Students and supporters packed the gymnasium stands on Thursday, April 30, to celebrate badminton’s seven departing seniors and watch their final home match of the season. In the match, badminton secured second place in the Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) Bay Division through a gritty, hard-fought 16-14 win against Westmoor High School.
In the days preceding the game, the team designed intricate personalized posters to celebrate their departing seniors.
“It was pretty awesome. They did so much more than I expected them to do,” co-captain and No. 1 girls’ doubles player senior Allison Duh said. “They got us flowers and made a personalized poster.”
Westmoor took an early lead in the games, but a strong finish from Burlingame’s top players enabled a late comeback. Westmoor’s early success came from a strategy where the team sacrificed some matches by pairing their top-ranked players against Burlingame’s lower-ranked players.
“I suspect they are sacrificing their No. 1 players and moving them down to lower levels so they can win those points. Basically, they are trying to strategize to beat our team. So currently, our matches that were worth one point and two points haven’t been going very well,” Duh said.
The final matches of the day were boys’ No. 1 singles, girls’ No. 1 doubles, and boys’ No. 1 doubles, with Burlingame needing to win two of the three to secure a victory. Sophomore boys’ No. 1 singles player Alvin Ho defeated his opponent in two sets, winning 21-11 in the first set and 22-20 in the second. Ultimately, the winning result came down to the final match, with the girls’ No. 1 doubles partners, seniors Saskia Dankbaar and TingTing Wang, defeating their opponents in both sets, including a dominant 21-14 second set to close out the overall match.
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The crowd cheers as seniors walk out from the hallway holding flowers and their personalized posters.
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Girls’ No. 3 doubles player and junior Kristyn Lee serves the birdie during one of the first matches of the game.
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No. 3 mixed doubles player freshman Kalista Ng winds up to smash her opponent’s serve.
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Boys’ No. 1 singles player and sophomore Alvin Ho returns an opponent’s smash.
According to Ho, while the Panthers won, there was room for improvement.
“I definitely know that we could have performed better in some matches, like our mixed doubles and in our [boys’ doubles]. Overall, I think everybody is playing hard and doing well,” Ho said.
Although the game was very close, coach Salvador Banquiles said he was proud of his team.. According to Banquiles, their overall league standing was especially impressive considering they were promoted from the lower Ocean Division last season.
“We came from the Ocean [Division], and then [we moved] up. It’s really good, because right now, our standing is number two in the eight schools,” Banquiles said.
Heading into the PAL playoffs and Central Coast Section (CCS) championships, a limited selection of the team’s top players will compete and represent the team. According to Duh, the participating seniors, as well as Ho, have a chance to make a run in the postseason.
“Alvin Ho, he is a sophomore, and he is currently boys’ singles No. 1. He is a really talented badminton player,” Duh said. “He did pretty well last year, so I think he will do well again this year. I also think the other seniors are going to do well too, like Brandon Mark, Ting Ting [Wang], Saskia [Dankbaar].”
Following Ho’s record-breaking freshman campaign, where he became the first player in school history to continue past the CCS championship, Ho hopes to reach the top five in the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) NorCal Regional Championship. Ho said he hopes to play quicker against stronger competition.
“I am definitely going to play more to my own play style because for these matches it is hard to play well against a worse player, because it is hard for them to return your shots, so I am definitely going to be a lot quicker,” Ho said.
