Although the women’s badminton team was not sure about its ability at the beginning of the season opener, it boosted its confidence by beating East L.A., 14-7, at El Camino last Friday.
The women will play at Pasadena City tomorrow at 3:30 p.m.
“Many of the matches were very tightly contested today,” coach John Britton said. “Today, luck was on our side.”
Although the team started its season with a victory, Britton said the season will be a challenge.
This year, the team is not as experienced as the teams over the last three years.
“All the players on the women’s badminton team are new; some of them are new to the sport, others do not have game experience,” Britton said.
“We have managed to win league the last three years by using a combination of experienced players combined with freshmen, but this year’s team does not have returning players nor the experience,” Britton said. “Everybody is a first-year player, so it’s going to be a tough season. I’m sure they are nervous.”
“I missed (the shuttlecock) too much in doubles,” freshman Tomoe Okaguchi said.
Okaguchi said she didn’t have enough stamina to withstand the wear that the long match brought over her early in the season.
She also said that she could not communicate well enough with her doubles partner, Arielle Lombardi, during the games.
“We just met each other recently and have only played two or three times together, so I don’t know her and her way to move,” Okaguchi said. “We need more practice.”
Okaguchi, who has been in the United States for 10 months, said that her limited English speaking skills also caused some difficulty in communicating with her partner.
“I can’t come out what I want to say in English,” Okaguchi said.
“I think we did pretty well even when we were down and stuck in the game,” Lombardi said.
While EC had the lack of experience, East L.A. entered the North Gym with some seasoned players.
“I won in my games but I got angry today,” sophomore Sabine Kuenstler said. “You know it’s important that you are mentally focused. I need to relax. I have to work on that.”
Britton looks on this year as a learning and rebuilding year. He sees his players are improving as the main goal.
Britton said he will focus on making sure the team’s fundamentals are good so it will be strong next year.
Now the team is concentrating on learning basic technical skills so that it can be competitive.
“I think when we play against teams that are also all freshmen, we will have results that are similar (as today),” Britton said.
“But we are going to be (in the same position) against teams with a lot of experience and it’s gonna be very hard for us to compete with these teams. But we’ll get better as the year goes on,” Britton said.
