The562’s coverage of Jordan Athletics is sponsored by former LBUSD superintendent Chris Steinhauser.
This Long Beach badminton recap is compiled from submissions.
Poly vs. Lakewood
Poly stretched their record to 3-0 with a dominant 16-5 win over visiting Lakewood on March 7.
The Lancers drew first blood with a quick win by the second of their powerful Boys’ Doubles pairs of Andrew Heang and Anthony Heang over Poly’s second pair of Bob Lim and Leo Torres Orozco to briefly take the lead 1-0. However, Poly soon swept the first round of Mixed Doubles, going on to put up five consecutive wins. The Jackrabbits spent the rest of the night padding their lead.
Poly was led by senior Nick Jensen (Mixed Doubles, Boys’ Singles) and junior Nga Pham (Mixed Doubles, Girls’ Singles) who each swept all four of their contests. Besides Mixed Doubles, the Jackrabbits were particularly strong in Girls’ Singles, where Pham and junior Soki Phay held their opponents to six points or less in each of their games; and Girls’ Doubles, where the duos of Alana Leuth with Araya Leuth and Cass Hervas with Theany Heang made it through their matches unscathed.
Lakewood managed to win three of the four Boys’ Doubles events, led by their number one pair of Richie Chhit and Jacob Vong.
Poly visits Cabrillo March 12 in what is a battle of the Moore League’s two undefeated teams. Lakewood will host Jordan.
Cabrillo vs. Wilson
Cabrillo continued their winning ways in the Moore League by vanquishing visiting Wilson 19-2 on March 7.
The Jaguars dominated every event. Both of Wilson’s wins came from the efforts of Abhishek Jain. Jain teamed with Susi Martinez to win one of their two Mixed Doubles contests and put up a victory in Boys’ Singles over Cabrillo’s Justine Yambao.
“Cabrillo has a very impressive line up,” Wilson coach Adrian Marquez said. “Our team is up and coming and learning the ropes. We learned a lot today.”
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Poly vs. Jordan
Poly enjoyed a comfortable win, 19-2, over visiting Jordan on March 8 to extend their league and overall record to 4-0. The matches, originally scheduled for February 27, had been postponed due to Poly’s hosting of a CIF State Championship Boys Basketball game that day.
The Jackrabbits won most of their games in two sets, managing to hold their opponents to single digits twelve times. Both of Poly’s Girls’ Doubles pairs were models of consistency. The duos of Alana Leuth with Araya Leuth and Theany Heng with Cass Hervas, along with Girls’ Singles player Soki Phay, each held their adversaries scoreless in one of their games.
Phay and the Jackrabbits number one Girls’ Singles player, Nga Pham, added to their copy book season by winning both of their matches and extending their league records to 8-0.
The highlights of Jordan’s evening came courtesy of its Boys’ Singles players, Chanvatana Puthy and Jacob Bezan. The two of them split their matches 1-1 each. Both Puthy and Bezan beat Poly’s number singles entry but fell to the Jackrabbits’ Nick Jensen.
Jensen, the strong man of Poly’s lineup, made up for his occasional lapses with his signature thunderous smashes from the baseline and devastating kills at the net. He also swept his Mixed Doubles matches partnering with Alana Leuth and Yudi Perez-Ambrosio.
Nina Fife is a sophomore at Pepperdine University double majoring in Journalism and English with a writing and rhetoric emphasis. She began working with The562 in the inaugural intern class before being hired as their Social Media Director and now Assistant Editor. Nina is a proud Long Beach schools alum who graduated with valedictorian honors.
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