By Joseph Recinos
The badminton team proved their dominance over El Camino College last Friday as the Huskies defeated the Warriors, 16-5, in their second game of the season.
This win comes after a tough season-opening match against Pasadena City College, 6-15, last Wednesday at Pasadena. No. 1 player Leanna Xu pulled off one singles win, 21-10, 21-9, against Kumiko Noguchi and lost, 18-21, 9-21, against Corinne Belandres a Badminton Junior Nationals participant.
Xu also pulled off two double match wins along with Xiao Dan Lei, against Belandres and Noguchi, 21-14, 18-21, 21-15 and 21-12, 21-7, against Lindsay Seok and Callie Rodella. Lei won two singles matches, 21-5, 21-5, against Seok and 21-3, 21-12, against Rodella.
No.2 player Diana Su lost against Belandres, 15-21, 9-21 and won against Noguchi, 21-9, 15-21, 21-14. Su also lost in her first doubles match against Belandres and Noguchi, but rallied and was able to win, 21-12, 21-9, against Seok and Rodella alongside No.4 Shirley Su.
No. 6 player Si Qiang Pei went three out of three, winning both singles matches and one doubles match. The first match up was against Shannon Hornbeck, 21-19, 24-26, 21-8. In the second match, she faced off with Rebecca Maler, 21-9, 21-2.
Pei won the doubles match, 21-13, 21-16, alongside Teresa Chiang against Hornbeck and Maler. Qui Nguy, head coach of the Huskies, went around talking to his players, giving them advice when it got tough against the Warriors. “The coach is really good. I really like him,” Said Xu about Nguy.
She also said that he’s becoming very conscious of the line up and trying to beat PCC. “They are doing better than in the first game. They were very nervous begining of the match. They need to work on their quickness. Our reaction time is too slow, were waiting for the bird,”said Nguy.
PCC is one of the top ranked teams in the conference, and have a 25 match winning streak after defeating the El Camino Compton College Center Tartars last friday, but Nguy said he feels that his girls can beat them, despite Pasadena’s home advantage. The Huskies have to take advantage when they face PCC at ELAC on Friday.