Pasadena clinches 18th South Coast women's badminton title

In the history of 3C2A women's badminton beginning at the start of the 21st century, 24 championships have been decided in the South Coast Conference and a remarkable 75 percent of those belong to Pasadena City College. The Lancers captured their 18th SCC title by edging host San Diego Mesa, 11-10, on Friday.

The Lancers (8-1 overall, 8-0 in the SCC) have two conference matches remaining but appear likely to finish their eighth undefeated South Coast run to a title in just 10 seasons* under head coach Jen Ho.

PCC won for the second time in a week's span v. the second-place Olympians, who pushed PCC to the brink in hopes of trying to gain a share of the title. Instead, the Lancers pulled it out in large part to a key singles matchup between #1 player Anh Tran and Mesa's #2 Emily Chindamay. Tran lost the opening set in extra points, but rallied to outlast her worthy opponent, 20-22, 21-18, 21-9. 

Four other key team points were scored by Tran and Janet Diec in #1 doubles as they swept Mesa's #1 of Mylene Keohausaeut and Chindamay, 21-19, 21-15, and beat the Olympians' #2 squad of Christina Nguyen and Tien Nguyen, 21-10, 21-12. Another big 2-point switch was the win by #2 doubles Beatris Tzou and Yolanda Huang, who won a war over the Nguyens pair, 25-23, 21-23, 21-11. 

Mesa won eight of the 12 singles matches, including two by SCC defending singles champion Keophauseut. But the Lancers were victorious in four of the five doubles (seven team points), including a #3 pairs win by Karylle Peralta and Christel Joy Villa, a 21-14, 21-16 sweep over Mesa's Millie Touch and Kayli San.

"What a super competitive contest that was," Ho said. "Mesa was motivated after our first matchup a week ago, and I knew it could come down to one match deciding the winner. But we were poised and in the longer matches, we did a really good job of just continuing to play at our best. The whole team contributed and to win the conference title this way makes it special."

The Lancers next host the only team to defeat them this season in De Anza as they play a non-conference match on Tuesday, April 1 at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium (game time 12 noon).

*-The 2020 season was limited to three matches and there were no titles in the sport in 2020 and no season in 2021 due to the pandemic

Release by Robert Lewis, PCC Athletics