlier match. Although they lost the first game, 8-15, Lee and Maa won the second game, 15-13. From an early lead and effective covering of each other, Paly won the third game, 15-8. In their third match, Lee and Maa lost and were eliminated from consolation.
SCVALs semifinals and finals will start at 9 a.m. on Saturday at Paly. Karine Hsu is the only Paly athlete playing in the SCVALs semifinals. Young Hsu will play in girls’ singles consolation. Both Paly’s mixed doubles teams will also play in consolation, as well as Zhou, and Chen and Dai.
Senior Connie Yang is a member of The Paly Voice.