IVC racquets fall quiet, fall short of qualification
One of Irvine Valley’s lesser-known sports has a history of making itself one of the better-known teams in the California Community College Athletic Association Women’s Badminton Tournament.
However, all Lasers will remain unknown to the 2008 round as the team’s seven-year run of qualifying came to an end in Hart Gymnasium, Friday.
The run for back-to-back state champion San Diego City College, on the other end, is still going strong, as the Orange Empire Conference powerhouse took the top two sports in singles, and the top three in doubles, going into tournament play courtesy of its performance in the IVC-hosted OEC Tournament.
Lasers doubles pair Shelly Stephan and Rose Gong fell to Knights Ha Tu and Crisselda Vinluan, 19-21, 15-21, in the quarterfinals of Friday’s event.
Tu is seeded No. 2 in singles and, paired with Crisselda Vialuan, No. 3 in doubles.
In their 2006-07 season, the Lasers finished as state champions in both singles and doubles. Shannon Hsu took singles honors before being paired with partner Tracey Nei to sweep for the doubles title.
The Lasers won four-consecutive state championships from 2002-2005. The 2006 and 2007 titles belonged to San Diego City College , which will look to accent its third consecutive OEC title with its third consecutive state title when it faces Skyline College in the 2008 championship.
The Trojans will host the Knights, May 8 at noon.
Skyline will host the team championship match and individual championships May 9 and 10.
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