Going into uncharted territory, the doubles team of Tanille Barnes and Kumiko Noguchi headed to compete in the San Francisco State Championships.

They left Thursday, on a six-hour drive toward San Francisco, a city where they’ve never went to before.

Barnes and Noguchi eventually lost their first match at the tournament, which landed them in the consolation matches.

The team’s season came to end after a regular season record of 4-8.

“(The consolation match was a) match for the people that don’t make the first round,” Barnes said. “It’s like a match for the losers basically so you won’t leave empty handed.”

While she acknowledged the fact that the other teams competing at the tournament where much stronger than Barnes and Noguchi, Barnes said nervousness played a key factor in the team’s inability to win.

“We were so nervous we kept hitting the shuttlecock back to the really good players so we lost the first game really fast,” Barnes said.

Once they had a chance to breathe and their nerves had settled down a little bit, Barnes said their performance improved greatly.

“We got a lot better by the second game, but we just didn’t have time to come back,” Barnes said. “It was already too late.”

Barnes and Noguchi had to go up against a team which they have not beaten in four tries in the regular season in the consolation match. They battled East L.A. College’s No. 1 doubles team.

Coach John Britton said the team was off to a very good start.

“Actually, it was pretty cool, first game in that match we beat them. We beat them really bad,” Barnes said. “But then the second game they changed how they were playing a little, and we couldn’t catch up to their changes.”

Britton said he was proud of the player’s efforts and could really see how much they had improved over the course of the season.

“The first part of the season they got well-beaten by the East L.A. team,” Britton said. “And it shows they have improved because by the end of the season they were running it close and actually had a chance of beating them.”

Noguchi, the star player of the team as well as being the player with the most experience under her belt, said she was looking forward to next season and would definitely be back next season to play another year of badminton.

Britton added if badminton returns next season, the team will be much stronger compared to this season’s team.

Next year, the team will have five returning players.

This year, they only had two players with experienced which affected its play during the regular season.

“It was fun,” Barnes said. “We hadn’t been there before, so once we were done with the tournament we took some time to look around.”