By Jonathan Tran & Katelynn Luu
On Tuesday, Mar. 7, the badminton team of Whitney High School came to Fountain Valley High School to face off against the Barons’ badminton team. The Barons’ varsity badminton team came out triumphant over the Wildcats, with a total score of 18-3.
The battle between schools began with mixed doubles. Junior Charisse Nguyen and junior Raymond Trinh had a strong start in their clash against the Wildcats, taking the first set with a score of 21-6. Their second set was no different; Nguyen and Trinh were able to continue their momentum and dominate with a score of 21-11 to win the game.
Their second game also ended in victory, but hard-won. Whitney took the first set with a score of 18-21, but Trinh and Nguyen were able to rally their spirits and win the next two sets, inciting cheers from the crowd.
“[I’m proud of] how I hit some hard smashes during the match, which kept our momentum going,” co-captain Trinh said. “I think that my performance could be improved by being more prepared to move.”
Senior Remy Phan and senior Steven Ooi also had a strong lead in their matchup. With strong smashes and good defense, they won the first set with a score of 21-10 and ended with a Baron triumph in the second set with a score of 21-4.
However, junior Sophie Ho and sophomore Jayden Chung had a difficult matchup for their first game as they played against Whitney’s best-mixed pair.
Both the Wildcats and Barons fought hard in the first set and even brought the score to a tie, but Ho and Chung came out victorious with a score of 22-20. The second set posed even more of a challenge as the Wildcats won with a score of 15-21. However, Ho and Chung managed to rally their spirits and take their third set with a score of 21-17, despite Chung’s shoe falling off of his foot in a dive for the shuttlecock.
“I think [Chung and I] communicated really well, even though we were struggling a bit,” co-captain Ho said. “We found out what we needed to work on while we played, and I felt like that was really important.”
Chung and Ho proved their effective communication as they won their second game as well. Their success put the overall score of the game at 5-0, with 5 mixed double victories for the Barons.
Girl’s singles also featured intense matches. The first match of girl’s singles was a definitive success for senior Vy Tran. Her high lifts kept the shuttlecock up in the air and paired with offensive drops, she took the first set with a score of 21-5. She continued her success in the second set with a score of 21-14.
“My opponent is pretty strong, but I feel like I did pretty well compared to last year,” Tran said. “I’m proud of my good technique, shots, and strength. For now, I just need to work on more conditioning.”
Senior Krystal Wong also gave her all in her first game, but it ended in a Wildcat victory. Despite the long, challenging rallies, her opponent took the first two sets with a score of 16-21 and 15-21.
Boy’s singles had a similar outcome for the first game. Junior Mathew Pham fought hard in his first game, but both sets went to Whitney with a score of 11-21 and 19-21. However, in the second game with sophomore Jayden Chung, the outcome was different, with Chung coming out on top in both of his games.
In the girls’ singles, junior Charisse Nguyen and Ho won both their double games alongside Phan and junior Claudia Nguyen, who also won both their games.
Ending off the evening with the boys’ doubles, senior Kaden Nguyen and junior Andrew Hoang won both their sets against the Wildcats with a last set score of 21-14 and 21-15, respectively. Trinh and Ooi also proceeded to finish off strong, winning both their sets and bringing their entire team’s match against the Whitney Wildcats to an end with a victory.
