Friday's play sets up Championship Saturday as 3C2A Badminton gets ready to crown singles and double titlists
Friday Photo Gallery 1
Friday Photo Gallery 2
PASADENA - Three of the top four singles seeds advanced to Saturday's semifinal round while the top two doubles seeds from each region also moved within a match of the title matchup as competitors fought through early round bracket play at the 3C2A Women's Badminton Championships on Friday, being hosted by Pasadena City College.
Players marched through three rounds in singles, ending with quarterfinal action late on Friday afternoon while doubles consisted of two play-in matches before two rounds left four surviving duos to play on Saturday in semifinal action. The competition resumes at 11 a.m. on Saturday at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium.
In singles, Kelly Yau Barria, who helped City College of San Francisco capture the team championship on Thursday evening against Pasadena City, was NorCal's top seed and showed why by sweeping both of her matches on Friday. She opened with a 21-12, 21-13 win over Rozhin Lodge of Fresno City before allowing just 15 points in a 21-10, 21-5 sweep against Megan Nguyen of San Diego Mesa. She'll face SoCal's No. 2 seed, Anh Vu Nguyen Tran of Pasadena in the semifinals. Tran also swept her two matches but saw stiff challenges in both, winning 21-19 thrillers in each.
CCSF's Jacqueline Leong, NorCal's No. 2 seed, also swept into the semifinals where she will face Renee Ou of DeAnza, the No. 4 seed from the south, who rallied back from a 21-16 loss to Bethany Rouse of Fresno City to post an exciting 25-23, 21-15 win in the quarterfinals. Rouse, seeded No. 8 from the north, earned her berth in the quarterfinals with a 21-19, 21-17 upset over Mylene Keophaseut of San Diego Mesa, who entered as the top seed from SoCal.
Barria and Leong added to their singles work with a pair of wins as the north's top doubles seed, landing themselves in Saturday's semifinal where they'll face Megan Nguyen and Keophaseut after the latter posted back-to-back sweeps as well.
The other doubles matchup will feature Rouse and Fresno City teammate Lodge, NorCal's No. 2-seeded team, who won their two contests to advance. Included in the day was a 21-16, 21-16 victory over Uyen "Raven" Banh and Janet Diec of Pasadena in the semifinals. They'll square off against the south's top-seed, Rhea Zou and Tran of Pasadena City after they rolled to a 21-15, 21-12 sweep in their quarterfinal against Kayla Man and Izzy Li of CCSF.
Consolation round action in both singles and doubles will conclude on Saturday as well at PCC.