Badminton team prepares for tough games ahead

“Good game, Wilcox!” echoed throughout the gym on April 21, as the Falcons came out victorious 22-8, their fourth consecutive  win in this season.

Although the season started with two straight losses, the Falcons rebounded to beat Lynbrook 16-14 on April 19, Gunn 21-9 on April 14 and Palo Alto 18-12 on March 29. The victories placed them as third in the league with a record of 7-3.

While most of the team won against Wilcox, No. 1 boys’ singles Stephen Ding lost for the first time this season. Ding fell in two sets, 21-16 and 21-19, to Darren Yang.

“I feel disappointed that I lost, but I feel like it was a good learning experience for me,” Ding said. “In the future, I will take my time before starting the rally in a close game.”

Major contributors to the Falcons’ success over the past few games have been the string of wins by girls’ singles and doubles players, with all but one girls’ doubles pair winning in the game against Wilcox.

Before the Falcons’ winning streak, they faced Monta Vista, last year’s league leaders, for the second time this season on March 31 and lost 20-10.

After losing in the third set in the previous encounter against Monta Vista on March 10, mixed doubles No. 2 Karen Chen and Jason Zhao were determined to win. After a close first set, they managed to prevail 24-22. With the momentum of the first game, the pair also won the second set 21-12 with ease.

However, the same success of the pair was not met by boys’ singles No. 2. After losing the first set 15-21, freshman Nick Zhang fought back, closely losing the second set 20-22.

“My drives were weak and slow, and most of my shots flew out the boundaries,” said Zhang. “This game showed me my weaknesses, and I will try to improve on the quality of my shots.”

In addition, No. 1 girls’ doubles, Mana Shimokawa and Isabelle Yang, and No. 2 boys’ doubles, Brendan Ney and Nathan Ney played, narrowly losing by three points and two points respectively, 18-21 and 20-22.

As the season comes to an end, the Falcons prepare themselves for SCVALs, the qualifier for CCS. Senior captain Michael Owyang has high hopes for the team.

“I’ve played at SCVALs for the past three years and I’m really excited to see how the results will play out senior year,” Owyang said. “Our team has done really well this season, and I’m really proud.”

Due to printing deadlines, the Falcon was unable to cover the April 26 game against Palo Alto and the April 28 game against Cupertino.