As the saying goes, anyone can be beaten at any given moment. The San Diego Mesa College women’s badminton team fulfilled that sentiment last Thursday by upsetting back-to-back state champions DeAnza College 14-7 in Cupertino, California. 

The Olympian badminton team entered the 2024 campaign with some high hopes. After finishing 8-2 last season, which earned the team a second-place finish in the South Coast Conference, head coach June Andrews knew that she was starting to form a team that would compete with the likes of DeAnza. For the first time since taking over the program, Andrews mentions that the team is well-rounded from the #1 slot through #9. 

Mira Mesa alumni Mylene Keopaseut at the #2 slot and Kathy Lee at #3 played outstanding. Keopseut defeated Mailan Vuong 21-16, 22-20. She followed up with a win over Renee Ou 21-16, 21-16. Lee overcame a tough three-set match against Hadis Najafzadeh 18-21, 21-10, 21-10. She followed that with another victory against Jamie Min 21-12, 21-12. 

The doubles team came through with pivotal points that propelled the team to victory. 

Esther Ngo leadership was felt throughout the day. Her veteran presence at the #4 slot is important. Ngo defeated Najafzadeh in a very tight match 21-19, 19-21, 20-12. 

“This was a total team victory,” adds Andrews. “A victory like this can provide an immense amount of confidence heading into tough matches. We competed across the board and the doubles team played phenomenally.”

Ariana Huerta and Sophia Walton had one of the key victories the team needed. Despite dropping the second set, Huerta and Walton pulled off a 21-19, 16-21, 21-16 victory at #3 doubles. Huerta also added to the win tally by defeating Enya Liu at the #6 singles 21-15, 21-6. 

Freshman Brittney Villalvazo shook off her loss at #5 singles and bounced back with a 21-15, 21-14 win at #6 against Enya Liu.

Despite some early challenges at the singles slot, Megan Nguyen was instrumental in capturing 4 points in doubles with Mylene Keopaseut. Nguyen and Keopaseut defeated Vuong and Thai at the #1 doubles slot 21-16, 21-13. They then defeated DeAnza’s #2 doubles 21-9, 21-11, convincingly.

“We have something special going on with this team,” head coach June Andrews states. “We need to improve our conditioning, and if we do that, we can make a serious run at the state championship. We aim to hang a banner inside our gym, which will be the first time since the back-to-back championships in 2000 and 2001.