Badminton Out & About: Htoo & Xiong/Sangwang 2019 Champs

HTOO, XIONG/SANGWANG CHAMPS

State tournament  week wrapped up with two new champions in singles and doubles. It was a topsy turvy state championship at Burnsville today with Harding and Central taking home the title. Ester Htoo of Harding won the third singles title for the Knights and is the second player from the school to win a singles title. Pang Thao won back to back titles for Harding in 2006 & 2007. The Central duo of Lisa Xiong and Chia Sangwang broke through to win the first doubles title for the Minutemen. Both Htoo and Xiong/Sangwang spent time in the top spot in the polls during the spring season. In fact Xiong & Sangwang were the number one pair in doubles in all five polls. They fell to the number three seed after losing in the quarterfinals of the St. Paul City tournament. Htoo moved to the number one spot in week 4 and was there in week 5, but fell to the #5 seed after losing in the the quarterfinals of the St. Paul City Tournament too.

There were other firsts as well. Edina’s Angel Liang, the runner up in the singles tournament was the first Hornet to make it to the championship in any event. Liang is also the youngest player as a seventh grader to reach the title game.

Here is the bracketing of the tournament and the results as it is so far entered.

Here is a link to all the results

A SINGLES

SWEET 16

Johnson 2 def Eden Prairie 2 21-11, 21-14
Como Park 1 def Highland Park 1 21-18, 21-15
Como Park 3 def Central 1 21-10, 21-18
Harding 1 def Johnson 4 21-11, 21-7
Johnson 1 def Humboldt 4 21-18, 21-6
Edina 1 def Washington 3 21-10, 21-14
Washington 1 def Como Park 2 21-12, 21-19
Johnson 3 def Harding 2 21-15, 17-21, 21-16
QUARTERS
Como Park 1 def Johnson 2 21-18, 21-16
Harding 1 def Como Park 3 21-7, 21-11
Edina 1 def Johnson 1 21-19, 21-11
Washington 1 def Johnson 3 21-14, 21-16
SEMIS
Harding 1 def Como Park 1 21-17, 21-5
Edina 1 def Washington 1 21-17, 21-18
3rd
Washington 1 def Como Park 1 16-21, 21-14, 21-12
1st
Harding 1 def Edina 1 21-10, 21-9

B CHAMP
Washington 2 def Humboldt 1 21-15, 15-21, 21-16
C CHAMP
Harding 4 def Highland Park 2 21-6, 21-13
D CHAMP
Community of Peace 2 def Edina 2 20-22, 21-8, 21-12
E CHAMP
Highland Park 4 def Burnsville 4 21-12 21-8

DOUBLES
A SWEET 16
Johnson 2 def Eden Prairie 2 21-10, 21-13
Harding 1 def Washington 2 21-8, 21-10
Edina 1 def Central 2 21-11, 14-21, 21-17
Johnson 4 def Washburn 1 21-6, 21-14
Johnson 1 def Harding 2 21-11, 21-9
Kennedy 1 def Washington 1 21-3, 21-8
Central 1 def Southwest 1 21-12, 21-12
Washington 3 def Johnson 3 21-13, 21-13
QUARTERS
Johnson 2 def Harding 1 21-10, 21-19
Johnson 4 def Edina 1 12-21, 21-19, 23-21
Johnson 1 def Kennedy 1 21-9, 16-21, 21-19
Central 1 def Washington 3 21-8, 19-21, 21-14
SEMIS
Johnson 2 def Johnson 4 21-15, 12-21, 21-17
Central 1 def Johnson 1 21-14, 21-14
3rd
Johnson 1 def Johnson 4 21-16, 21-13
1st
Central 1 def Johnson 2 21-19, 21-11
B CHAMP
Humboldt 1 def Highland Park 3 21-9, 19-21, 21-19
C CHAMP
Como Park 1 def Washington 4 21-16, 15-21, 21-15
D CHAMP
Trinity 3 def Trinity 1 21-19, 21-14

FIRST SINGLES

ester HTOO 2, angel LIANG 0
(21-10, 21-9)

#5 seed Ester Htoo stopped #7 seed Angel Liang in two sets to earn the 2019 singles title. Htoo slammed the door shut with her side out game. Liang was only able to score four points of her serve and never generated a run. Both players had about the same error count. Htoo had four times as many winners with the smashes and clears counting for 58.6% of the total. Liang’s highest total of winners came in clears and drives with 3. What is noticeable, even though the margin was high, the stroke count was high. Both players had points that went longer than four strokes. There were 25 long rally points compared to 14 on the quick points. If you go back and look at the other matches I charted during the year, that number is usually reversed. Was it due to the length of the event? Each player had four matches today, three after lunch.

Htoo opened with the serve and milked it for three straight points. The breaking point came on Htoo’s third service where she tacked on seven additional points to build a 13-3 lead. Five of those points came on winners. In that string the stroke count was 5-5-13-8-5 on consecutive points.

There was no avalanche of points in the second set until the end where Htoo finished with six straight points.

Category HTOO LIANG
Side out 11/15-.733 5/16-.313
Longest side out string 6 3
3+ Runs 7 0
Longest point string 8 2
SERVING    
Service points 27 4
Serving % .976 1.000
Point generated off serve .643 .211
POINTS    
Overall points 42 19
Points after 11 20 11
Points after own errors 9 2
STROKES    
Strokes 174 90
Strokes per point 4.143 4.737
5+ rallies 14 8
2- rallies 11 3
WINNERS 29 7
Aces 1 0
Blocks 1 0
Clears 8 3
Drives 4 3
Drops 2 0
Soft drives 4 0
Smashes 9 1
ERRORS 12 13
Deep 1 2
Net 4 6
Wide 6 5
Serve 1 0
W:E Ratio 2.417 0.538
Margin 11.5
Set Point % 2/4-.500
Time 13:02.07

 

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