Category Archives: Badminton Out & About

Badminton Out & About: Highland Park 4, Harding 3

HIGHLAND PARK 4, HARDING 3

Host #6 Highland Park edged out #2 Harding in a reversal of fortune from their first meeting. The Scots flipped two matches (one at first singles in a battle between the two top ranked players). In the first meeting on March 28 at Harding the Knights had a different line up. Current second and third singles players Kimberly Tobar and Ana Xiong were first doubles then. Back in March Harding swept the doubles. At no point today did any match go the distance. That wasn’t the case in March where first and fourth singles both went three sets and both ending with a two point difference in the third set. In other words, HP missed out on a 4-3 victory by four points. Today there was no what if scenarios for the Knights.

Today the singles were controlled by HP, the doubles to the Knights. Each side did take one away at each level. Harding prevented the Scot sweep at singles with a victory at third, and HP grabbed a second doubles win. There were two singles sets that went to extra points with both sides claiming a win. Singles proved to be tighter than doubles (4.33 to 3.13). Also, both sides gathered strength in their respective venues. The Tsheng Yang provided the fourth win for HP with a two set win at fourth singles.

Things won’t get any easier for HP tomorrow. They travel to #3 Burnsville for a triangular. #5 Edina will also be in the house.

SINGLES
1. Sunshine Vang, HP def Kanlaya Thao 21-10, 21-18
2. Phlower Vang, HP def Kimberly Tobar 23-21, 21-16
3. Ana Xiong, H def Sara Shiferaw 21-13, 22-20
4. Tsheng Yang, HP def Gaohli Vang 21-16, 21-12

DOUBLES
1. Shia Lee / Christina Chang, H def Ellie Boudet / Katia Gercheva 21-8, 21-7
2. Bety Shiferaw / Satori Soulisak-Hoang, HP def August Say / Kasey Yang 21-17, 21-13
3. Isabelle Gutierrez / Lilian Reiter, H def Alice Verbrugge / Claudia Rodrigeuz-Foster 21-16, 21-15

BY THE NUMBERS
SINGLES
Matches
: Highland Park 3-1 .750
Games: Highland Park 6-2 .750
points: Highland Park 161-136 .523
Set 1 points: Highland Park 78-68 .534
Set 2 points: Highland Park 83-68 .550
decided by 10+: Highland Park 1-0 1.000
decided by 3-: Highland Park 2-1 .667
margin: Highland Park 3.125
DOUBLES
Matches
: Harding 2-1 .667
Games: Harding 4-2 .667
points: Harding 114-88 .564
Set 1 points: Harding 59-45 .567
Set 2 points: Harding 55-43 .561
decided by 10+: Harding 2-0 1.000
decided by 3-: none
margin: Harding 4.333

FIRST SINGLES

SUNSHINE VANG 2, KANLAYA THAO 0
(21-10, 21-18)

#2 Sunshine Vang handed #1 Kanlaya Thao her first loss of the season in straight sets. This was another flip from the first match of the year which Thao won in three sets. Vang’s strong side out game was evident right off the bat in the first set with eight straight shut downs on Thao’s serve. Five of those side outs ended on two strokes, and four of those were on soft drives, all four to the right side of the court. Vang also built up  strong runs in set one with runs on service two, four, six and seven. The sixth and seventh services combined for a 10-1 run. In the final run of six Vang scored all winners with four soft drives including the final two points both seven strokers. The final point was a marathon 20 stroker that ended with a soft drive, Vang’s ninth soft drive of the set.

Adjustments were made in the second set by Thao. The two stroke side out action Vang scored with in the first set (five times) only scored twice in set two. The soft drives were cut from nine to three. But that didn’t prevent Vang from scoring winners, she had one more in set two, and her side out game, though not as air tight in set two, was still healthy at 69%.

With two highly ranked players strong play is to be expected. Fans were not disappointed. Stroke counts on average were high—above four for both. The sound of the racquet makes on contact with the bird was also solid. Several times players made dives to keep the bird alive. Mostly Thao was on the floor, but eventually the points dropped in for Vang.

Down below I have updated some of the stats. I am using percentage on several items and added winner locations—-right or left side of the court. Obviously clears would be back, soft drives in front of the service line. For example, Vang scored 92% after an error; 83% with winners. Also the winners for Vang tended to involve the right side of the court. Another interesting fact was Vang scored 15 winners on the odd stroke, compared to only two for Thao.

One more point (or is it two more points) I had Vang at 22 for both games. I know there was one replay in the second set and I did not count that. So my final count was 21-7 in the first set, 21-17 in the second. Still they played on.

Category VANG THAO
Side out 17/22-.773 11/21-.524
Longest side out string 8 4
3+ Runs 7 1
Longest point string 6 3
SERVING    
First serve 2 1
First point 1, 2 none
Service points 22 6
Serving % 43/43-1.000 27/28-.964
Point generated off serve .500 .222
POINTS 44 27
Points after 11 23 11
Points after own errors (success rate) 11 (.917) 10 (.769)
Winners after own errors (success rate) 10 (.833) 4 (.308)
STROKES 205 123
Strokes per point 4.659 4.556
5+ rallies (%) 18 (.409) 11 (.407)
2- rallies (%) 12 (.273) 6 (.222)
WINNERS (%) 31 (.705) 15 (.556)
Aces 2 0
Blocks 0 0
Clears 6 2
Drives 3 0
Drops 3 3
Soft drives 12 5
Smashes 5 5
Even Stroke Winners 16 (.516) 13 (.867)
2nd Stroke Winners 7 (.226) 5 (.333)
Odd Stroke Winners 15 (.484) 2 (.133)
ERRORS (OP%) 12 (.444) 13 (.295)
Deep 1 2
Net 4 7
Wide 7 3
Serve 0 1
Even stroke errors 5 7
2nd stroke errors 1 2
Odd stroke errors 7 6
WINNER LOCATION    
Left side (%) 11 (.355) 9 (.600)
Right side (%) 20 (.645) 6 (.400)
Largest Lead 14, 4 0, 2
W:E Ratio 2.583 1.154
Margin 8.50
Set Point % 2/5-.400
Time 16:38