2008 Woodie Awards
Badminton's doubles team wins championship
STATE FINALS: Four of the women will travel to Fresno and play at state finals.
By: Bill Greco and David Lopez
Issue date: 5/12/05 Section: Sports
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While the team members individually had mixed degrees of success, the doubles team of Tomoe Okaguchi and Ida Leong walked away with the greatest prize of all; the Southern California doubles badminton championship.
"I was really excited that Tomoe and I won," Leong said. "Now we can go to state (State Championships) and compete with the best players in the state."
Leong, Okaguchi, Marjorie Cortez and Danielle Ruedas will be traveling to Fresno for the state finals.
The state finals will be tomorrow and Saturday at noon at Fresno City College.
Friday, there will be an elimination round in which a loss will send the player home. Saturday will host all the players who won Friday.
There will be a semifinal on Saturday morning and those who move on will play in the final during the afternoon.
"One of the really good things about the competition was that I got a chance to meet some of the players from East L.A.," Leong said. "We were enemies during conference, but we will be friends at the state competition."
The SoCal Championships took place at the Manhattan Beach Badminton Club, where Leong and Okaguchi advanced to the state finals after beating Pasadena's Grace Chang and Mika Nataka by scores of 16-11 and 16-9 for the doubles championship.
Due to last Friday's results, the Warriors had four players qualify to the state finals competition.
Ruedas and Cortez qualified for state despite losing in the quarterfinals.
"I'm really pleased with the women's performances, especially those of Marjorie and Danielle," coach John Britton said. "Two years ago, those two ladies did not even know what a badminton racket was."
For Okaguchi, it was the second straight year that she lost in the singles conference finals after going undefeated in conference play for two consecutive seasons.
However, it was not all one giant party for the Warriors last week.
The women played Irvine Valley College Wednesday in a playoff game, and were thoroughly humbled by one of the elite badminton teams in the country-one that features four members of the U.S. National Team.
"I was really excited that Tomoe and I won," Leong said. "Now we can go to state (State Championships) and compete with the best players in the state."
Leong, Okaguchi, Marjorie Cortez and Danielle Ruedas will be traveling to Fresno for the state finals.
The state finals will be tomorrow and Saturday at noon at Fresno City College.
Friday, there will be an elimination round in which a loss will send the player home. Saturday will host all the players who won Friday.
There will be a semifinal on Saturday morning and those who move on will play in the final during the afternoon.
"One of the really good things about the competition was that I got a chance to meet some of the players from East L.A.," Leong said. "We were enemies during conference, but we will be friends at the state competition."
The SoCal Championships took place at the Manhattan Beach Badminton Club, where Leong and Okaguchi advanced to the state finals after beating Pasadena's Grace Chang and Mika Nataka by scores of 16-11 and 16-9 for the doubles championship.
Due to last Friday's results, the Warriors had four players qualify to the state finals competition.
Ruedas and Cortez qualified for state despite losing in the quarterfinals.
"I'm really pleased with the women's performances, especially those of Marjorie and Danielle," coach John Britton said. "Two years ago, those two ladies did not even know what a badminton racket was."
For Okaguchi, it was the second straight year that she lost in the singles conference finals after going undefeated in conference play for two consecutive seasons.
However, it was not all one giant party for the Warriors last week.
The women played Irvine Valley College Wednesday in a playoff game, and were thoroughly humbled by one of the elite badminton teams in the country-one that features four members of the U.S. National Team.