SOUTHERN SECTION 4-A BADMINTON PLAYOFFS : Estancia Dethrones Buena Park

Buena Park’s bid for a third consecutive Southern Section 4-A badminton championship was blocked by a young and talented Estancia team Friday at Cypress College.

After sweeping the three opening mixed doubles matches, undefeated Estancia won the title, 11-8, stopping the Coyotes’ quest for a third consecutive 4-A title.

The victory was especially sweet for Estancia Coach Lillian Brabander, whose team last year was undefeated until losing to Garden Grove, 10-9, in the semifinals.

“This is a young team that I didn’t expect to go beyond the quarterfinals when the season started,” Brabander said. “But they got better and better.”

So much better, that after Estancia’s strong showing in the individual championships last Saturday at Cypress, Buena Park Coach Michelle Tafoya was hoping Garden Grove could repeat last year’s upset of the Eagles in Tuesday’s semifinals.

But Estancia (20-0) defeated Garden Grove, 15-4, generating momentum that carried into Friday. Buena Park finishes 16-1.

Chau Nguyen and Doan Nguyen defeated Buena Park’s Scott Lee and Noy Sundara, 15-8, 15-8, in the No. 1 match. Then the Eagles’ Lan Ly and Cam Tu Tram defeated Anh Le and Tam Le, 15-5, 15-12, and Linh Doan and Thuy Nguyen completed the sweep by beating Ricky Tran and Cora Tu, 15-9, 10-15, 15-11.

“That was what hurt us,” Tafoya said. “That’s the first time we’ve ever lost all three (mixed doubles) this year.”

Sundara, who ended her career with 121 consecutive singles victories, and Tam Le’s expected sweep of the girls’ singles closed the gap to 7-6 in Estancia’s favor. But Estancia’s No. 2 boys’ singles player, Linh Doan, who lost an earlier match to Buena Park’s Nghi Tran, came back to beat Buena Park’s No. 1 player, Scott Lee, 15-7, 15-3, to clinch the meet, 10-6.

“After losing my first match to Le, I wanted to beat them,” Doan said. “I’m very proud of our team. We practice hard.”