Women's Badminton Keeps On Rolling, 5-0 Tops South Coast Conference

Nikki Ching (making shot) and My Linh Ly in action in today's badminton win (photo by Richard Quinton).
Nikki Ching (making shot) and My Linh Ly in action in today's badminton win (photo by Richard Quinton).

The Pasadena City College women's badminton team has recently been able to get its lower ladder depth players more action in a pair of victories over El Camino College. On Monday, PCC made quick work of the Warriors in a 19-2 win at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium that upped the team's South Coast Coast-leading record to 5-0. 

PCC (5-1 overall) had beaten El Camino on the road, 20-1, on Mar. 17. 

In the Monday victory, Nikki Ching, Sophie Chao, Basil Kintanar, and Leslie Lien each scored two singles wins. In the most competitive match of the day, Ching and My Linh Ly won in #2 doubles over ECC's #1 Saray Kilos Gatica and Karlee Clark, 21-17, 22-20. The duo won a pair of matches as did the Lancers' #1 of Cindy Zhao and Rhea Zou. The team's #3 doubles won their match behind the play of Kintanar and Bingbing Ouyang

At #6 singles, Siya Zhang and #4 Ouyang split their respective matches for El Camino's lone team points. 

In the first matchup at ECC, the Warriors top player Julia Foster, who did not participate in Monday's match, gave PCC's usual  #1 Zou a battle, winning the first set before Zou rallied for a 12-21, 21-19, 21-13 victory. At #2, Zhao surprisingly had little trouble in beating Foster, 21-7, 21-12. Clark upset Zou, 21-16, 21-14, for ECC's lone team point.

In #3 doubles, Lien and Zhang also had to rally in a 22-24, 21-15, 21-15 triumph over El Camino's Haley Doyle and Marlene Ruiz. In fact, Chao (#4) and Kintanar (#5) each had singles matches where they dropped their first sets only to win in three games. 

"I'm not always sure who is going to play at their best from match to match," said PCC head coach Jen Ho. "We crave the competition, but some of our players I think let their nerves get the best of them. What's great is that we have six more matches to get ourselves to be more consistent. We want to win the conference title, but also be competitive at state."

PCC travels to East Los Angeles College on Wednesday, Mar. 29 in a 2 p.m. conference match.