La Quinta Doubles Pleasure With Two Titles

La Quinta walked away with two titles in the Southern Section Badminton Individual Championships Saturday at Cypress College.

The Aztecs, favored to advance to the May 23 finals in team competition, won championships in the boys’ and girls’ doubles, making them the only county team to win an individual title this season.

In boys’ doubles, second-seeded Dat Nguyen and Patrick Lam struggled through a tough semifinal match before upsetting Alhambra Keppel’s top-seeded team, Xiao Hoang and Binh Tran, 15-12, 15-11, in the title match.

“It was really special,” said Lam, a junior. “But we had to get over some conflicts to get here.”

The conflicts were mental ones suffered by Nguyen after a disappointing loss in the mixed doubles on Friday. “It affected me all the way up through the semis,” Nguyen said, “but many coaches told me to get over it and if I want it that bad, to get it back in doubles.”

In the semifinals, Nguyen and Lam faced third-seeded Nae Lee and Jacob Musharbash from Azusa, a team they lost to twice this season. Nguyen and Lam won, 15-9, 15-11.

“That was an extremely big lift,” Nguyen said. “I knew if we could pass them, we could get the momentum.”

After taking the first game in the final, 15-12, Nguyen and Lam struggled in the second, falling behind, 11-5, before rallying with 10 consecutive points for the title.

In girls’ doubles, it was an all-county final with La Quinta’s fourth-seeded Quynh Tran and Diep Nguyen knocking off Garden Grove’s second-seeded Lien Ly and Huong Nguyen, 17-14, 15-5.

Tran and Nguyen jumped to an early 10-1 lead in the first game, but Ly and Nguyen battled back to tie it, 14-14, before losing in the tiebreaker.

Boris Chung became the first player to advance to the boys’ singles finals for Magnolia, where he had to face top-seeded Amarit Rojsirvit of Alta Loma. Rojsirvit, a junior, came to Alta Loma this year from Thailand. He is a member of Thailand’s national junior team.

Third-seeded Chung, took the 15-4, 15-7 loss easily.

“I’m just really happy I made it this far,” Chung said. “I am the first boy from Magnolia to come this far.”