PCC Women's Badminton Clinches 17th South Coast Conference Title

Leslie Lien in action during a recent home match (photo by Richard Quinton).
Leslie Lien in action during a recent home match (photo by Richard Quinton).

Since it was introduced as a California Community College sport in 2000, women's badminton has been a standard in Pasadena City College Athletics. On Friday, the Lancers clinched the program's 17th South Coast Conference title in a 19-2 victory at East Los Angeles.

It's the seventh in eight complete seasons under head coach Jennifer Ho and if PCC defeats San Diego Mesa on Wednesday, April 24, it would mean all seven are undefeated crowns in her tenure. 

Perfect thus far at 11-0 overall, the Lancers are 9-0 in the SCC and can only be tied by Mesa (7-1) for the conference title if the Olympians win out their last two matches. PCC defeated Mesa, 16-5, in their first matchup on March 14.

"This year's team has been enjoyable because we have been able to play all 11 players in various matches," Ho said. "I'm proud of what we have done here at PCC to keep this level of dominance for this amount of time. It's going to be an uphill battle though for us at state."

Ho is referring to the buzz from City College of San Francisco, 7-0, and the North's top team out of the Coast Conference. The teams are likely to meet in the 3C2A State Championship team final on Thursday, May 9 at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium, the site of the 2024 state tournament, including the individual singles and doubles (May 9-11).

In the team's win at ELAC, Ho played My Linh Ly at #1 singles and she scored two match wins as did the rest of the ladder--#2 Sophie Chao, #3 Leslie Lien, #4 Karylle Peralta, #5 Laura Lin, and #6 Vicky Ruan--in a 12-0 sweep in that category.

In doubles, #1 Rhea Zou played with Janet Diec to record two wins and #3 Lin-Ruan also won its match. The #2 pairing of Peralta-Lien split their two matches, allowing the Huskies two team points.

On April 5, PCC blanked a short-handed Compton team, 21-0. 

Coach Ho (far right) directs her team