PREP BADMINTON / SOUTHERN SECTION PLAYOFFS : Katella Reaches Its Goal by Defeating Magnolia

Katella Coach Dave Green is happy his team reached its goal, but he also knows the next step is going to be the hardest.

The Knights advanced to the Division II badminton final by defeating Magnolia, 13-6, Tuesday at Magnolia.

Katella, which was ousted in the first round of last year’s Southern Section playoffs, will face third-seeded Lakewood in the championship game Thursday at Cypress College. Katella beat Lakewood, 10-9, earlier this season.

“We’ve reached our goal this year by making it to the finals,” Green said. “Now that we’ve made it here we have to stay mentally tough.”

Green’s main concern is his girls’ doubles, which dropped all four of its matches against a Magnolia squad that was missing its No. 1 doubles player.

Ling Phansavath came down with the flu before the game and was replaced by Joyce Cabuhat, Magnolia’s top singles player. Freshman Frances Uy came in as a last-minute substitution to play No. 2 singles.

Cabuhat and Patty Guyenne defeated Vy Pham and Cindy Duong, 15-11, 15-12, and finished the day beating Janice Yeh and Ailene Salcedo, 15-11, 15-4. Kathy Phillips and Ing Phansavath had to play three games in both of their matches for the victory, winning, 5-3, 5-15, 15-12 and 15-9, 7-15, 15-4.

In boys’ doubles, the tables were turned, as Katella didn’t lose a game to the Sentinels (16-6). Quoc Vuong and Toan Pham quickly finished off Michael Wang and Duy Tran, 15-4, 15-4, and Minh Pham and Vinh Nguyen, 15-5, 15-10. At No. 2, Jeff Wang and Mike Cheng won, 15-0, 15-7, and, 15-1, 15-13.

Top-seeded Katella (19-0) was led by Ying Chansawangpuvana, the Southern Section individual champion. In singles, Chansawangpuvana didn’t give up a point in her matches against Sandy Tran and Uy. Teamed with Vuong in mixed doubles, they easily defeated Wang and Guyenne, 15-2, 15-6.

In a Division I semifinal:

Garden Grove 14, Diamond Bar 5--The Argonauts advanced to the final round, where they will again face top-seeded Alhambra Keppel. Third-seeded Garden Grove (16-1) lost to Keppel in the finals last year, 15-4. Garden Grove got sweeps from Judy Pak, Rashi Gupta, David Nguyen and Dung Cu in singles.