Repeated yells of encouragement filled the MVHS field house as the badminton team took on Milpitas HS and Palo Alto HS in back-to-back games on March 15 and 16. The team took the win against MHS on Wednesday with a score of 24-6 and against PAHS on Thursday with a score of 27-3.

During their varsity one boys doubles match against MHS, team captain and senior David Chen and junior Sean Chen confidently started their match and quickly took the lead, winning the first set with a short lead.

Later into the second set, MHS players were hitting harder and more smashes were thrown. Though David and Sean saved most drops, they had to chase the score back. Spikes were thrown back and forth and the sound of the players falling echoed in the field house as onlookers winced at the impact. An easy win was no longer in sight for David and Sean as they drove to catch up. They tried to overcome their mentality that had simmered from the laid back tone of the game.

Despite winning all the games the pair has played this season, they both believed they could improve on their footing and an equal divide of hits from each player. David explained how his dominance towards his partner affects the overall score. Sean believed that his assumptions were also not made by the lack of time spent during warm-up.

“It didn’t really go to our expectations because my partner and I, we usually think we are very strong and we are usually known to be consistent and being really good at defensive shots, but then recently we’ve been losing the ‘best out of three’ games every time,” David said. “Cause I think we were hitting a lot of the shots out.”

But their resilience was strong throughout their performance. When they lost a shot or hit out, they forgave themselves and moved on to finish the match. Their positive outlook kept them pushing through the game, even at times of adversity.

“It’s a double, it’s a team,” David said. “It’s a team event.”

The next match will be on March 28 against Cupertino HS.