Hoover High’s Badminton Team Dominates the NYL Tournament
Badminton players Maiceella Vang and Aniya Valverde smile at the result of their tournament.
May 16, 2022
The members of Hoover High School’s badminton team competed at the NYL Tournament at Fresno City College On April 29th of 2022. This tournament included badminton teams from Roosevelt High School, Reedley High School, Fresno High School, and McLane High School.
The NYL Tournament for Badminton was a double elimination tournament meaning that to be eliminated one would have to lose two matches.
This tournament consisted of two brackets-the winner’s and the loser’s bracket. One of the people or teams playing in the championship for 1st place would be undefeated. For the loser’s brackets, there were people who previously lost a game but continued to win against all the people in the loser’s bracket. At the very end, the winner who was undefeated and the winner of the loser’s bracket would come together to play for 1st place.
For Hoover High School, the number one and number two singles, Aniya Valverde and Maiceella Vang, both competed for the 1st place spot in the Singles Division.
Equally matched, both Maiceella and Aniya played an intense match by using each other’s weaknesses to try and get 1st place.
In the first set of two out of three, Aniya Valverde lost against Maiceella Vang. Each player won one game, but Aniya lost the tiebreaker.
Although Aniya lost their first game, it was not over yet. Since the tournament is double elimination and Aniya was undefeated, Maiceella had to play another set of two out of three to win.
In the second game with Aniya against Maiceella, Maiceella ended up losing two games straight, which ultimately led to Aniya being the Singles 2022 Champion.
Maiceella worked long and hard to get to the championship game and ultimately proved themself by being the first in the tournament to make Aniya Valverde no longer titled “undefeated.”
For Hoover’s Badminton doubles team, Hannah Kiang and Gao Nou Her also played the championship game for the Doubles Division against Reedley High School. Hannah Kiang and Gao Nou Her lost a game while in the winner’s bracket, which put them in the loser’s bracket, but even so, Hannah and Gao Nou continued to play hard and were able to make it to the championship game.
Although they lost in the end, they both played strong and got second place in the doubles division. This qualified them to play in the Valley Tournament against many other schools.
The final tournament took place on May 13th. The players who placed in the NYL tournament competed. Ultimately, they did not place in the Valley Tournament, but it was evident that all of Hoover’s participants worked hard to finish the season strong.
