TWO NEW(?) CHAMPIONS IN ST. PAUL
St. Paul crowned two new champions in singles and doubles on Thursday at Humboldt. Make that two individual champions. Did I say New? Or Nou? Who knew. There was a repeat for one champion. Singles champion Nou Chee Yang of Johnson is a repeat champion, but in a different event. Last year Yang and Bao Nhia Thao were the doubles champions. This year they both moved over to singles. Thao ended up in fourth place, losing out to runner up May Garvey of Central in three sets in the semis. Yang then stopped Garvey in the championship 21-11, 21-19. Yang was the #1 seed going into the match, Garvey was #3. Jumy Miko of Harding finished third.
On the doubles end Como Park’s Zoua Xiong and Yia Yang prevented a Johnson sweep of the top spots with a three set victory over #1 seed Josapheena Thao and Nou Gee Xiong. CP’s second doubles pair of Maria Aye Meh and Shar Too were third. They were unseeded prior to the event. Harding’s first singles team of Ratsamee Thosaengsiri and Xee Vue finished fourth, the same as their seed to start the tournament.
FIRST SINGLES
Nou Chee YANG 2, May GARVEY 0
(21-11, 21-19)
#1 Nou Chee Yang won the title with a two set win over May Garvey of Central. The check boxes in the victory included a better side out effort; more service points and a huge advantage in winners—-a 19 point differential. Garvey only produced two winners in the first set. Yang’s chosen targets were either deep left back corner, the left front corner or along the right side line. The type of winner reflected the location with 10 clears and nine soft drive/fade/cut shots.
Garvey picked up the first run of the match, started on a missed serve to take a 3-2 lead. Yang immediately took the lead back with four straight points, with two straight smash points to lead it off. Yang added three more runs including a back breaking 8-1 surge in the heart of the set (16-7). Garvey picked up a run of three cutting the gap to six (16-10). Yang’s targets then shifted to the back line with three clears in her next five points.
In set two Yang got the first run, and it came in handy since Garvey lead 3-1 when it started (5-3). Yang kept painting the back corners right up to the sidelines. With Garvey up 8-7 Yang proceeded to shut the door five straight times on her service. Yang generated points off her serve which helped explain the 10-4 run (17-12). This time Yang’s targets shifted to the front of the service line with four of her winners landing there. Garvey had a late 6-1 surge tying the set at 18. After both players sided out, Yang outlasted Garvey on a nine stroke bird that sailed wide. A five stroke cross drop wrapped up the title.
| Category | YANG | GARVEY |
| Side out | 12/19-.632 | 8/20-.400 |
| Longest side out string | 5 | 3 |
| 3+ Runs | 6 | 5 |
| Longest point string | 5 | 3 |
| SERVING | ||
| Service points | 23 | 12 |
| Serving % | 36/41-.878 | 30/31-.967 |
| Point generated off serve | .547 | .400 |
| Short/ pts w | 6/12-.500 | 3/8-.375 |
| Deep/ pts w | 17/29-.586 | 9/23-.391 |
| POINTS | ||
| Overall points | 42 | 30 |
| Points after 11 | 20 | 15 |
| Points after own errors | 13 | 4 |
| STROKES | ||
| Strokes | 184 | 109 |
| Strokes per point | 4.381 | 3.600 |
| 5+ rallies | 18(.429) | 6(.300) |
| 2- rallies | 11(.262) | 15(.500) |
| WINNERS | 31(.738) | 12(.400) |
| Aces | 2(.065) | 0 |
| Blocks | 1(.032) | 0 |
| Clears | 10(.323) | 3(.250) |
| Drives | 2(.065) | 1(.083) |
| Drops | 2(.065) | 0 |
| Soft drives | 9(.290) | 4(.333) |
| Smashes | 5(.161) | 4(.333) |
| ERRORS | 18(.600) | 11(.262) |
| Deep | 3(.167) | 1(.091) |
| Net | 5(.278) | 4(.364) |
| Wide | 5(.278) | 5(.455) |
| Serve | 5(.278) | 1(.091) |
| WINNER LOCATION | ||
| Back line | 13(.419) | 5(.417) |
| Middle | 5(.161) | 3(.250) |
| Front line | 13(.419) | 4(.333) |
| Left | 21(.677) | 10(.833) |
| Right | 10(.322) | 2(.167) |
| W:E Ratio | 1.722 | |
| Margin | 6.000 | |
| Set Point % | 2/2-1.000 | |
| Time | 14:29.20 |