Varsity badminton cruised to the finish line with a 26-4 victory over Capuchino High School on Tuesday, April 15. The win extended the Panthers’ undefeated record to 9-0, but the numbers alone don’t truly reflect the team’s dominance. Burlingame has held every team they’ve faced this season to 5 points or less.
The game began with No. 1 singles, where freshman Alvin Feng Heng Ho rolled past his opponent in both sets, earning scores of 21-5 and 21-2. In mixed doubles, seniors Charlotte Wong and KayKay Pan also defeated their opponents, winning 21-5 and 21-3. Continuing the Panthers’ winning streak, senior captain Ashley Zheng and junior co-captain Brandon Mark won their matches 21-13 and 21-11.
“The mixed doubles is really good now… every freshman [has] improved a lot. They keep on beating others,” head coach Salvador Banquiles said.
Although Burlingame’s highest-ranked players faced little challenge, other matches were more competitive. According to Banquiles, Capuchino used a strategy known as “sacrificing,” where they paired their top-ranked players against players lower down on Burlingame’s ladder to get the most advantageous matchup. While teams typically place their best player in the No. 1 spot to win the most points possible, Capuchino played its top players lower in the lineup to avoid going scoreless.
“[Games are] really easy because our enemy teams keep sacrificing against us, we keep going undefeated… so a lot of the times, [teams] try to sacrifice players so they can put their good players against our not as good players,” Mark said.
Despite Capuchino’s strategy, the No. 3 doubles pair, freshmen Wunpang Hu and Justin Sun, demonstrated grit in a hard-fought victory. The pair won the first set 21-16, then made a comeback in the second set by rallying from 18-20 to win 23-21. Hu said that their constant communication gave them an advantage in their match.
“Me and my partner just communicate a lot, and we talk about the opponent’s weaknesses, and we try to attack that,” Hu said.
Although the season has been a success for the Panthers so far, the team is focused on the upcoming Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) Ocean Division playoffs. Rather than competing as a team in the postseason, the top two groups in each segment — boys’ doubles, boys’ singles, girls’ doubles, girls’ singles, and mixed doubles — compete individually or with their partner to secure their top individual ranking.
“We have a lot of chances there in PAL, especially the ocean [division]. The ocean part, we’re going to dominate,” Banquiles said.
Mark hopes to use the PAL playoffs as an opportunity to advance his personal rankings and improve his skills against more difficult competition.
“I care about my individual placement because that speaks more to me, but my goal overall, [is] just to get better. I started training individually as well so I can face challenges next year,” Mark said.
