Alhambra Mark Keppel Beats La Quinta for Title

Alhambra Mark Keppel regained the Southern Section title it lost last year to Garden Grove by defeating La Quinta, 12-7, Thursday in the Division I badminton final at Cypress College.

Top-seeded Keppel (18-0) has dominated Southern Section badminton recently, winning its sixth championship in seven years. And that experience helped lead Keppel over a jittery La Quinta team.

Playing in its first final in 18 years, second-seeded La Quinta (14-2) came out shaky and was in trouble from the outset. With its strength in its doubles, La Quinta knew it was in trouble after losing all three mixed doubles matches to fall behind 0-3.

“I don’t know what happened,” said Dat Nguyen, who plays mixed and boys’ doubles for La Quinta. “We were not ready. We were not warmed up enough and I think everyone was nervous.”

La Quinta recovered from the opening-round shock, winning five of the eight remaining doubles’ matches.

Hoping to strengthen her No. 2 girls’ doubles team and pick up extra points, La Quinta Coach Jacquie Hewitson, split her Southern Section Individual Championship team of Quyen Tran and Diep Nguyen. The maneuvering gave her three of four victories in girls’ doubles.

Keppel swept in boys’ singles and clinched the match with Cammie Chou’s victory over Betty Troung, 11-2, 11-8 in girls’ singles.

“It feels good to be back” said Keppel Coach Harold George. “Everyone saying we weren’t as good this year, just made us want it more. I’m really proud of these kids.”

In boys’ doubles, La Quinta’s Nguyen and Patrick Lam, the Southern Section Individual Champions, easily swept their sets, defeating Xiao Hong and Binh Tran 15-6, 15-7 and Nelson Chu and Tom Chang, 15-4, 15-6.