Badminton kicked off its season Saturday at the Pasadena City Tournament, in a singles tournament in which there was no team competition .

The Warriors’ conference play began yesterday when they hosted Compton City College at 3 p.m. Scores were not available upon press time.

The women, who are the defending South Coast Conference champions, an honor that they’ve achieved four straight years, will have a bigger challenge this season because of a largely inexperienced team.

New to the team are three players who played soccer before joining the team.

“We should struggle a little bit,” John Britton said.

However, Britton is quick to add that the goal for this year’s team remains the same as for previous teams: to win the league championship.

The women started the season during the PCC tournament Saturday with a few complications complaining about their performances.

Among those who won were Monique McShane, who won two out of three singles matches.

Yanni Ma also went 3-1 in the singles matches, but she also had two doubles matches, winning one and losing the other.

Several players admittedly did not have their best games, being a bit rusty from the very beginning.

“In my opinion, I don’t think I played well,” Monique McShane said.

Others were more harsh when describing their performance.

“My performance was regrettable,” said returning player Tomoe Okaguchi, who goes into this season as one the team’s two best players. “But I will work hard during every practice. I expect to be better than I was last year.”

The effects of their inactivity during the offseason were felt during the tournament by some of the players.

“I had stopped practicing (during the off-season),” said Ida Leong Sok, another important player on the team, “But the tournament helped me to regain my techniques and my power.”

Not every player thought that that they got off to a bad start.

Ma, one of the many newcomers on this year’s team, won three singles matches, which was notable because it was her first tournament.

“I was somewhat tired, but I think I played well,” Ma said.

Britton was satisfied with the team’s overall performance considering that the tournament didn’t provide team competition.

Instead, it was focused on singles matches, which EC won the majority of.

“I’m very pleased with the way all of the players performed, especially Yanni and the three soccer players,” he said. “We have some experienced players, but the rest are relatively inexperienced in badminton.”

Making the new players adjust to the team as soon as possible is what the team is aiming for in order to accomplish its desired goal for the season.

“It will be tough to retain the conference title,” Britton said, “but that’s what we are aiming for.”