Badminton State Championships Set To Begin Today
Singles Brackets [Championship][Consolation]
Doubles Brackets [Championship][Consolation]
by Brent Shaver, Irvine Valley College Sports Information
The battle for the team title at the 2015 California Community College Athletic Association Women's Badminton Championship features two programs that are very familiar with each other.
De Anza, the top team from Northern California, and San Diego City, the best team from Southern California, will be playing for the championship for the third straight season.
The championship final is on Thursday at Irvine Valley College at 2 p.m.
De Anza won the last two titles, topping San Diego City, 12-9, in 2013 and, 19-2, in 2014.
De Anza, guided by coach Mark Landefeld, moved on to the state title match after beating Fresno, 13-8, in its regional final two weeks ago.
De Anza enters the title match with a record of 8-1 overall. It went 6-0 to capture the Coast Conference title.
The Dons are led by one of the top players in the state in Alice Liu. Liu and Megan Hsiao also make up one of the toughest doubles teams in the state.
De Anza's only loss this season came in a nonconference match at Pasadena City earlier this season. PCC defeated De Anza, 14-7.
San Diego City bested Pasadena City, 11-10, in a showdown two weeks ago in the Southern California regional final to move on to the state event.
The Pacific Coast Athletic Conference champion Knights remained undefeated at 7-0 and snapped Pasadena's 13-match winning streak.
In the final round of doubles, the team of Thao Le and Shessira Paredes swept Pasadena's No. 2 team of Eugenia Mendez and Carmina Ortiz, 21-11, 21-13, to clinch the victory for San Diego City.
San Diego City's top singles players are Le and Gina Niph with Cassandra Ka also contributing heavily to the Knights' lineup.
San Diego City is making its seventh state championship appearance under head coach Son Nguyen.
Since Nguyen took over as head coach in 2006, the Knights have gone on to win state titles in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2012.
The individual state tournament for singles and doubles will then take place on Friday and Saturday at Irvine Valley.
The top seeded players in the singles draw include San Diego City's Niph, De Anza's Liu, Rebecca Tzou of Pasadena City, San Diego City's Le, MJ Phan of Skyline and Zin Win Maw of Pasadena City.
In doubles, Niph and Ka of San Diego City, Liu and Hsiao of De Anza and Tzou and Maw of Pasadena City are among the top duos vying for a title.
Liu reached the semifinals in singles and was the runner-up in doubles at last year's state tournament.
The singles championship match is slated for 12 p.m. on Saturday with the doubles final scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at Irvine Valley.
photo by Richard Quinton