WASHINGTON 6, HENRY 1
Washington picked up their first Twin City Badminton title defeating host Henry 6-1 Tuesday. Since the reincarnation of the TC match in 2016 the St. Paul side has dominated. And the Governors have won the last five with the only set loss coming to Southwest in 2022 otherwise the brooms were out. Johnson and Roosevelt were co-champs in each conference, but they represented last year and the honor of representing the conference goes to the team that has not appeared the longest. Washington has never attended. Henry’s last appearance came in 1986 when they beat Harding 5-2. The Patriots record in the TC game now stands at 4-1. St. Paul still trails in the overall matches 12-6 with six matches still unaccounted for. The series started in 1978 with Marshall-U taking the initial contest 5-0 over Johnson.
Spoiling the sweep today was Shamyra Melton of Henry. She beat Ariel Fang in three sets (more in first singles). One other match went the distance: second doubles. The Washington pair of Emiliah Lee and Samira defeated Aniya and Aleena. The Patriot duo won the first set in extra points 23-21. That was the only extra point session but was one of three tight contests which Washington won 2-1.
If you look at the set totals, the Eagles revved up their game in the second sets across the board with both combined singles and doubles moving into the .600 territory from the .535 and .594 respectively.
Now both teams head to their respective city individual championships to be held the next two days: Edison for Minneapolis, Harding for St. Paul. The difference is singles will be determined in Minneapolis on Wednesday, doubles on Thursday. In St. Paul the first rounds of both will winnow down to a final four set up for Thursday.
SINGLES
- Shamyra, H def Ariel 21-14, 8-21, 21-16
- Eh Ku, W def Shayla 21-18, 21-15
- Nancy, W def Chouamon 21-9, 21-16
- Ma K, W def Porsoua 21-19, 21-14
DOUBLES
- Say Paw / Gay Ler Htoo, W def Lillian / McKayla 21-9, 21-9
- Emiliah / Samira, W def Aniya / Aleena 21-23, 21-13, 21-14
- Megan / Samira, W def Anne / Diana 21-11, 21-10
BY THE NUMBERS
SINGLES
Matches: Washington 3-1 .750
Games: Washington 7-2 .778
points: Washington 177-141 .557
Set 1 points: Washington 77-67 .535
Set 2 points: Washington 84-53 .613
Set 3 points: Henry 21-16 .568
decided by 10+: Washington 2-0 1.000
decided by 3-: Washington 2-0 1.000
margin: Washington 4.000
DOUBLES
Matches: Washington 3-0 1.000
Games: Washington 6-1 .857
points: Washington 147-89 .623
Set 1 points: Washington 63-43 .594
Set 2 points: Washington 63-32 .663
Set 3 points: Washington 21-14 .600
decided by 10+: Washington 4-0 1.000
decided by 3-: Henry 1-0 1.000
margin: Washington 8.286
FIRST SINGLES
Shamyra MELTON 2, Ariel FANG 1 (21-14, 8-21, 21-16)
Henry’s Shamyra Melton peeled away a win and prevented the brooms from sweeping the Patriots. Melton won the match in three sets, but the first set ended prematurely at 19. Ariel Fang won the most critical stat categories like side out percentage, winners, winner to error ratio, but still fell short in the most important stat—-set wins. In fact, the winner category was one shy of doubling Melton.
Unfortunately, Fang led in a dubious unforgiving category—-errors. She piled on 34 for the day with eight coming on serve. And it started right in the early part of the first set. Of Melton’s first seven points (7-3), three were on Fang’s missed serve. Still Fang was able to knot the game back to eight. But a five-point burst, all on hitting errors pushed Melton up 13-8, the last two were on the two stroke. Again, Fang closed the gap to 15-14, but a six-stroke clear gave the bird back to the Patriot. She added two points and then the match stopped 19-14. Fortunately, the rest of the match was correctly calculated.
After the first point in set two Fang erupted for seven straight points, the longest string of the day. Her side out game prevented Melton from getting any traction as she held her to two points off serve compared to 14. Winners were hard to come by for Melton throughout the day with only three in this set.
Missed serve number seven (out of eight) for Fang started the third set in favor of Melton. Add on two four stroke hitting errors and Melton had the first of four runs in set three. And Fang struggled playing from behind. The Eagle got to 11-7 but Melton got a six-stroke clear that opened up three more points on her third run and a 15-7 lead. Run four put Melton on the brink at 20-11. Fang responded by holding off match point five straight times. But the gap was still four. She needed to thread the needle and there were no margins for any slip ups. The match ended on a three-stroke hitting into the net error.
| Category | MELTON | FANG |
| Side out | 11/25-.440 | 13/25-.520 |
| Longest side out string | 4 | 3 |
| 3+ Runs | 6 | 6 |
| Longest point string | 5 | 7 |
| SERVING | ||
| First serve | 1, 2 | 3 |
| First point | 1, 2, 3 | |
| Service points | 24 | 27 |
| Serving % | 46/48-.958 | 43/51-.843 |
| Point generated off serve | .500 | .529 |
| POINTS | 48 | 51 |
| Points after 11 | 23 | 27 |
| Points after own errors | 12 | 16 |
| Winners after own errors | 4 | 9 |
| STROKES | 181 | 205 |
| Strokes per point | 3.771 | 4.020 |
| 5+ rallies (%) | 16 | 17 |
| 2- rallies (%) | ||
| WINNERS | 5, 3, 6-14 | 7, 13, 7-27 |
| Aces | 1 | 1 |
| Blocks | 0 | 0 |
| Clears | 6 | 4 |
| Drives | 3 | 4 |
| Drops | 1 | 1 |
| Soft drives | 1 | 6 |
| Smashes | 2 | 11 |
| Even Stroke Winners | 9 | 11 |
| 2nd Stroke Winners | 3 | 5 |
| Odd Stroke Winners | 5 | 16 |
| ERRORS | 7, 8, 9-24 | 14, 5, 14-34 |
| Deep | 0 | 1 |
| Net | 18 | 11 |
| Wide | 4 | 14 |
| Serve | 2 | 8 |
| Even stroke errors | 18 | 13 |
| 2nd stroke errors | 11 | 3 |
| Odd stroke errors | 6 | 21 |
| WINNER LOCATION | ||
| Left | 6 | 11 |
| Right | 8 | 16 |
| Largest Lead | 5, 1, 9 | 0, 13, 0 |
| W:E Ratio | 0.583 | 0.794 |
| Margin | 1.000 | |
| Set Point % | 2/7-.286 | |
| Time | 22:42 |