By Noe Ortega
Husky badminton ended its regular season with a double-header away win against Compton City College 12-3 and 13-2 last Wednesday.
Although the Huskies ended their season strong, Compton was the only school that East Los Angeles College was able to defeat out of the three other teams faced.
Due to ELAC’s late arrival, both teams agreed to play up to 15 points instead of 21.
The Huskies had a couple of minutes to warm up, but got off to a great start by winning four of their six singles matches.
Freshman Haoyan Alice Zhang won all her singles with dominant scores, 21-3, 21-4, 21-7, and 21-5. Zhang also won both her doubles matches with her partner freshman Shouzheng Carol Zhang 21-11, 21-6, 21-15, and 21-14. Carol Zhang also won all her singles 21-13, 21-12, 21-15, and 21-16.
“Compton is much more endure compared to other colleges. We also make efforts. We practice a lot in these period, after a game has been lost. I think it paid off with today’s win,” Carol Zhang said.
ELAC sophomore team captain Chinh Chu Lai won both her singles matches 21-15, 21-12, 21-12, and 21-13.
Lai also won her first two doubles matches with her partner freshman Lingxuan Cathy Gu, 21-16, 21-10, 21-7, and 21-4. They struggled to win the first match in the second game of doubles. Lai and Gu won the first set 21-17 but lost the second set 21-16. They ended up winning the third set 21-15 in one of the only two matches that went up to three sets.
“They’re a little bit rusty. They need to play more. They do a lot of mistakes like toward the end of doubles, but I expect them to do a lot better,” head coach Qui Nguy said.
This was the first time in the last five seasons that the Huskies ended the season with a negative overall record. For the past five years, badminton had ended its season with records such as 6-3, 8-4,13-1, and 10-2.
“More consistency. We do more repetition drills so that they can get used to the consistency but we still have to work on it,” Nguy said.
The Huskies played their last game of the season but will compete in the South Coast Conference Individual Tournament this Friday at 9:30 a.m. at the Manhattan Beach badminton Club. The tournament consists of four schools, Pasadena City College, El Camino College, ELAC and Compton playing for the best eight players. They will go on to play in the California Community College Athletic Association State Championship in San Diego.
“We will practice more…I’m confident with my teammates because we have a doubles team so we can make it San Diego,” Carol Zhang said.
