Friday badminton match ends in first loss for Blue Devils

By Isabelle Chen,

HUB Staff Writer–

The Davis High Badminton team lost to the Armijo Indians on April 12, 2013 in the DHS South Gym. In badminton, the teams play 15 games together: 8 singles games and 7 doubles games. Whichever team reaches 8 wins first wins the game. The final score, in Armijo’s favor, was 9-6. This cost the Blue Devils their undefeated season and their chance of winning the league.

Sophomore Sarah Zhang is ranked as the #8 singles player on the DHS team. She won her singles game on Friday, but felt bad for those that were not able to.

“I’m happy that I won, but I’m still sad that the other players didn’t win,” Zhang said. But I’m sure we’ll pull through.” The scores of Zhang’s game were 21-13 and 21-9, both in her favor.

Zhang believes that her fellow athletes’ strength as a team will help them continue to do well in the seven games they have left this season.

“I think the games are what bring all the players together, because we’re reaching toward a common goal,” Zhang said. She especially appreciates the fact that the players give one another advice, particularly before games and during splits, when the DHS player wins one game and her opponent wins another, so a tiebreaker game must be played.

Senior Michelle Higuera, ranked #4 for DHS, endured one of these splits, losing her first game 17-21 but winning the next one 21-14. She pulled another victory for DHS by winning the tiebreaker game with a score of 21-10.

Senior Maya Salcido-White is a senior captain, and ranked #3 on the DHS team. After also encountering a difficult opponent, she won her singles match with scores of 21-17, 8-21, and finally, 21-19.

“It’s really nice when you win against a really hard team, [because] you feel like you actually contributed to the team,” Salcido-White said. “It’s really nice to feel like you’re a part of it.” She was especially proud to have won the match because she had played and lost to the same girl the last time the DHS team faced Armijo.

Though the Blue Devils may not have gotten to league championships this time, the season is far from over for Salcido-White and the rest of the team.

“We’ll still have a chance to play this team [later in the season], so I’m looking forward to training harder to beat them,” Salcido-White said.