Today is Saturday, February 11, 2012
Today is Saturday, February 11, 2012
As a result of beating Palo Alto High School 16-14 in a home game on Thursday, May 6, the badminton team secured its position as league champion for the first time in over 30 years.
According to junior Stefan Tian, the game was “probably the toughest match of the year.” Going into the game, the Eagles had two losses while their Viking opponents had one loss.
“After a hard won battle, we secured the win at 16-14 which gave Palo Alto another loss,” Stefan said.
The team’s victory over Palo Alto resulted in a current three-way tie for league champions between LAHS, Palo Alto and Homestead High School. Palo Alto and Homestead will be facing off next week to determine who will be sharing the league championship title with LAHS.
Although it has not yet been decided which of the three teams will be moving up to the upper league next year, Stefan said it will “most likely be [Los Altos] as [the team] is losing the least amount of seniors comparatively to the other two schools.”
The LAHS team will be joining schools such as Saratoga High School, Monta Vista High School, Lynbrook High School, Cupertino High School, Milpitas High School, Gunn High School and Wilcox High School if it advances to the upper league.
Several pivotal games contributed to the Eagles’ success on Thursday. The Eagles won all of the girls doubles games as well as No. 2 and No. 3 boys doubles. Although the varsity No. 1 boys doubles team of juniors Antoine Vo and James Li lost against Palo Alto’s Ivan Zhou and Jay Ko, Stefan said the game was one of the highlights of the match.
“It was a really tough game,” Stefan said. “The first game was 15-1 Los Altos but Palo Alto fought a hard battle and managed to bring it back and win. While we didn’t win this match, it was a really good game and fun to watch.”
The game between the varsity No. 1 mixed doubles team of Stefan and senior Diana Chou against Palo Alto’s Richard Chern and Jodie Chan was also a close match. The LAHS team lost the first game 15-9 but came out on top by winning the second and third games 15-7 and 15-12 respectively. Varsity No. 1 wins are worth three points toward the total count.
Ultimately, the victories of the No. 3 mixed doubles and No. 3 girls singles games guaranteed LAHS the championship title.
The varsity No. 3 mixed doubles team of juniors Anthony Biondi and Teresa Fabbriccino won a critical game. Sophomore Taura Golafshan, the varsity No. 3 girls single player, also secured a win against Palo Alto’s Jackie Koenig 15-13, 17-16.
“At the time of [those two games], the score was 15-14 [in favor of LAHS],” Stefan said. “Whoever won [the games] basically won the match.”
Team members believe that the success of the badminton team this year is attributable to both hard work and support from the coaches.
“I think the team was successful this year due to hard work and training facilitated by our coach Stefaan Lodge,” Stefan said. “He really helped us work on whatever area that we were lacking in as well as encouraging and supporting us as a team.”
