Carlmont’s varsity badminton team took down San Mateo in an overwhelming victory, barely giving them a chance to fight back.
The Scots managed to win 27-3, only giving up one loss in a girls doubles game. Throughout the match, Carlmont showed clear dominance with their superior speed, power, and precision.
Ethan Hsu, a senior at Carlmont, quickly won two sets with scores of 21-9 and 21-12. As a captain on the team, he helps other players to improve, all while enjoying the game himself.
“We just want to keep people motivated since it can be easy to not feel like you have anything to improve on or to slack off a bit,” Hsu said. “So keeping the vibes up is definitely important.”
Despite Hsu and many other Carlmont athletes taking easy victories, San Mateo was able to bring more competition with their girls doubles team. Carlmont managed to take the first set, partly because of a faulty racket.
“My racket was broken, and all of my shots were going to the side,” said Lauren Hong, a sophomore at San Mateo.
After getting the racket changed, however, Hong and her teammate Elexis Yang were able to seize the match.
“It was quite long and a bit tiring,” Yang said. “But I feel like we’ve improved from our previous games, and we pulled through in the third set.”
Although Hong and Yang were able to win their match, Carlmont still managed to dominate with all of their others.
“This season, we want to work on the players’ form, their badminton skill, court skill, and spirit,” said Vitoria Shi, a coach at Carlmont. “Before the pandemic, Carlmont’s badminton team was the number one in our league. So we try to maintain this possession as [much as] possible.”
Even though Carlmont proved dominance with a 27-3 score, captain Max Srivastava was happy with the competition and opportunity for improvement.
“Our mixed doubles had a good game. Our boys singles one is having an unusually good game. There’s competition, and it’s not a cakewalk which is different,” Srivastava said. “We were able to practice things like rotations and playing consistently.”
Although their competition often isn’t on their level, Carlmont lost their previous match to Mills, demonstrating that there is still room for growth.
“I like seeing my students improve and seeing them happy about that,” Shi said. “I think all sports help the individual learn to go through obstacles.”
