Badminton on Way to SCC Title

Sometimes the second meeting between a pair of rivals dictates the true difference between one competitive team and another. So when the Pasadena City College women’s badminton team zipped through a 20-1 home win over East Los Angeles Friday, it’s clear that the Lancers are the class of the South Coast Conference this season.

PCC is 4-0 under rookie head coach Jennifer Ho and even with eight SCC matches left, the Lancers have already put on a dominating display against the conference’s other three teams. PCC is 66-2 in individual singles and doubles play matches.

Ho has tried different lineups to keep her team from getting complacent. In this match, No. 1 player Rebecca Tzou topped ELAC’s No. 1 Chuyan Lao, 21-8, 21-8, and No. 2 Cova Mak, 21-5, 21-1. At No. 2, sophomore Karina Bustillos suffered PCC’s lone defeat, a 21-17, 21-12 loss to Lao, and beat Mak, 21-18, 21-6.

“Karina usually plays lower ladder, so this was an opportunity to improve her game against some better competition,” Ho said. “She played well and so did Noemi Diaz, who has made some big leaps as a player.”

Diaz, at No. 6 singles, rallied from 1-0 down to win her match v. LiTing Wu, 9-21, 21-19, 21-17, and she defeated No. 5 Catherine Vong, 21-8, 21-16. Other singles winners were No. 3 Eugenia Mendez, No. 4 Priscilla Lam, and No. 5 Thu Nguyen. The trio all won in sweeps.

In doubles, Tzou teamed with Zin Win Maw at No. 1 and they downed Huskies’ No. 1 Lao-Mak, 21-9, 21-7, and the No. 2 Mei Mei-Phyliss Ho, 21-4, 21-3. At No. 2 doubles, Mendez and Carmina Ortiz won 21-4, 21-7 and 21-3, 21-5. The No. 3 team were sophomore twins Yingwen and Yinghong Lin, who won their match over Vong-Wu, 21-7, 21-8.

PCC plays today at the Coast Conference Tournament at Skyline College in Northern California (San Bruno).