Last Tuesday, March 4, the Los Altos High School varsity badminton team lost 12–18 to the Los Gatos High School Wildcats in its first league game. 

Despite the overall loss, girls singles kept their yearlong undefeated streak against the Wildcats. Sophomore Sophia Lee continued this dominating tradition during her first year on varsity. 

“When I was training in the off-season, varsity was the goal,” Sophia said. “Getting to play on varsity and winning feels pretty good.”

Sophia explained that during her match, she focused on her opponent’s weaknesses and exploited them to her advantage. 

“I realized that my opponent’s side-to-side footwork was not on par, like if I targeted the sides, she didn’t react,” Sophia said. “I spent most of my time attacking, and I think that’s why I was able to win with such a huge gap.” 

Sophia dominated her match in straight sets, winning 21–7 and 21–8. Girls singles 1 player co-captain Ziana Merchant also won her match in a landslide victory, winning 21–9 and 21–8. 

Since this was the first league game of the season, captain senior Raymond Liu explained how it’s mostly for new players to get used to how games run, rather than the end score. 

“I thought we played really well, and it was a close game — two matches could have made a difference,” Raymond said. “I look forward to seeing how our team will get more competitive once we get into the flow of things.”

This year, the badminton team has arranged multiple leadership positions besides the captains, such as communication, data, and team bonding leads. 

“What makes badminton different from other sports is that we have a massive team because JV and varsity get to play simultaneously,” Raymond said. “So a big thing is building a good community, and our bonding leads are responsible for coming up with different activities like some out-of-school trips, possibly a team hike or meal.” 

Communications Lead junior Allison Ding has been assigned to help improve communications between the team and the parents, another goal the badminton team has put in place this year.

“I know last year we didn’t do a great job communicating with parents, especially because a lot of them were interested,” Allison said. “So we want to give them more information on whether there have been any improvements since we’ve been recording scores or how well we’ve been doing in skill evaluations.” 

Even though Los Altos lost against the Wildcats, the team leads report seeing their practice since preseason paying off. 

“With badminton, it’s important to learn the right technique for each shot, so we really want to drive that home in our practice,” Raymond said. “This year, we have advice forms for the coaches and captains to fill out, which get transferred to each player’s personal spreadsheet. I think it’s a good way for us to all see how we can improve.” 

“A lot of good players graduated last year, but the team’s excited to be back on the courts,” Allison said. “We’re ready to continue and to win more.”

The Eagles’ next game is at home against Kathleen MacDonald High School on Tuesday, March 12, at 6 p.m.