Roberto Kampfner
Staff Writer
During the team’s mostly unsuccessful playoff run, the team won one game by a landslide 14-7, and the other was loss by a landslide, proving that the badminton talent throughout the south bay has various extremes. The team played its final game in the month of April, closing a disappointing season for the Mustangs.
The team played its first game at the Manhattan Beach Badminton Club, and won 14-7 after its most decisive victory of the season, despite the low score. Audrey Kim and Yoshi Cohn won both of their games by more than 5 points each, proving their effectiveness. However, the team struggled to get going at the beginning, losing their first five games of the match.
“We did well as a whole, but some girls stepped up and did us all a favor by being so dominant and persistent. That’s what we need to win these next few games,” Shirleen Chen said.
According to Shirleen Chen, the individual effort of Audrey Kim and herself propelled the team forward against a poor effort from the Cypress girls. The team plays today against Yorba Linda at Yorba Linda, who has an impressive record of 8-0.
“We played really well, and this gives us a lot of momentum, which we’ll need next week because this team is undefeated and we’re looking to make that zero a one,” Yoshi Cohn said.
The team then had the tough task of taking on an undefeated team in the second round of the California Interscholastic Federation Playoffs. Yorba Linda was the number one seed, and stood in front of Costa and their championship.
“It was a tough challenge. That’s what you want from other teams. It’s too bad that we couldn’t get them this time, but next time we need to be more team-oriented and focused, because we were thinking very individually this year,” Freshman Henry Yu said.
In the second round of the California Interscholastic Federation playoffs against undefeated Yorba Linda the Mustangs lost ,13-8, after beating Cypress the day before. Yoshi Cohn and Shirleen Chen supplied two wins to the team’s eight.
“I just tried to do my best and concentrate to play good badminton. I also tried to supply support for the other players, but the other team was too strong,” Chen said.
The girls won all of their games, with strong efforts from Chen and Cohn. Chen thought that the team improved from the beginning of the season and that her game had greatly revolved around the team. The team finished the season at .500 with a 4-4 record.
“The girls did extremely well and backed us up when we were down, which was a lot today, because the other team was extremely good on the boys’ front. That’s what made them tough to play against, the only thing that we need to do is put more in, so we can get more out,” Freshman Ray Kim said.
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