The badminton team suffered a difficult defeat, 25-5, against the Aragon Dons in an away game on Tuesday.
Starting with a team cheer, the Bears began their match with energy and intensity. In the boys doubles, third-seeded freshman Manu Srinivasan and sophomore Thomas Nelson lost to their opponents despite well-placed drop shots. The Dons’ early and relentless smashes caused the Bears to fall 21-12 and 21-6. Boys singles third seed freshman Alexander Erlebacher met a similar fate, fighting to the end with his consistent rallies, but still got overpowered and lost 21-5, 21-11.
Mixed second seed doubles, consisting of senior Viet-Tran Do and freshman second seed Caleb Chen, were closer with their match, utilizing good lifts and consistent smashes from Chen. However, errors from miscommunications made way for Aragon to win in a close third set, the final scores coming to 22-20, 21-14, and 21-19.
“I don’t usually feel nervous before matches, but today I did feel a little anxious,” Do said. “I’m a little bit disappointed, but I think I was pretty proud of ourselves, because we went to three sets and we almost won.”
In singles, sophomore third seed Gloria Dal Busco and sophomore second seed Khanya Mtwa lost their matches 21-12, 21-10, and 21-9, 21-10 respectively. The boys singles were tight, but freshman second seed Joshua Luo ultimately came up short, losing 21-15, 21-15, and sophomore first seed Jack Trevor was also defeated 21-14, 21-13.
Despite the losses on the singles sides, girls doubles seniors third seed Jenna Lee* and Annika Furukawa were able to close their game in a third set with the final score coming out to 21-9, 13-21, and 21-18. Unfortunately, on the boys doubles side, juniors second seed Caleb Swartzberg and Dylan Chou lost rather quickly. Aragon played aggressively, allowing them to claim victory over the Bears in a close game, 21-9, 21-9.
Helping the Bears bounce back, excellent play from mixed doubles seniors third seed Nick Chan and Olivia Tantisira allowed them to shut their opponents down in straight sets, winning 23-21, 21-19.
“We hit where the other team was not, and we went for the guy’s backhand,” Chan said. “We had to swap out what we usually do because we usually just smash to the right, but now we have to do it to the left because he’s left-handed and he’s facing away from us.”
The Bears’ mixed junior first seed Kylie Lam and sophomore first seed Colin Chien, however, faced much more pushback, getting overpowered by their opponents and inevitably losing 21-8, 21-9. Girls doubles sophomore Anna Du and Stella Huang faced similar difficulties, losing 21-13, 21-13. Boys doubles senior first seed Adam Erlebacher and sophomore first seed Elliot Chi also could not manage a win, losing 21-9 and 21-4.
For girls singles, junior first seed Kaya Lam put up a valiant effort, but her good clears and consistent rallies were simply outmatched by her opponent’s powerful movements, causing Lam to lose the game 21-4, 21-4.
As things were wrapping up, doubles junior first seed Amy Tran and sophomore first seed Yimeng Cai* were able to coordinate and execute a clean win, utilizing good teamwork to take home a victory with a final score of 21-17 and 21-13.
“I felt kind of nervous, not just because I played against them last year with someone else and we won both times,” Tran said. “But because I’m playing with someone who’s better than the partner I played with last year, and we both improved. We should definitely win.”
The Bears will return against Carlmont at home on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
*Jenna Lee and Yimeng Cai are journalists for the M-A Chronicle.
