Perfect Badminton Team Season Dashed By San Diego City, 11-10

After winning 13 consecutive matches, the Pasadena City College women’s badminton team met its match in Pacific Coast Athletic Conference champion San Diego City College. The Knights ended the Lancers’ team season run with an 11-10 triumph in the Southern California Championship final played Wednesday at SDCC.

The Lancers, the South Coast Conference champions, led 4-2 after the first round of singles, but the lead dropped to one point, 6-5, after two rounds and then became a SD City lead at 9-8 going into the final two doubles matches.

While PCC’s No. 1 team of Rebecca Tzou and Zin Win Maw downed SDCC’s top team of Gina Niph-Cassandra Ka, 21-10, 21-10, PCC’s No. 2 of Eugenia Mendez and Carmina Ortiz were taken down by Thau Le and Shessira Paredes, 21-11, 21-13. The two points for the win was enough for San Diego to win the SoCal title and advance to its fourth straight CCCAA State Championship final.

The Lancers problems in the regional final continued as they are now 1-8 all-time in the event and have only advanced once to the state final back in 2010 (lost to City College of San Francisco).

PCC first-year head coach Jennifer Ho was proud of her team’s battle, and was excited about the play of No. 1 player Tzou.

“She stepped it up for us and played with a lot of desire and heart,” Ho said. “She was outstanding in the biggest match of the season. We just didn’t get it done in a few close matches.”

Tzou beat SD City’s Le, 21-18, 16-21, 21-17 after ralling from 1-0 sets down to beat No. 2 Niph, 16-21, 21-13, 21-15. She won both doubles and was part of six of the Lancers’ points.

Maw, the Lancers’ No. 2 player, also beat Le, 21-9, 21-19, but dropped her match v. Niph, 21-12, 21-16. Ortiz also split her matches, winning v. Paredes, 13-21, 21-19, 21-19 after losing to Ka, 21-18, 21-15. Mendez beat Paredes, 21-17, 23-21, but lost to Ka, 21-10, 18-21, 21-15. PCC No. 6 Priscilla Lam won 21-14, 21-17 over No. 5 Trinh Lang but then lost to SD City’s No. 6 Margaret Do, 21-15, 18-21, 21-5.

Another key loss was PCC’s No. 3 doubles when the duo of Karina Bustillos and Yinghong Lin fell 21-16, 22-24, 21-17, to Lang-Do. The point was pivotal. In all, lost three matches that went three sets (won three also).

The Lancers continue the individual side of the season with Friday’s South Coast Conference Individual Championship Tournament at Manhattan Beach Badminton Club.