By Jonathan Tran
The Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) Barons’ varsity badminton team went up against Redlands East Valley High School on Tuesday, May 9 in the CIF-SS Division 1 Quarter Finals. The Barons managed to bring home the crown securing a 13-8 victory over the Wildcats.
The clash between the two schools commenced with mixed doubles. Senior Chau Tran and junior Kaden Nguyen lost their first match against the Wildcats, but surged back with a win in the following match leading to a score of 1-1. Junior Remy Phan and senior Dimitri Nguyen further strengthened the grip on the lead by winning both their games and pushing the Barons’ lead to 3-1. Although the Wildcats were able to close the last game of the mixed doubles with a win, at this point, the Barons were still narrowly ahead with a 3-2.
In the girl’s singles, juniors Tran Vy and Krystal Wong both dropped their first matches but regrouped and fought hard to win their second ones. This now set the score to 5-4 in the Barons’ favor.
However, in the boy’s singles, the Wildcats clawed back ferociously. Dimitri Nguyen and senior An Ta lost both their matches, setting the team back by four points. For the first time in the game, the Wildcats were in the lead winning with a score of 5-8.
Yet, this newly found lead was quickly overtaken by the strong performances displayed by the Barons’ girls’ doubles and boys’ doubles who went undefeated in their matches.
In the girls’ doubles, sophomore Sophie Ho and Tran won both their games along with fellow doubles teammates junior Remy Phan and sophomore Charisse Nguyen. Both doubles did not drop a single match securing their teammates an extra four points.
Similarly in the boys’ doubles, they did not give up a single match as well. Kaden Nguyen and senior Sam Nguyen won both of their matches in addition to the two wins obtained by seniors Minh Nguyen and Christian Cao. This was another necessary four points added to the Baron’s side.
With the conclusion of the boys’ doubles, the game ended with a score of 13-8 with the Barons as the victors. The team now advances to the semi-finals of the CIF-SS Division 1 Playoffs and are set to play against Mark Keppel High School in the semi-finals.
“I’m proud of how far we’ve come,” Wong said. “We went from losing all of our matches two years ago to now going to the semi-finals of CIF.”
