HIGHLAND PARK 7, WASHINGTON 0
This is Eagle week. Yesterday was Kennedy. Today was Washington. These Eagles traveled to Highland Park and were clipped by the Scots 7-0. The Scots won six of the matches in two sets. The exception was at fourth singles with Mai Moua of Highland who lost her first set 22-20 to Cristina before gaining the next two sets to complete the sweep. Cristina’s extra point win was one of two such sets. The other came in the second set at third doubles with Natalia Gercheva and Justina Than outlasting Sage and Saniya 23-21.
The doubles beat the singles with margin 8.167 to 6.778 probably with the third set match at fourth singles tipping the scales to the doubles.
HP is now 3-6 in St. Paul, 6-7 overall. Washington is 1-9 in the conference, 2-9 overall.
With the charting of Washington, I now have seen ALL 32 badminton teams. What awaits next are the best available matches for me to chart. Sites will be based on top singles opponents.
SINGLES
1 Nica Johnson, HP def Ceferina Xiong 21-14, 21-9
2 Birtukuan Aregawi, HP def Elliyana Chan 21-12, 21-16
3 Charlotte Bistodeau, HP def Aleena 21-16, 21-13
4 Mai Moua, HP def Cristina 20-22, 21-9, 21-16
DOUBLES
1 Violet Solem-Valentine/ Alice Verbrugge, HP def Amanda Moua / Pashalia Yang 21-11, 21-10
2 Abby Putz /Julia Vang, HP def Kyi Aye / Mary Wah 21-12, 21-9
3 Natalia Gercheva/ Justina Than, HP def Sage / Saniya 21-16, 23-21
BY THE NUMBERS
SINGLES
Matches: Highland Park 4-0 1.000
Games: Highland Park 8-1 .889
points: Highland Park 188-127 .597
Set 1 points: Highland Park 83-64 .565
Set 2 points: Highland Park 84-47 .641
Set 3 points: Highland Park 21-16 .568
decided by 10+: Highland Park 2-0 1.000
decided by 3-: Washington 1-0 1.000
margin: Highland Park 6.778
DOUBLES
Matches: Highland Park 3-0 1.000
Games: Highland Park 6-0 1.000
points: Highland Park 128-79 .618
Set 1 points: Highland Park 63-39 .617
Set 2 points: Highland Park 65-40 .619
decided by 10+: Highland Park 3-0 1.000
decided by 3-: Highland Park 1-0 1.000
margin: Highland Park 8.167
FIRST SINGLES
Nica JOHNSON 2, Ceferina XIONG 0
(21-14, 21-9)
Johnson got off to fast starts in both sets. She opened the first with the serve (an ace) and then three more points. This was the first of two runs in that opening set. In set two, on her second service, she rattled off eight straight with the first point in that run an 18 stroke soft drive, the longest rally of the day. When starting off with a 4-0 lead and 8-1 lead it forces opponents to play catch up.
Xiong battled in the first set and the game settled into trading side outs. Ten straight times the duo sided out the other. Xiong had one run in the first set, and it came on service eight cutting that deficit to 12-11. Johnson stopped that run and then added her second run two services later to create some space at 18-12.
The second set did not feature the side out sequence. In fact, the services were basically cut in half from 11/10 to 6/5. There were six total runs compared to three total runs in the first set. Johnson capped the day with a final run of five to secure the victory.
As has been typical of the winners lately, Johnson won the side out game, winners, and also minimized her errors. Johnson delivered 30 winners for the match, 11 of which were smashes. Xiong had 13 total winners. Johnson had seven two stroke winners on the day, with the soft drive scoring the most with four. Johnson cut back on service errors in this match to zero. In previous matches, she had averaged giving away two points on missed serves each set.
Johnson moves to 7-6 on the year. This was her second victory over Xiong. The first meeting lasted three sets with a 21-17 final. Xiong is 2-9 on the year.
| Category | JOHNSON | XIONG |
| Side out | 10/15-.667 | 7/17-.412 |
| Longest side out string | 6 | 6 |
| 3+ Runs | 6 | 3 |
| Longest point string | 11 | 4 |
| SERVING | ||
| First serve | 1, 2 | — |
| First point | 1 | 2 |
| Service points | 27 | 8 |
| Serving % | 41/42 | 23/23-1.000 |
| Point generated off serve | .643 | .348 |
| POINTS | 42 | 23 |
| Points after 11 | 20 | 10 |
| Points after own errors | 6 | 6 |
| Winners after own errors | 4 | 3 |
| STROKES | 167 | 90 |
| Strokes per point | 3.976 | 3.913 |
| 5+ rallies (%) | 13 | 8 |
| 2- rallies (%) | 15 | 6 |
| WINNERS | 30 | 13 |
| Aces | 3 | 0 |
| Blocks | 1 | 1 |
| Clears | 5 | 2 |
| Drives | 3 | 2 |
| Drops | 0 | 6 |
| Soft drives | 7 | 0 |
| Smashes | 11 | 2 |
| Even Stroke Winners | 13 | 8 |
| 2nd Stroke Winners | 7 | 5 |
| Odd Stroke Winners | 17 | 5 |
| ERRORS | 10 | 12 |
| Deep | 1 | 1 |
| Net | 6 | 5 |
| Wide | 2 | 6 |
| Serve | 1 | 0 |
| Even stroke errors | 3 | 10 |
| 2nd stroke errors | 2 | 5 |
| Odd stroke errors | 7 | 2 |
| WINNER LOCATION | ||
| Left | 16 | 3 |
| Right | 14 | 9 |
| Largest Lead | 7, 12 | 0, 1 |
| W:E Ratio | 3.000 | 1.083 |
| Margin | 9.500 | |
| Set Point % | 2/2-1.000 | |
| Time | 15:01.43 |