Badminton shuts out Napa

By Elissa Koh,                                                                                                                                                                                                                     BlueDevilHUB.com Editor–

“Blue swag on me, blue swag on three!” a single voice shouted.

“Blue swag, uh!” voices boomed in response.

Before coming into the game, the Davis High women’s badminton team chanted together, keeping spirits high before going head to head against their opponents from Napa High on Thursday, March 23.

Prepared for their matches, the Blue Devils came out with a 15-0 victory against Napa, winning all of their singles and doubles matches.

Although several team members faced a few setbacks, they were all able to pull through with a win.

Junior Esther Chan, who normally plays in both singles and doubles, was unable to play doubles because her partner was absent. Instead, she played in the No. 3 singles match.

In addition to an absent partner, Chan came into the game with an extra burden.

“I just recovered from a shoulder injury and the person that I played against today was supposedly quite good, so I went into the game thinking I would try my best, but [did not expect] to win,” Chan said. 

Despite her doubts, Chan was able to pull through with a win, beating her opponent with game scores of 21-14 and 21-11.

“Today I had good placement and clears, but I think I could have worked on footwork because I wasn’t getting some shots when my opponent made me run,” Chan said.

Captain and senior Mariana Puente also faced a challenge when she was paired with senior Stephanie Huynh for the first time to play in the No. 2 doubles match. However, they were able to overcome this obstacle and win their match.

“Stephanie and I have never played before so the first game was a little rough. We lost the first match because I think we were still kind of getting use to each other [and] each other’s styles of playing but then the [next] two games we won. So I think afterwards, we kind of got the hang of each other,” Puente said.

Puente and Huynh added to their team’s victory after winning their match with game scores of 19-21, 21-10 and 21-9.

Puente expressed pride for her team’s performance against Napa.

“I think we played really well today as a whole. I mean we bageled them, 15-0, so that’s always a pretty good reflection [of the team’s performance,]” Puente said.

“Blue swag on me, blue swag on three!” a single voice shouted once again after all matches were over.

“Blue swag, uh!” voices boomed in response, this time in celebration of their victory.