Undefeated Pasadena City wins South Coast Conference badminton title; San Diego Mesa's Keophaseut tops conference singles
SAN DIEGO - For the seventh time in eight complete seasons under head coach Jen Ho, Pasadena City College went undefeated to win the South Coast Conference women's badminton championship.
The Lancers (12-0 overall) capped a perfect 10-0 trip through SCC play by defeating San Diego Mesa, 15-6, on April 24 at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium. The Olympians placed second at 8-2.
PCC's lower ladder took care of business as #3 Janet Diec, #4 Uyen Banh, #5 My Linh Ly, and #6 Sophie Chao combined to win all eight of their singles matches.
PCC hosts the 3C2A State Championships on May 9-11, beginning with the team championship final that will have the Lancers facing Coast Conference champion City College of San Francisco (currently 10-0) on Thursday, May 9 at 3 p.m. The individual singles and doubles competition takes place Friday and Saturday, May 10-11.
This will be the program's seventh championship final, having won back-to-back state titles in 2017 and 2018. The Lancers lost to CCSF in a dramatic 11-10 final in 2010 also at Pasadena.
"I know if all of our players play to their potential we can give San Francisco a good battle," Ho said. "When we saw some of their players back at that North tournament in early March, you can tell they are athletic and have some strong players throughout their roster. We look forward to the challenge."
SCC INDIVIDUAL TOURNAMENT RESULTS
Mesa's Mylene Keophaseut (pictured below) won the South Coast singles title and the Pasadena pair of Rhea Zou and Anh Vu Nguyen Tran captured the conference doubles crown at the SCC Individual Tournament held Friday at San Diego City College.
Keophaseut defeated Tran in the singles final, 22-20, 20-14, while Zou-Tran outlasted the Olympians duo of Megan Nguyen and Keophaseut, 21-14, 20-22, 21-19, in a heart-racing doubles final.\
The following are the state individual qualifiers and their SCC placings:
Updated due to some adjustments
SCC SINGLES
1. Keophaseut, SD Mesa
2. Tran, PCC
3. Zou, PCC
4. Nguyen, SD Mesa
5. Nicona Maruyama, San Diego City
6. Ly, PCC
7. Anya Gore, El Camino
8. Diec, PCC
9. Banh, PCC
10. Mille Touch, SD Mesa
11. Isabella Bejarano, SDCC
12. Kathy Lee, SD Mesa
SCC DOUBLES
1. Zou-Tran, PCC
2. Nguyen-Keophaseut, SD Mesa
3. Banh-Diec, PCC
4. Maruyama-Ceciia Naranjo, SDCC
5. Ly-Chao, PCC
6. Lee-Touch, SD Mesa
7. Esther Ngo-Tien Nguyen, SD Mesa
8. Gore-Saray Kilos Gatica, ECC
9. Anh Ly-Josephine Tipping, ECC
(Robert Lewis, Pasadena City College Athletics)