Out & About: South/Washburn

#2 posting 4.17.2007
your periodic dose of badminton news & information

MINNEAPOLIS SOUTH tigers 4
MINNEAPOLIS WASHBURN millers 3

South won a tight contest with Washburn 4-3. Five of the contests went the three game distance. South took the singles 3-1 and third doubles. The match was tied at three with one match still out---third singles. CeCe Durney put that in the South column with a 21-13 win in game three. The doubles had five nailbiters that went down to four points or less. In second doubles the Washburn pair of Putwong and Harrop went long in the first game 24-22 and then took game three 21-19.

FIRST SINGLES
Bee Xiong had to win two in a row to take this contest and did it by cleaning up her errors. In game one Xiong had 15 hitting errors as Rina Maezato took the first contest 21 (or 22 as I had) to 18. Xiong led early in game one as she score on her first five serves. Xiong led 10-6 at this point. Maezato got back in the game with a side out plus three straight service points. Of the four points in that run three were Xiong hitting errors. Maezato had another five point run after being sided out. So a 9-1 run put Maezato up 15-11. Maezato again had another four point run to capped by an ace to go up 18 (19 in my book) to 13. Both players traded points to make it 20 (21) to 15. Xiong held off with three straight points before a hitting error put Maezato up one game to nothing.

Xiong eliminated a good chunk of hitting errors in the second game cutting down from 15 to a more manageable 6. What hurt Maezato in this game was five serving errors. Xiong broke away from a 5-4 margin to 7-4. At this point Xiong had use of three Maezato serving errors. Xiong, when not getting points on serving errors, limited the point scoring opportunities by siding out five more times of the seven opportunities. So Maezato was only able to squeeze two points off her own serve. Xiong had 9 points from her own serve. Xiong had two runs of three or more. Her drop game was working for four points.

In the deciding third game Xiong broke free from a six all tie. Xiong had a serve run of five with three smashes in the mix as the power game kicked in. Maezato had one last kick with a 7-1 run to close to 16-13. Four of those points were the result of Xiong hitting errors. A Maezato hitting error got the serve back in Xiong's hands and she never gave it back with four straight with the power smashes adding points 19 and 20. A clear finished the game 21-13.

SIDEOUTS: Xiong 17/28---.607; Maezato 11/29---.379
SERVE RUNS: Xiong 3, Maezato 3
POINTS:
Xiong 60; Maezato Hitting errors 13 (Fans 6, Wide 6, Deep 1); Smashes 12; Drops 12; Clears 10; Maezato serving errors 8 (Deep 4, Wide 4); Aces 3; Drives 2
Maezato 48; Xiong Hitting errors 27 (Net 14, Wide 7, Deep 5, Fan 1); Drops 6; Aces 4; smashes 4; Xiong serving errors 3 (wide 2, deep 1); Drives 2, Clears 2

SINGLES
1. Bee Xiong (S) def Rina Maezato 18-21, 21-13, 21-13
2. Dani Sack (W) def Ma Xiong 21-19, 17-21, 21-12
3. CeCe Durney (S) def Maly Yi 21-15, 17-21, 21-13
4. Jessica Jolson (S) def Sarah Radcliff 21-8, 21-11
DOUBLES
1. Mai Vang/Xee Lee (W) def Katherine McQuarter/Jackee Heslop 21-9, 17-21, 21-18
2. Montisha Puthwong/Jennie Harrop (W) def Maria Crespo/Rachel Mammen 24-22, 14-21, 21-19
3. Misha Hemmingson/Hannah Heig (S) def Xee Vue/Nicole Weishaar 21-12, 21-19

BY THE NUMBERS
SINGLES
Matches: South 3-1 .750
Games: South 7-4 .636
Points: South 213-174 .550
decided by 10+: South 2-0
decided by 3 or less: Washburn 2-0
DOUBLES
matches: Washburn 2-1 .667
games: 4-4
points: South 152-149 .505
decided by 10+: Washburn 1-0
decided by 3: Washburn 3-1

Next up: tomorrow morning