PCC Badminton's Streak of SCC Team Titles Ends at 5

Friday's 17-4 loss at Irvine Valley spelled the end of the Pasadena City College women's badminton reign of control over the South Coast Conference. The Lancers streak of five straight SCC titles from 2015-2019 came to an end as IVC clinched the 2022 SCC crown.

IVC (7-0 in SCC play, 7-3 overall) heads to its first CCCAA State Championship match since 2011 by winning the title with still one conference match to play. PCC dropped to 4-4 overall and 4-2 in conference action. The Lancers can only play for second place with two SCC matches remaining.

Against PCC, Irvine Valley won 10 of 12 singles matches and captured four of the five doubles matches. IVC's #1 player Lucy Luo beat Pasadena's #1 Cindy Zhao, 22-20, 18-21, 21-12 and swept the Lancers' #2 Nikki Ching, 21-10, 21-8. Zhou edged Lasers' #2 Jarita Huang, 21-18, 24-22, but Huang outlasted Ching, 18-21, 21-8, 21-15. Elisa Lau, the Lasers #3, went the distance to beat her #3 PCC counterpart Joanna Dinh, 21-7, 16-21, 21-9 and beat Pasadena #4 Karen Chen, 21-10, 21-19.

PCC's #5 Coco Wen downed Lasers' #6 Emily Feng, 15-21, 21-15, 21-19 for the only other Lancers singles win.

In doubles, Irvine Valley #1 pair Luo-Huang rolled to wins over PCC's top duo Zhou-Ching, 21-7, 21-11, and #2 Dinh-Charlene Chen, 21-5, 21-7. Zhao-Ching swept #2 Lau-Hsu, 21-10, 21-17 for the lone PCC point. Lau-Hsu beat Dinh-Chen, 21-17, 21-16 and Wang-Feng beat Wen and Karen Chen, 21-11, 23-21. 

The Lancers will participate in the SCC Individual Tournament at El Camino College on Friday, April 29. PCC has an opportunity to advance players to the CCCAA State Individual Tournament on May 13-14 at Fresno City College.