By Pedro Esquivel
The Huskies suffered multiple defeats May 10 during the 2013 California Community College Athletics Association meet for the badminton preliminary matches held at Pasadena City College in the Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium.
East Los Angeles College lost two singles and doubles rounds and acquired only one win during a doubles match.
The opening matches were singles players. Cherry Lai and Shirley Su, two of ELAC’s elite players this season were the ones that got the show started.
ELAC’s number one Badminton singles player and team leader Lai struggled to advance to the semi-finals.
Lai suffered a loss in her opening preliminary match against De Anza College’s Jessica Dinh.
Both players were ranked No. 3 by the South Coast Conference, making this a fair match for both players, but a disappointing one for Lai after working hard this season and losing her first round, eliminating her from the Individual Singles State Championship Brackets.
“It wasn’t as good of a match as I wanted it to be,” said rival Dinh after her victory.
“This first match was very disappointing for sure, I could’ve done better. I am looking forward to changing it in the doubles matches,” Lai said about the loss.
ELAC’s Head Coach Qui Nguy still had hope for his team to advance.
Shirley Su had the following round and the only chance to continue to reach the finals.
Su is ranked No. 4 by the SCC. Her first opening round for the day was against Fresno City College’s no. 8 ranked Kim Jonatan.
Su couldn’t close the last match of the round resulting in a 21-16, 10-21, and 21-18 game.
“I wasn’t ready, not enough practice and it was too early. I am hoping to come back and be ready for the doubles,” Su said.
It was a tight match but Su couldn’t come through the last match to advance to the semifinal round. This automatically positioned Su and Lai on the Individual Consolation Championship Brackets.
Lai managed to turn it around during her individual Consolation match defeating Sophia Tran from San Diego Community College in her first round, Shag Avadasian from Pasadena City College on the second round and making all the way to the semifinals where she was defeated by Corrin Belandres from El Camino College.
Belandres took it all the way to the Championship and won against Queen Pabellan. The losing streak continued for Su who was defeated by Pabellan in her first round.
Three pairs of ELAC players competed for the Doubles State Championship.
The first match paired ELAC’s Su and Lai, who are ranked No. 2 in doubles team, against City College of San Francisco’s Queen Pabellan and Lydia Chen, who are ranked No. 4.
Another round was taking place simultaneously that was being played by Huskies Suki Kwan and Cong Tian against Yuki Abe and Sakamoto from Grossmont College. Both rounds were lost.
Tuki Tai and Chuyan Lao were the only set to defeat their opponents from San Diego Mesa Emily Ong and Celon with a 16-21, 21-19, 22-20 game. “The match went great actually and surprisingly close,” Tai said. In her second round Tai lost against Li and Dinh from DAC with a 21-14, 21-9 game to close out the season.
