Villa Park Sports Look of a Winner, Again

The list of Southern Section individual boys’ badminton champions looked a lot like Villa Park’s lineup on Tuesday, which is why few at the Orange County Badminton Club in Orange were surprised to see the Spartans defeat Alhambra Keppel, 12-7, to win their second consecutive team title.

Eric Go, Raymond Wong and Mike Chansawangpuvana have won the last three section individual boys’ titles and each was on the court against Keppel. They combined to win eight of nine matches against the Aztecs, who have won eight section titles since 1990.

“Too deep,” Keppel Coach Vy Vien said of Villa Park’s 17-0 team.

Keppel (20-1) countered with Elie Wu and Jane Hu, winners of the last three section individual girls’ titles. Wu, the second-ranked girl in the nation, and partner Eric Adi won an opening-round mixed doubles match, 15-0, 4-15, 15-12, against Wong and Jennifer Bai, while Go and Chansawangpuvana and their partners won the remaining mixed doubles matches.

Villa Park’s Eva Lee and Connie Hwang then scored a key 15-2, 15-2 win over Wu and partner Carol Tsung in a third-round set pitting both team’s No. 1 girls’ doubles.

Keppel’s Tracy Chin, playing at No. 2 girls’ singles, beat Villa Park’s No. 1 singles player, Shamyla Tariq, 8-11, 11-8, 11-3, in the fourth round, but Villa Park clinched the match early in the fifth round when Wong and Scott Bering defeated Larry Au-Yeung and Brian Pham, 15-5, 15-7.