In a tough contest where opponent San Diego Mesa took three of the four #1 and #2 singles matches, the Pasadena City College women's badminton team picked up the slack in the middle and lower ladders in defeating the Olympians, 12-9, on Friday at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium. The Lancers took sole possession of first place in the South Coast Conference, moving to 5-0 while Mesa fell to 4-1.

PCC (5-1 overall) received a gutsy performance from its #1 player Anh Tran, who has played with injuries in recent matches, as the sophomore beat Mesa #2 Emily Chindamay, 21-8, 21-15. She lost to Olympians' #1 Mylene Keophaseut, 20-22, 21-9, 21-18.

At #3 Beatris Tzou came up big with a stirring rally to get past Mesa #3 Christina Nguyen, 21-23, 21-16, 21-17, while also beating #4 Millie Touch, 21-19, 21-15. At #6, Yolanda Huang also scored keys wins, defeating #5 Tien Nguyen, 21-18, 21-6, and #6 Kayli San, 21-13, 21-19.

In doubles, PCC's top pair of Tran and Janet Diec split their matches, winning v. Mesa #2 Nguyen-Nguyen, 18-21, 21-6, 21-19 while Lancers #2 Tzou-Huang beat the same Olympians duo, 22-20, 21-18. In #3 doubles, Christel Joy Villa and Karylle Peralta swept Touch-San, 21-17, 21-13. Peralta, the team's #4 singles in this match, also collected a key point in outlasting Touch, 21-13, 15-21, 21-19.

"All of our top six players gave everything they have to get us this big victory," said PCC head coach Jen Ho. "Beatris and Yolanda especially stepped up. Karyelle was great. Anh was hurt but she fought to the end. Mesa is a tough team and I was really impressed with how we battled because the match could have gone either way."