Last Thursday, the Los Altos High School varsity badminton team continued their yearly tradition of sweeping the Santa Clara Bruins, beating them 21–9 in the fourth league game of the season. 

“Overall, I’m really happy with our performance,” Vice Captain junior Fiona Yao said. “I think the whole team’s just getting better recently.” 

Knowing Los Altos’s strong record, Santa Clara attempted to use the stacking tactic — positioning their strongest players lower on the roster to maximize their wins. Nevertheless, all girls and mixed doubles teams defeated their opponents in straight sets — earning the Eagles 12 points. 

Fiona, who plays mixed doubles 2, explained that not only did her team sweep their opponents, they saw improvement in their gameplay. 

“Until now, we’ve been having a lot of communication trouble,” Fiona said. “This is the first time we really got through an entire game smoothly.” 

Fiona described that in this match, she and her partner, senior Jared Chua, were more vocal about switching to different defensive and offensive positions. 

“It helped us know if we should go for the birdie or leave it to our partner,” Fiona said. 

Mixed doubles 1 player senior Iris Bao also felt improvement after winning her first set 21–13, then dominating her second set 21–2 with her partner junior Kourosh Yari. 

“Part of the challenge was mental, but we realized that match was very winnable, and there’s no reason to be struggling that hard,” Iris said. “By the second set, even though our opponents had the home court advantage, we got a sense of their playstyle and won.” 

Mixed doubles and girls doubles pulled through and earned the Eagles 12 points total. Although boys doubles 1 players sophomore Schuyler Hsueh and junior Roshan Mahesh won the only match in their category, the other teams put up a close fight — bringing match scores to over 21 points at times. 

“This was the first time Roshan and I were truly able to work together and it really showed through our win,” Schulyer said. “It was also our first victory, so it feels really nice.”

The duo did not rely on their skills alone to win, though. Thanks to Captain senior Raymond Liu’s coaching, Schuyler and Roshan improved their score from 21–17 in the first set to 21–13 in the second. 

“He gave us some good pointers, especially about being more aggressive and preparing better for their smashes,” Schuyler said. 

Even though not everyone won, Schuyler and Fiona explain how morale always increases after a sweep. 

“Because our team is on the lower end of the league, we usually don’t get many wins,” Fiona said. “It’s nice to watch the rest of the team have their confidence boosted as well.” 

The Eagles will face Mountain View High School at home for a rivalry game today, at 5:15 p.m.