CAMDEN 7, PARK CENTER 0
Camden (formerly known as Henry) swept newcomer and neighbor Park Center in the first official match of the season for both teams. The defending Minneapolis city champs took all sets as well.
The brand-new Pirates have over 60 players in their squad. They had to close registration. There was talk of other district 279 players joining (Osseo and Maple Grove), but they will have to await formation in their schools. This is the second time PC has traveled this year, but their first match up was considered a scrimmage with Kennedy. Today the Patriots (same mascot as Henry) used their experience with the margins in singles and doubles close to nine points each set. There was a tight contest at first singles in the first set, the only set decided by less than three points.
With two new programs now up and running the badminton total squad count is 30. 32 is the number required for a sponsored state tournament. The MSHSL would like that number to be sustained for a couple of years. We are approaching that number as soon as next season. There are reports of other students at other schools wanting to know how to begin a program. Wayzata would make four in the Lake. Other areas are ripe for expansion and looking at the groundswell of athletes there is an underserved population waiting for the opportunity to play.
SINGLES
1. Shayla Thao, C def Angela 21-19, 21-10
2. Porsoua Ya, C def Suzan Lee 21-10, 21-10
3. Tia Kocindoffer, C def Pazhao 21-16, 21-12
4. Lisa Pha, C def Muki 21-11, 21-8
DOUBLES
1. Aniya / Aleena, C def Linda / Nakita 21-8, 21-9
2. Anne T / Michelle, C def Ana / Olivia 21-16, 21-15
3. Hannah / Gaoxiong, C def Arianna / Jennifer 21-11, 21-15
BY THE NUMBERS
SINGLES
Matches: Camden 4-0 1.000
Games: Camden 8-0 1.000
points: Camden 168-96 .636
Set 1 points: Camden 84-56 .600
Set 2 points: Camden 84-40 .677
decided by 10+: Camden 5-0 1.000
decided by 3-: Camden 1-0 1.000
margin: Camden 9.00
DOUBLES
Matches: Camden 3-0 1.000
Games: Camden 6-0 1.000
points: Camden 126-74 .630
Set 1 points: Camden 63-35 .643
Set 2 points: Camden 63-39 .617
decided by 10+: Camden 3-0 1.000
decided by 3-: none
margin: Camden 8.67
FIRST SINGLES
Shayla THAO 2, ANGELA 0
(21-19, 21-10)
Camden’s Shayla Thao, who spent most of the 2024 season as the second singles, moved up the conveyer belt to first singles to open the season and swept eighth grader Angela of PC. Thao picked up steam as the match wore on. She maintained her winner totals in the sets (16 in the first, 15 in the second) while holding Angela to three winners in the second after gaining eight in the first. Also, Thao’s points on runs grew as the match progressed. In set one her three runs were all three points. In set two her runs were ten and six points. A clear advantage for Thao was her winners on the odd stroke 18-4. Angela won the fast points (two strokes or less) 19-17.
The first set was tight with Angela getting the best showing in points of any Pirate on the day with her 19. Thao had the first run of the match which put her in front 8-7. After one Angela point, Thao tacked on another run of three to lead 11-8. Angela battled back to tie at 16 and 17. Both players traded missed serves. Thao broke that curse with a three stroke drive to go in front for good 19-17. It should be noted that there was a scoring discrepancy with each player scoring one more point on my books than the reported score. I had Angela holding off set point with a four stroke drive and then narrowing the margin further with a deep ace to the left back. A missed serve wide gave the bird back to Thao. She found the net on a third stroke for another change of service. But Thao ended the set with a four stroke soft drive for the narrow win.
Set two opened with Thao scoring the first ten points with nine winners. Three of those ten points were aces including the final two in that run, all on short serves. Angela faced an even steeper hill to climb when Thao gained another run of five to make it 15-1. The rest of the way Angela outscored Thao 9-6, however, seven of those points were self-inflicted errors including three missed serves.
| Category | THAO | ANGELA |
| Side out | 10/19-.526 | 10/19-.526 |
| Longest side out string | 3 | 4 |
| 3+ Runs | 6 | 3 |
| Longest point string | 10 | 4 |
| SERVING | ||
| First serve | 2 | 1 |
| First point | 1, 2 | — |
| Service points | 24 | 12 |
| Serving % | 39/42-.929 | 24/30-.800 |
| Point generated off serve | .558 | .400 |
| POINTS | 43 | 30 |
| Points after 11 | 21 | 21 |
| Points after own errors | 9 | 4 |
| Winners after own errors | 7 | 0 |
| STROKES | 123 | 104 |
| Strokes per point | 2.860 | 3.467 |
| 5+ rallies (%) | 10 | 4 |
| 2- rallies (%) | 15 | 17 |
| WINNERS | 31 | 11 |
| Aces | 5 | 1 |
| Blocks | 0 | 0 |
| Clears | 2 | 0 |
| Drives | 5 | 3 |
| Drops | 8 | 3 |
| Soft drives | 4 | 1 |
| Smashes | 7 | 3 |
| Even Stroke Winners | 13 | 7 |
| 2nd Stroke Winners | 7 | 2 |
| Odd Stroke Winners | 18 | 4 |
| ERRORS | 19 | 12 |
| Deep | 1 | 0 |
| Net | 7 | 4 |
| Wide | 5 | 4 |
| Serve | 6 | 3 |
| Even stroke errors | 7 | 5 |
| 2nd stroke errors | 4 | 3 |
| Odd stroke errors | 12 | 7 |
| WINNER LOCATION | ||
| Left | 17 | 7 |
| Right | 14 | 4 |
| Largest Lead | 4, 11 | 2, 0 |
| W:E Ratio | 1.632 | 0.917 |
| Margin | 6.50 | |
| Set Point % | 2/3-.667 | |
| Time | 17:20 |