On March 18, the SIS varsity badminton team played its first KAIAC league match against the Chadwick Dolphins, securing a victory by winning 18 out of 20 matches.

The only matches SIS lost were a girls doubles and a mixed doubles match; in every other match, the Tigers defeated Chadwick by far. 

“The Tigers played fantastic today, minimizing their mistakes and forcing opponents to take difficult shots,” Ricky Green, varsity badminton coach, said. 

Though every athlete equally contributed to their valuable victory, a few matches stood out in particular.

Andrew Choi (11) boasted his impressive skill set in his match against Chadwick’s Jesse Cho (11): he took advantage of low clears with a jump smash, confused his opponent with a drop shot after faking a smash, and pressured his opponent to the back of the court with long clears. As the game progressed, Jesse utilized more drop shots, in which Andrew responded with cross hairpins. Andrew topped both sets by 21-5.

“[Jesse] had high drop shots and low clears, so I had many easy opportunities to hit a powerful smash,” Andrew said. “But although I secured the game, I made too many mistakes––something I need to improve on for future matches.”

Elena Kim (10) also displayed a skillful performance against Chadwick’s Olivia Seo (10). Elena employed her fast reaction speed to receive smashes, hit long clears into each corner, and seized every smash opportunity, dominating both sets by 21-4.

Friday’s game did not only emphasize the Tiger’s strengths; it also shed light on areas of improvement and a future direction for practice.

“I am satisfied with our performance today––especially in singles––yet we still need more practice on doubles,” Coach Green said. “Our athletes have great individual skills, so our team’s current priority is to build relationships between doubles partners. With this aspect refined, we could hopefully continue our win streak in our upcoming matches against GSIS and CDS.”