A 2020 season that had much promise lasted 15 days for the Pasadena City College women's badminton team. In that time, the Lancers showed their typical domination of the South Coast Conference with wins over each of their three fellow SCC opponents.
PCC and head coach Jen Ho will bring a 50-match, South Coast win streak dating back to her first Lancers contest to start the 2015 season into 2021. The Lancers had won CCCAA state titles under Ho's leadership in 2017 and 2018 and reached the state championship team final four years running from 2016-2019. The quest for another state title, like that of other California Community College teams, was turned back in its tracks and PCC's final count for this year will forever be an undefeated 3-0*. The season was canceled due to the world health crisis over the spread of Covid-19.
Ho had great expectations for her 2020 squad. She was stunned when her team got the bad news earlier this month.
"We were driving to De Anza College for a match when the girls and I first learned of the season being halted. We all were very disappointed.," she said.
After coaching five consecutive South Coast champion teams, Ho talked about the possibilities dashed with this year's abrupt finish.
"I felt that this was the best team I've had since I started coaching here," Ho said. "I was very confident that this year would be the year that we would take all three state titles-team, individual singles and doubles. I was confident that
Charisse Chow would become singles champion, and she would partner with
Chit Thu to take the doubles title. These are talented freshmen, and I had 6 returning players all playing a lot better than last year. If we were going to accomplish the triple crown including the team championship, it was this year."
De Anza was the last college to perform the triple in both 2013 and 2014 while Irvine Valley was the last South team to accomplish the feat in 2011. PCC has never performed the feat in one season.
"As a coach, I was pumped and worked hard to prepare to take back the state team title this year. It's hard to sit back and watch the best team I've ever had not get to compete anymore this year."
Ho was excited to see the CCCAA make the decision to grant back the year of eligibility for the 2020 Spring student-athletes.
"We only had one player that was planning on tranferring in
Angie Li. Right now, all the other players are planning on returning next year. Angie was crying when I told her the bad news about this season. If we do indeed get everyone else back, we can resume our goal. It's something that is a light at the end of the tunnel when this crisis finally ends."
As for dealing with her team on a remote basis, Ho said, "We use Zoom to communicate and perform cardio workouts that our players can do at home. It's hard to keep them motivated because they did so much conditioning and practice to prepare for the actual matches. It's going to be a long waiting game for everyone. We are all in this pandemic together, so we all have to deal with this as a group. Let's hope for the best for a next season."
*Note--All PCC Springs sports teams official win-loss records count with no conference, state champions or standings places.
