Varsity Badminton won 21-9 at home against Wilcox High School on Tuesday, March 10 in its third match of the season. With a 3-0 winning streak thus far into the season, the team is focused on maintaining its strong standing in the league.
Transitioning from playing boys doubles last year to mixed doubles this year, senior and co-captain Ryan Wong shares that he had to rebuild court chemistry with his new partner, senior and co-captain Abigail Lai. He says that they practiced a specific footwork exercise that helped their efficiency when playing, which resulted in the success of winning 11 points in a row in one match.
“There’s team chemistry and we practiced a lot for our event,” Wong said. “In the drill, my partner is at the front of the court, and I’m on the other side. She’s moving me around, so that way, I’m able to be quicker on the court during the actual game.”
Freshman doubles player Abigail Chu agrees that partner chemistry on the court is important in ensuring quick shots and recieves. More notably, she shares that adapting on the court is a strategy that her WHS opponents used to progressively shift its gameplay throughout their three matches. Moving up a bracket for this game, Chu also shares that her new opponents were more difficult to play, giving her a good challenge.
“They were much better than my past opponents, because they knew how to change strategies,” Chu said. “They could figure out our weaknesses better, so it was much harder to get past them.”
Beyond establishing doubles chemistry, senior co-captain and boys doubles player Maxim Gutnik has set a personal goal for himself to build consistency in the strength of his shots by the end of the season. By doing this, he hopes he can play more smoothly with his partner on the court.
“A lot of times, I over-hit it all the way to the back and it ends up being out, or my smash doesn’t have the right angle,” Gutnik said. “I want to work on staying consistent in all my shots and not second guessing my decisions.”
