#24 PARK CENTER 5, #19 NORTH 2
Park Center picked up their first win in program history on Monday afternoon with a home court victory over visiting Minneapolis North 5-2. The Pirates grabbed the last three singles spots in addition to the odd doubles to put together their victory. Both first singles and doubles went to three sets with first singles proving to be the tightest (and longest). More on that match later. Even though the Pirates won two of the doubles matches, the Polars outpointed their hosts by two. A flip of two points at first doubles would have cut the PC margin to 4-3. Both sets that went to extra points landed in the PC win column. The Pirates held North to single digits in five of the singles sets.
North has had a revival of their program with increased numbers. The Polars are able to field a varsity and JV. The Pirates have close to 60 players. The gym was full. There were no forfeits in sight.
This also marked my first time at PC for badminton. This was the second home match for PC. Their badminton courts are located in the North gym (kind of ironic for North), not their main basketball/volleyball competition gym. As a second gym there are batting cage nets that are designated to be JV courts. There are eight courts, and the lines are marked in a vibrant yellow. What was a tad disconcerting was usually there are two standards on each court. That was not the case here. The nets are attached to one standard and then secured on the wall.
With the win the PC Thursday meeting will now be a chance to add to their win column. The Tigers are looking for their first win in program history. Fridley has been active for three years but has played a minimal schedule two game schedule the first two seasons.
SINGLES
1 Tilli Webster, N def Pazhao Hang 19-21, 22-20, 23-21
2 Angela Yang, PC def Illiana Flowers 21-8, 21-8
3 Suzanlee Solima, PC def Toni Baker 22-20, 21-9
4 Muki Yang, PC def Nyaira McCaskel 21-3, 21-7
DOUBLES
1 Olivia Hoang / Anastacia Yang, PC def Kymani McLain Taylor / Sanae Thompson 23-21, 15-21, 21-17
2 Doretha Landers / Sanaa Nelson, N def Nakita / Linda Thao 21-15, 21-18
3 Emma Helgeson / Sara Brennan, PC def Ja’Niyah Miller / Janieyah Smith 21-16, 21-19
BY THE NUMBERS
SINGLES
Matches: Park Center 3-1 .750
Games: Park Center 7-2 .778
points: Park Center 189-119 .614
Set 1 points: Park Center 85-50 .630
Set 2 points: Park Center 83-46 .643
Set 3 points: North 23-21 .523
decided by 10+: Park Center 5-0 1.000
decided by 3-: tied 2-2 .500
margin: Park Center 7.778
DOUBLES
Matches: Park Center 2-1 .667
Games: Park Center 4-3 .571
points: North 136-134 .504
Set 1 points: Park Center 59-58 .504
Set 2 points: North 61-54 .531
Set 3 points: Park Center 21-17 .553
decided by 10+: none
decided by 3-: Park Center 2-1 .667
margin: North 0.286
FIRST SINGLES
Tilli WEBSTER 2, Pazhao HANG 1 (Reported N 19-21, 22-20, 23-21 Reported PC 18-21, 22-20, 23-21, Recorded 19-21, 22-20, 22-23)
The longest (thirtyfive minutes) and closest match went to Tilli Webster in a marathon session. Or did it? In set three I had Pazhao Hang wrapping up the match at 21-19. And for added effect she tacked on another point as they played on (22-19 by my count). I don’t know when or how the players got off track. There were several times the bird hit the ceiling, usually off Webster’s racquet. The instructions prior to the match indicated that those birds were out, and the point belonged to the opponent. The whole match they were re-dos.
Another indication of the tightest (and by extension) and longest match was the stroke count. There were 68 points that lasted five strokes or more—15 points lasted ten strokes or more. Seven of those came in the final frame. Hang won those mega stroke points 10-5. Looking at the rest of the stats both players were almost mirrors of each other. Hang is left-handed and that could have played a part in the parity. Both players had 39 winners. There was one point difference in total points, and in errors. There were differences in leads with Hang having a seven-point advantage in the last set, but she could not maintain it.
At first it looked like Hang was going to take the set quickly with a run of four on her second service to lead 5-1. Webster bounced back with her own run of four on service four to knot it up at six. There would be four lead changes in this set. Hang broke free from a 17 all tie to go up 19-17. An 18-stroke smash gave Webster the bird back. She tied it at 19 after a hitting error. Hang got the bird again on a six-stroke drive. It appeared that Webster had tied it again at 20 with a ten-stroke smash but apparently there was a net violation, and the first set ended after a conference.
That first set ending seemed to get Webster’s motivation up at the start of the second set as she notched the first five points. Hang chipped away at that lead and tied it after her first run of three on her sixth service at ten apiece. It looked like Webster was on her way to victory at 18-15 but a sixteen-stroke smash injected new life into Hang. A run of five ensued and Webster almost saw the match slip away. She held off match point twice first on a two-stroke drive and then a Hang hitting error in two strokes. Webster closed with the final four points capped by an ace/fan to even the series.
In the final set Hang rang up two runs to lead 8-2. She was up 11-4 but there was no customary change of courts after eleven. Webster jumped right back into the contest with the next six points. That was the first of three runs and Webster was in the lead at 17-14. Hang then added a run to go up 19-18. A soft drive of ten put Hang up 20-19 according to my notebook. An eleven-stroke drop should have ended the match for Hang. But the match continued. Five more points continued. The final point was anti-climactic—a two stroke error in the net.
Despite the close nature of the contest and similar numbers, there were differences. Webster’s favorite winner was the smash for 17 points, and she really tuned in on that with nine in the last set. Hang’s favorite winner was the drive also for 17 points. Perhaps it is because of keeping the bird low and tight and away from the batting nets. Hang had eight drives for winners in the final set.
| Category | WEBSTER | HANG |
| Side out | 18/35-.514 | 20/36-.556 |
| Longest side out string | 5 | 5 |
| 3+ Runs | 9 | 9 |
| Longest point string | 6 | 5 |
| SERVING | ||
| First serve | 1, 3 | 2 |
| First point | 2 | 1, 3 |
| Service points | 29 | 29 |
| Serving % | 61/63-.968 | 64/65-.985 |
| Point generated off serve | .460 | .446 |
| POINTS | 63 | 64 |
| Points after 11 | 35 | 32 |
| Points after own errors | 15 | 13 |
| Winners after own errors | 10 | 6 |
| STROKES | 296 | 394 |
| Strokes per point | 4.698 | 6.156 |
| 5+ rallies (%) | 27 | 41 |
| 2- rallies (%) | 21 | 9 |
| WINNERS | 39 | 39 |
| Aces | 1 | 1 |
| Blocks | 2 | 0 |
| Clears | 9 | 8 |
| Drives | 9 | 17 |
| Drops | 1 | 9 |
| Soft drives | 0 | 1 |
| Smashes | 17 | 3 |
| Even Stroke Winners | 18 | 18 |
| 2nd Stroke Winners | 9 | 3 |
| Odd Stroke Winners | 21 | 21 |
| ERRORS | 25 | 24 |
| Deep | 2 | 0 |
| Net | 10 | 19 |
| Wide | 11 | 4 |
| Serve | 2 | 1 |
| Even stroke errors | 10 | 12 |
| 2nd stroke errors | 3 | 9 |
| Odd stroke errors | 15 | 7 |
| WINNER LOCATION | ||
| Left | 20 | 15 |
| Right | 19 | 24 |
| Largest Lead | 2, 5, 3 | 4, 2, 7 |
| W:E Ratio | 1.560 | 1.625 |
| Margin | 0.333 | |
| Set Point % | 2/3-.667 | 1/3-.333 |
| Time | 35:24 |