Badminton Out & About: Yang v Lay Lay

The miscounting continues in the badminton world. The effects were probably not as dramatic, but could have been. In both cases there was an undercount (yesterday’s issues was invisible points that were never added). Ironically it affected one player in both directions—-winning & losing. Humboldt’s Lay Lay stopped Washington’s Cinderella Nwe in the second set of the semifinal match up with a score of 20-19. Having won the first set, it went into the books as a Humboldt win, a key part of their four total. But in the championship match with Song Yang of Johnson it was Lay Lay that was victimized with play stopping in the first set at 19-11. It would have been extremely difficult for Lay Lay to go on a 10-0 run to win that set. Everything would have to be picture perfect. However it is very conceivable that the Nwe match could have tipped for the Eagle, and who knows the impact on the third set.

CHAMPIONSHIP FIRST SINGLES

Song YANG 2, Lay LAY 0
(19-11, 21-18)

Looking at the numbers we see Yang was effective in the side out game only allowing Lay Lay to score seven times off her 20 services. Yang doubled up on Lay Lay’s service points.

What jumps out is the lack of longer rallies in this contest. 32 points were decided on two strokes or less, while 23 last five strokes or more. Another anomaly was the fact that neither player generated more points off winners than they received from the generosity of the other player’s errors. The first set broke to Yang with the first run of the night, but all four of the points came via Lay Lay. The shoe was on the other foot near the end of the second set when Yang saw a 20-13 lead melt away to 20-18 after four hittinger errors plus a Lay Lay Ace. The longest run of the match ended with another error.

Tomorrow brings the individual side of the state tournament. Gone are the drop flights. Gone too are the numbers and festival atmosphere. Players were guaranteed at least three matches. Now it is one & done. I expect the crowd to thin considerably by the time the sweet 16 round begins.

Category YANG LAY LAY
Side out 13/20-.650 7/20-.350
Longest side out string 6(across 2 sets) 2(2x)
3+ Runs 4 1
Longest point string 4(2x) 5
SERVING    
Service points 20 10
Serving % 38/39-.974 25/30-.833
POINTS    
Overall points 40 29
Points after 11 18 16
Points after own errors 9 12
STROKES    
Strokes 160 104
Strokes per point 4.000 3.586
5+ rallies 14 9
2- rallies 17 15
WINNERS 16 (8-8) 13 (6-7)
Aces 1 1
Blocks 1 0
Clears 4 2
Drives 4 6
Drops 2 0
Soft drives 1 1
Smashes 3 3
ERRORS 19(5-11) 24 (11-13)
Deep 9 5
Net 5 6
Wide 4 8
Serve 1 5
W:E Ratio 0.842 0.542
Margin 5.500  
Set Point % 2/7-.286  
Time 18:02  

 

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