Paly’s varsity badminton team is looking forward to the Central Coast Section and Santa Clara Valley Athletic League playoffs after a 6-24 loss against Lynbrook on Tuesday at Paly.
“We scored better last time than this time, and there were a lot of close matches and a lot of games we could’ve won,” coach Jon Prentice said.
Paly’s varsity No. 1, 2 and 3 teams in mixed doubles, girls’ doubles and boys’ singles all fell to the Lynbrook Vikings.
Varsity No. 1 mixed doubles team, senior Justin Hsi and freshman Karine Hsu, played against Lynbrook’s senior Boyang Wang and Lynbrook junior Brenda Shih. Drops, smashes and concentration kept the match quick and violent as both sides tried to score points. Hsi and Hsu fell, 15-17 and 6-15 in the first and second games.
Despite the players’ disappointment with their performance, both Paly and Lynbrook teams watched and cheered on the players during and after the match.
“Playing against Karine was a really good experience,” Shih said. “She’s very powerful. She’s really talented and has a lot of experience.”
Lynbrook’s badminton coach, Karen Christensen, agreed that the match was exciting and worthwhile for both the players and the audience.
“They [Hsi and Hsu] gave our mixed doubles a challenge today,” Christensen said.
After struggling against Lynbrook’s varsity No. 2 mixed doubles team, seniors Allen Chen and Alyssa Burton lost, 3-15 and 4-15.
“It [the match] went by really fast,” Chen said. “It was pretty fun though. We made a lot of mistakes.”
Seniors Adam Hwung and Kathy Ma fell in a similar fashion. The duo lost their first game, 10-15, but made a come back in the second game, 17-14. However, in a close third game that went into set, Hwung and Ma lost after a long struggle, 16-17
Although the scores were close, Hwung was disappointed at his performance against Lynbrook.
“I didn’t really focus at the beginning, but when the game got really close near the end, that was when I started focusing.” Hwung said. “I should’ve concentrated from the beginning. I should’ve played better.”
Girls’ doubles team No. 1, 2 and 3 were all defeated in straight games.
Varsity boys’ singles No. 1 and 3 fell to Lynbrook, 1-2, while No. 2 lost, 0-2.
Despite the losses, Paly’s varsity No. 1 boys’ doubles team, seniors Auster Chen and Kevin Dai, won its match, as did varsity No. 2 and 3 girls’ singles, juniors Kathy Woo and Michelle Tran, respectively.
Auster and Dai beat their opponents in two games after the duo gained and maintained an early lead over Lynbrook. Paly won, 15-7 and 15-6.
The No. 2 and 3 boys’ doubles teams both lost to Lynbrook, 0-2.
After winning her first game, 15-6, Woo started her second game with an early lead and maintained it through the rest of her match. At game point, her opponent began to make a come back, but to no avail. Woo won the second game, 15-7. According to Woo, she won against the same opponent at an away game at Lynbrook in an earlier match in the season.
“I did a little worse, score wise, but I feel pretty good about it [the match],” Woo said.
Tran also played a close match against her opponent. After a close first game that went into set, Tran won 17-16, but lost the second game, 2-15.
“My initial strategy was drop, lift, drop, lift,” Tran said. “I was still using the same strategy as I did in the first game and the other person already figured out how to play against it.”
In the third game, Tran changed her strategy and began to clear the shuttlecock more. She won her game and match, 15-12.
“It was a great way to end the season,” Tran said.
Paly’s varsity No. 1 girls’ singles fell, 1-2.
The JV team also lost to Lynbrook, 2-13.
Overall, Prentice said Paly did well against Lynbrook, but he was not satisfied with the team’s performance in this year’s season.
“It was kind of a disappointing season and we underachieved a bit,” Prentice said. “It’s always fun no matter what happens, but winning a few more games would’ve been better. I felt like we could have won a couple of games. We just lost a couple of close matches against a couple of teams.”
Based on its performance this year, Prentice is worried about the badminton team’s future once the seniors graduate.
“Next year’s going to be tough for us,” Prentice said. “We might have to drop down if some of the lower league schools want to move up, which will probably happen.”
The possibility of dropping down from the upper De Anza division into the lower El Camino division of SCVAL looms because of the season’s disappointing record, according to Prentice.
“I think we have a lot of potential,” senior co-captain Allen Chen said, addressing the players on the team. “We only won one game, so we are going to drop a league unless another school takes our spot.”
Despite a disappointing close to the season, the badminton team is looking forward to SCVAL and possibly CCS playoffs.
Hsu will be playing in the girls’ singles division of SCVAL, while Chen is searching for a mixed doubles partner.
“If I find a partner to train with after school every day, we’ll have a decent chance of getting in,” Chen said.
Hwung believes that the team will have a good chance in the SCVAL playoffs.
“Some of us will get to finals,” Hwung said. “Karine should. And we’re still pretty good, so we should get to finals, too.”