SOUTHERN SECTION CHAMPIONSHIPS : Badminton Individual Championships : Cypress’ One-Player Team Takes Home a Title

Cypress High School has a one-girl badminton team.

No program. No full-time coach. Only Sanne Simonsen, who swept through the semifinals and finals Friday to win the girls’ singles title during the Southern Section Individual Championships at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

The only other Orange County winner was Estancia’s mixed doubles pair of Hoang Ly and Loan Le, who swept Chulki Song and Noy Sundara of Buena Park, 15-10, 15-10.

Simonsen easily handled Grace Van Someran of Katella, 11-3, 11-2, to take the championship after qualifying with a 11-4, 11-2 victory over Sundara of Buena Park. She allowed only 15 points in four rounds.

In fact, Simonsen, a exchange student from Denmark, had less trouble with her competition than she did getting into the tournament.

Her coach, Judy Moore, a teacher at Cypress, petitioned the Empire League late in the season to allow her to qualify for Southern Section tournament. After a vote of league’s principals, she was allowed to compete and did well enough in some late-season tournaments to be seeded No. 1 in the girls’ singles.

Simonsen has been playing badminton since she was 8. “I didn’t think I’d be playing when I got here,” she said. “I was kind of burned out. I could have ended up in some place like Kansas, where they don’t even know what the game is.”

Said Moore: “All she is interested in doing is playing. She doesn’t care about politics. But she is grateful to the league for letting her play.”

In the mixed doubles, Estancia’s top-seeded Ly and Le defeated Buena Park’s Song and Sundara with a pair of 15-10 scores after defeating Phi Ta and Soo Oh in the semifinals, 15-8, 15-12.

But Ly lost in the boys’ singles final for the second consecutive year, losing to Dan Mussman of Alta Loma, 15-12, 14-17, 18-16.

The top-seeded Ly had an 8-2 lead in the third game before second-seeded Mussman rallied and tied the score, 9-9. Ly and Mussman, both juniors, traded points until it was tied, 13-13, forcing an extra set.

Ly took a quick 3-0 lead, but, Mussman, who lost to Ly in three games earlier in the season, performed in the clutch to finish off the 18-16 game. It was the first loss of the season for Ly (65-1).

“I played bad,” Ly said. “I couldn’t do anything with my smashes.”

But his coach, Lillian Brabander said his pre-match meal might have been a factor.

“He ate a big breakfast and had an upset stomach all morning,” she said. “When the match was that close, it might have caused some problems. I know he has played better.”