Patriots go 19-0, including win over Mira Mesa to win championship
Patrick Henry High seniors Nikki Bishop and Kayla Hazel swept their girls’ singles matches, then teamed up to sweep their girls’ doubles match, leading the Patriots to a second consecutive San Diego Section team badminton championship over the Mira Mesa Marauders, 9-5, at Kearny High on Saturday.
Patrick Henry, which finished 19-0, won seven of the eight singles matches to all but conclude it would win a third section title in the last four seasons under head coach Trustin Nguyen.As a player, Nguyen was on a pair of section championship teams during Hoover’s decade-plus-long dominance that resulted in a section-best 10 championships. The Patriots are now second all-time with five SDS-CIF co-ed titles in team badminton. Serra is next with four.
Patrick Henry’s CIF champion doubles team of Anthony Nguyen and Francis Hoang competed in singles in the team final and both swept their matches. “After I broke my wrist, I came back and just trained really hard as much as I could and stuck with it,” Hoang said. “The team means everything to me right now. This means more to me .
For Mira Mesa, senior Mylene Keophaseut, a CIF champion in singles and doubles held last week, swept to victory in her match over two-time Patriot female MVP Jennifer Diep, then teamed with Nguyen to sweep their doubles match over Diep and Dang.