Southern Section Badminton Championships : For Third Time, Hudson Beats Teammate Nguyen for Title

As expected, Tracy Hudson and Thuy Nguyen of Garden Grove High School Saturday met for a third straight time in the Southern Section individual badminton final. And also as expected, Hudson won her third girls’ singles title over Nguyen, 11-3, 11-0, at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

With a small but tense gathering of Garden Grove fans watching the teammates play, Hudson and Nguyen seemed ready to stage a dramatic championship match. She led, 3-1, in the first game, but then committed five unforced errors, allowing Hudson to take a 6-3 lead.

Hudson, considered the best player in the nation after winning the junior national championship last month, went on to score five straight points to win the game and followed with an aggressive 11-point blitz in the second game.

In the boys’ singles, top-seeded Martin Flores of Colton breezed to the title, defeating No. 3-seeded Dharshan Weerasekera of South Hills, 15-8, 15-9.

The No.1 boys’ doubles team of Amani Purcell and Young Park of Nogales also had little trouble winning the title, defeating Mike Stiles and Kats Saito of Palm Springs, 15-6, 15-3

Angela and Christian Armandariz of Glendale, top-seeded and junior national champions, won their second straight girls’ doubles championship, defeating Denise Gudmundson and Donna MacDougall of Colton, 15-9, 11-15, 15-12.

Covina’s Eric Silaphet and Eileen Tang defeated Flores and MacDougall in the mixed doubles, 6-15, 18-13, 15-10.