By George Maldonado
The East Los Angeles College badminton team was upset as 2014 undefeated South Coast Conference champions by Pasadena City College (21-0), Wednesday Feb 25.
This game set the tone for the season because both teams are projected as the top two competitors for the conference title. With the win PCC moves into first place in the standings.
The Huskies began their scoreless match to an energetic PCC team determined to set the early pace. From the start ELAC, didn’t match the intensity of their opponent and looked lost throughout each set.
The Huskies were nervous and made the same mistakes. However, Head Coach Qui Nguy and Assistant Coach Lena Zeng positively encouraged the team to continue to work for each point.
Each player showed great team spirit within their sets of doubles because they made it a priority to keep each other’s head in the game. The way that ELAC played was not acceptable in terms of effort and as a team they need to “be more aggressive,” Mak said.
The Huskies looked more comfortable in the double formation. ELAC’s Cova Zao felt that the difficulty level of each set measured harder as the game progressed.
Through the loss, Zeng understood that this year would be a challenge to really work harder for results because it will consists of “a lot of work” to rebuild a championship team.
Zeng noticed that each player showed timid reactions when competing like being “nervous” and “out of focus.”
ELAC will compete away against winless El Camino College-Compton Center at 3:00p.m. Wednesday March 4.