De Anza Stops Badminton's Regular Season Win Streak At 49

Until last Friday, Pasadena City College women's badminton fifth-year head coach Jen Ho had never seen her team lose a match in regular season play. That streak of 49 consecutive match victories along with a 29 wins in a row overall string were stopped in a stunning 19-2, non-conference loss at De Anza.

PCC's last defeat was the 2016 state championship final against Fresno City College. The Lancers last loss in the regular season was before Ho took over the progam when East Los Angeles won a late-season 2014 match. It was also the team's last South Coast Conference defeat as that streak is still intact at 42 in a row. 

PCC's freshmen-heavy roster struggled against a more experienced De Anza team, a program that won back-to-back state titles in 2013 and 2014. The Lancers only team points were earned in a pair of singles wins by No. 1 player Xiaoming Yao, who played well to sweep Dons' No. 1 Cindy Ha, 21-13, 21-18, and downed No. 2 Sapphire Doan, 21-10, 21-11. All of PCC's 15 match losses were by sweeps. Maybe the most competitive were turned in by the Lancers No. 2 doubles team of Sophia Nguyen and Huyen Diep. De Anza's No. 2 pair Christina Roy and Navneet Kaur won by a 21-16, 21-14 count. 

De Anza's Nos. 3-through-6 singles were a perfect 8-0 in match wins over PCC's ladder and swept the five doubles matches. 

"No one ever wants to lose, but the North teams are very strong this year," said Ho, who is 54-3 overall in her career at PCC. "Shawy (nickname for Yao) did a great job to win two matches while playing with a swollen ankle. We played in the North individual tournament the next day and that allowed us to get a lot of practice and gain experience. It was a fruitful trip even with the tough loss."

On March 16, the Lancers participated in the round-robin Coast Conference individual tournament, also held at De Anza. Yao won her two singles matches and both doubles with Nicole Ching. Nguyen-Diep also won in doubles while Angie Li and Emilee Kintanar picked up one singles victory each. 

Fresno City College may be the team to beat up North as it routed De Anza, 20-1, in a conference match on March 19. The Rams have represented the region in the state finals in each of the last three seasons, including losing to the Lancers for the CCCAA crown in both 2017 and 2018.

On Friday, Mar. 22, the Lancers return to SCC play with a 2 p.m. match at El Camino College.