Varsity badminton cruised to victory against San Mateo High School on Tuesday, March 10, extending the Panthers’ record to 2-0 in league play and reinforcing its position in the Bay Division. The decisive 26-4 victory showcased Burlingame’s dominating lineup and reflects the team’s success last season, when they went undefeated in league play in the lower Ocean Division.

Senior co-captain Lucas Zhu said this win was especially important because the Panthers had historically lost to San Mateo.

“Some of their better players also graduated, and we have improved a lot from previous years. We actually did pretty well today,” Zhu said.

Sophomore standout player Alvin Ho set the tone as the boys’ No. 1 singles player and first game of the day, winning both sets comfortably. Though his personal match was not particularly challenging or exciting, Ho said he is happy with the team’s performance and believes the match was good preparation for stronger competition in the future.

“The team, we actually performed pretty good. I watched some of the games, and I feel like most people played well, but there’s also a lot of space for improvement,” Ho said. “But I think overall, everybody put their best effort, and we actually had a very good score.”

Zhu demonstrated impressive resilience after clinching a win despite recovering from sickness during the match.

“I performed pretty well,” Zhu said. “First, I did 21-7. But for the second set, because I haven’t really recovered from my sickness yet, I was so tired, I got 22-20, but overall, I won by two and zero.”

According to coach Salvador Banquiles, the team has implemented a mix of agility drills to improve their speed during games.

“It’s a lot because we do a lot of agility drills, and then in games, everybody says it’s like practice makes perfect. That’s what they were doing,” Banquiles said.

Although they have yet to face the division’s top competition, Zhu said this season is going better than expected.

“Most of the people on the ladder last year had already graduated, so there were a lot of uncertainties this year, but I think it’s pretty good,” Zhu said.

With the new gym, the team has been able to practice more frequently than in previous seasons.

“We have been training a lot compared to previous years, as our gym got torn down, but since we have a gym again, last year we would only train two days a week, but not we can train four days a week,” Zhu said. “It is kind of a new environment, and because we are hosting here today, it is definitely a big advantage. We train here more and get used to the course a bit more.”