The COVID-19 pandemic caused a ripple effect on California Community College athletics. The Pasadena City College women's badminton team is one program that certainly was affected greatly by the worldwide health crisis.
The Lancers, state champions in 2017 and 2018, and a state runner-ups in both 2016 and 2019, don't have the experience of those squads and in fact PCC head coach Jen Ho knows things could be an uphill battle this year.
"It was hard enough that we didn't get to really see how good our 2020 team was capable of showing, then to also have the 2021 season cancelled, it was tough to endure," Ho said. "So we end up losing all these kids who have since graduated. Recruiting became much harder for this season in that the high schools had no badminton for two seasons as well. Finding motivated players also was not easy."
Ho is carrying a small, 7-player roster, but only two players who played high school badminton in #1 singles player Cindy Zhao (San Gabriel High) and #2 Nikki Ching (South Pasadena HS), whose older sister Nicole Ching was a member of the 2019-2020 Lancers teams. The other five freshmen are fairly new to the sport in current #3 Joanna Dinh, from Vietnam, #4 Karen Chen, from Taiwan, #5 Charlene Chen, from China, and #6 Coco Wen, who attended Arcadia High.
"Charlene is the most improved player in our pre-season practices and she is probably our most athletic performer. This is easily my most inexperienced team overall, which means we need to work hard in practice and deal with the level of competition that comes our way."
The Lancers opened the 2022 season on Friday with a 14-7 victory over San Diego Mesa, a team that had only four players eligible to open its season. In actual points for matches played, PCC held a 9-7 edge. The match was the 51st consecutive victory in South Coast Conference play for the 5-time defending SCC champion Lancers.
"Everyone was nervous, but excited for PCC badminton to return to Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium. Our best players didn't have their A game, but what was encouraging is some of our lower seed players had good debuts. Overall, I was pleased with our effort."
One was No. 7 player Elizabeth Mondragon (Arroyo High), who scored two singles wins at No. 4 on a revised ladder for the opener. Mondragon defeated Mesa's #3 Fay Jaser, 21-15, 23-21, and downed #4 Kathy Rodriguez, 21-25, 21-12. Ho chose not to play Ching and Dinh in singles. Chen, who was at #2, split her contests, winning v. the Olympians' #2 Esther Ngo, 21-18, 24-22. Wen also had a strong afternoon picking up victories over Jaser, 21-15, 21-6, and Rodriguez, 21-10, 21-5.
Zhao had some endurance issues that saw her win the opening set in both of her contests only to lose both in three sets. She lost to #2 Ngo, 16-21, 21-18, 21-15, and fell v. Mesa's #1 Erica Garcia Badaracco, 19-21, 21-12, 21-9. In doubles, Zhao played with Dinh at #1 and lost to Mesa's top pair of Ngo and Badaracco, 21-15, 18-21, 25-12. Zhao-Dinh breezed past Jaser-Rodriguez, 21-3, 21-3. Ching and Chen paired up at #2 and also split their two doubles matches, winning over Jaser-Rodriguez, 21-17, 21-13.
One change for this season is that the PCAC and South Coast combined for a 5-team conference with the SCC adding Mesa and Irvine Valley to the conference. This also eliminates the SoCal Championship match that pitted the two conference champions to play for the state team seed. Now, winning the SCC places that team into the CCCAA State Championship final v. the North's champion.
"Our goal is definitely to be the South representative in the finals," Ho said. "We want to defend being South Coast Conference champions as well."
On Friday, Mar. 11, the Lancers will next play a non-conference match at NorCal's De Anza College. The Dons are already 2-0 after winning two non-conference matches v. Irvine Valley.
Joanna Dinh in action during Friday's victory
