Long Beach Poly badminton suffered its first loss of the season on Monday in the CIF-SS Division 1 badminton quarterfinals, coming up short after a ferocious battle against Alhambra. The visiting Moors were able to finish strong after the score was tied 8-8, eventually holding off the Jackrabbits for a 13-8 victory.
Poly had the advantage in the girls’ matches on Monday, led by seniors Maryssa Tan and Krista Lim who swept through their singles matches. Not all of those wins came easily, however, as Tan mounted an impressive late comeback to defeat Alhambra’s Rhea Zou in her final match.
The Moore League girls’ singles champion won the first set 21-16 before Zou responded for a 21-14 win in the second. Zou then took a commanding 20-15 lead in the third game, but couldn’t close out the resilient Tan who fought off a handful of match points to tie the set and eventually win it, 23-21. That tied the overall score at 8-apiece, but the Moops pulled away from there.
The clinching victory came in boys’ singles after Poly junior Juan Vasquez put up a long battle. Unfortunately for the Jackrabbits, Vasquez eventually came up short in a 21-15, 16-21, 21-13 loss.
Poly finishes the season with a 12-1 team record along with the program’s first Moore League title since 2017. The Jackrabbits will now prepare for the CIF individual tournament next week.
Poly’s talented pair of Prongha Talukder and Krista Lim will team up for the mixed doubles competition as the only Moore League representatives in that bracket.
In boys’ singles, Vasquez will be joined by Cabrillo’s Gervyn Fuentes and Wilson’s Abhishek Jain and Benjamin Prait.
Tan will compete for the Jackrabbits in girls’ singles along with Wilson’s Maura Dark and Melissa Orna, plus Cabrillo’s Jasmin Ramos.
The Moore League will have four teams competing in boys’ doubles: Poly’s Albert Lee-Theng/Vinny Por, Lakewood’s Brandon San/Ivan Khensovan and Cabrillo’s two pairs of Peter Sison/Ronald Encanto and Jedrek De Guzman/Christopher Gomez.
League champions Karen Tan and Amanda Chhoy from Lakewood will lead the way in girls’ doubles, along with Cabrillo’s Princess Culas/Autum Yang, Poly’s Soriyah Sam/Nioni England and Wilson’s Beyda Castellamos/Allison Ong.
