Badminton Succeeds at Pasadena Poly Game

JOHNNY HUYNH

Staff Writer

It has been nearly a month since the start of the badminton team’s season. Things aren’t going well, according to  members.

The fact that this will be their last operating season has proved to have an impact on the team’s morale, affecting their performance against their opponents.

“We haven’t won any games,” said singles and mixed doubles player Jimmy Tang. “It’s been tough because everyone knows that badminton is getting cut. I was hoping that we wouldn’t come last,  [but] all we can do now is [try to do] better in future games.”

In addition to their decrease in spirit,  strategy on the court proves a vital factor in performance result. The organization and pairing of players could have been more effective, according to doubles player Coreen Gallibu.

“We [could improve on] our rotations,” said Gallibu. “We want to cover the court as much as possible. It adds to the defense.”

Despite the Moors’ amount of practice, there is still room for further improvement in newer additions to the varsity level.

“A lot of the players are relatively new [to varsity] and have accumulated experience [before], [but] the biggest problem is that most players weren’t able to [play] a varsity game,” said Head Coach June Li.

Learning from previous games is crucial to the team’s success throughout the season, as it prepared them for their April 15 Pasadena Polytechnic game.

“[We had] more practice and confidence to complete in the games now, so that made it easier for us to compete [against Poly],” said singles player Letty Thottathil.

The overall tone of the the competition was full of uncertainty. With shuttles passing back and forth and six rounds going on at the same time, anything could have happened. Taking 11 strikes for either team to win, the Moors acted quick against a variety of shots.

After the last one-on-one match, the Moors’ varsity team won with a score of 15-6.