Bonanza for De Anza: clean sweep of state badminton titles

CCCAA Badminton Championships
Photo Gallery
Singles Bracket  l Singles Consolation (Final)
Doubles Bracket l Doubles Consolation (Final)

FRESNO - Perched on the top of the mountain appeared to be the perfect spot for the Mountain Lions in 2022. De Anza College completed a glorious run at the CCCAA State Badminton Championship by adding to its team title with the individual singles and individual doubles championships earned on Saturday. 

Vanessa Dinh, the North's #1 seed, scored the singles title by sweeping #2 seed/Fresno City's Souphany Siphanh, 21-14, 21-12, in the championship final. Then the North #1 doubles seed in Madison Moe and Malaya Paras-Mangrobang outbattled De Anza teammates and #2 seed Dinh and Heather Lee, 23-21, 21-19, for the individual doubles title. 

In singles, Dinh got by Moe in the semifinals, 21-5, 21-4 while Siphanh was tied with her Rams teammate Uyen Napier, 21-14, 21-23, but Napier had to retire in the third set to give Siphanh a spot in the finals. 

In the doubles semifinals, Moe-Paras-Mangrobang swept Irvine Valley's Lucy Lou and Jarita Huang, 21-12, 25-15, while Dinh-Lee downed FCC's Napier-Siphanh, 21-19, 21-18. 

Nine times a college has swept the state team title and both the individual singles and doubles titles at the same state tourney, and each of the last three cases it was performed by De Anza, who did it last in 2014 after first grabbing the triple in 2013. 

Dinh said, "I saw the brackets this morning and I knew I had to play Madison first, and then I saw that I had a chance to face Souphany, who I've played and beaten a few times this year. So I felt like I can do this, win the singles title. Every time I played Souphany, she changed her style and she pushed me in the back court. I just focused on making my shots. I felt like in winning, I was representing De Anza first."

De Anza head coach Mark Landefeld talked how much fun he had today and about Dinh's influence on the team.

"Once we won that team championship match, hey my job is done. Now I can just enjoy and watch (the individuals) and admire the dynamics of their play. Vanessa seemed to get more and more focused as the season wore on. The team followed her lead and gained confidence through her leadership. Vanessa had such a great day, and she tried to carry the load in the doubles final. But Malaya and Madison, and the way they have so much love and respect for each other, you knew they would find a solution to win."

Paras-Mangrobang explained some of the strategy in facing Dinh-Lee in the doubles final. 

"It's really hard to have to play against your teammates because you are always pulling for them," she said. "Unfortunately, we started targeting Heather on our shots, knowing how strong Vanessa plays. We just believed in ourselves to make our shots."

De Anza's Lee won the consolation singles title while the El Camino doubles pair of Marina Mongaki and Julie Foster captured the consolation doubles title, the only one not collected by the Mountain Lions. 

Release by Robert Lewis, CCCSIA/CCCAA State Badminton SID