SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION I BADMINTON : Overmatched Garden Grove Routed by Keppel in Final

On one hand, Garden Grove’s badminton team played as well as any team has against Alhambra Keppel, which has not given up more than five points all season.

On the other hand, the Argonauts were handily defeated by Keppel, 15-4, in the Southern Section Division I team badminton final Wednesday at Cypress College.

“We were overmatched today,” Argonaut Coach Vicki Toutz said. “Keppel is a very dominant team. We played very respectable today. We’re a very young team and I never expected us to get this far.”

The Aztecs, the Southern Section defending champions, won the first eight matches.

“Their team is very strong,” Aztec Coach Harold George said. “It just happens that our strength is where their strengths are.”

Junior Mike Lam scored the first point for the Argonauts with a 15-8, 10-15, 15-7 singles victory over Ken Lam.

By that point, the Argonauts knew they were playing for respect.

Nowhere was this more evident than in Vil Nonliboun’s singles match against Lam. After losing his matches in mixed doubles and first singles, the senior fought back from a 9-4 deficit in the third game to defeat Lam, 5-15, 15-7, 15-12.

“Vil has not performed as well as he wanted to in his last couple of matches,” Toutz said. “I’m glad that he was able to come back and finish (the season) with a strong performance.”

Trailing in the third game, Nonliboun used drop shots and smashes to win the next four points and close the gap to 9-8. After exchanging points, Nonliboun tied the score, 11-11, with a net-hugging redrop.

Nonliboun took a 14-12 lead with a smash down the line and won the set with a strong smash down the middle.

“I always put 100% and try to do the best that I can,” Nonliboun said. “Sometimes I’m successful, sometimes I’m overmatched. Against (Lam) I was successful.”

The Argonauts’ two other points came from its doubles teams. Dung Cu and David Nguyen defeated Jacky Wu and Tony Tan, 15-2, 4-15, 15-10. Rashi Gupta and Hanh Le defeated Cindy Wong and Aileen Dong, 15-10, 15-9.