Thao, Mortinson/Teigland Champs

#1 posting 5.18.2007
your daily dose of badminton news & information

INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIP DAY
Today the Minnesota Badminton championships wrapped up with Harding's Pang Thao taking her second straight singles title. The unseeded pair of Lindsey Mortinson and Michelle Teigland beat the 2, 3, and today the #1 seeds in their march to the championship.

I got to Harding a bit late traffic heading east on 94 at a crawl at some points. I got there just after the first games were finished in the semis.

SINGLES---THAO TERRIFIC
I started with the Mee Xiong vs Katie Vohnoutka battle. Harding's Xiong took game one 21-18. On game two Xiong led early 8-2. Vohnoutka came back on her third serve with four straight services points to cut the margin to 8-7. Xiong did pull back out to a 14-11 lead. At this point Xiong was able to squeeze points on five of her six serves. Vohnoutka finished the contest with a 9-3 run as she converted on her last three serves. The smash game was working as she had seven in this game. Again the counting was off as my notebook had Vohnoutka up 20-17.

In the deciding third game both players were in side out mode with Vohnoutka only getting two points off her first six serves. Xiong had two points off her first five serves. At this stage Xiong held a narrow 8-7 lead. Things started to loosen after that. The game was tied at 14 when Xiong put together a three point run on a couple of Vohnoutka hitting errors 17-14. Vohnoutka came back with three of her own winners including a smash to make it 18-17 Xiong. The key point came on a deep serve to stop Vohnoutka's momentum. Xiong didn't give the bird back and moved on.

In the other semi it was Harding's Pang Thao topping Central's Lee Vue 21-12, 21-17. This was the first time in the tournament Thao had allowed anyone double digits.

In the championship Pang Thao faced off against her teammate Mee Xiong. With Xiong coming off the three game drainer against Vohnoutka she was tired. Thao took advantage of the longer rest time and Xiong's fatigue. Thao had seven serves in the first game and squeezed points off of five of them. Xiong did not get a point off her serve. They all came off of siding out Thao. By the way the score in this game was only 19-7. Again miscounting struck. I don't think it would have changed the outcome however.

Xiong led game two early 4-1 thanks to Thao hitting errors. Thao stopped that with a smash to get the bird back. On Thao's fifth serve she ran off five straight to go up 12-6. At this point in the game the Clear game was Thao's winner with five points. Xiong did cut the margin to five at the closest. Thao finished with a 6-3 run to claim her second straight title.

DOUBLES--UNSEEDED DUO TOPS FIELD
The Doubles tournament was seeded out to the 6th seed. The unseeded Burnsville duo of Lindsey Mortinson and Michelle Teigland had to beat the second seed in the opening round. The Johnson pair of Pang Thao and Pakou Vang didn't get on track as Mortinson/Teigland dominated 21-11, 21-2. That was yesterday.

Today in the semis they took on Johnson's other double team of Kia Thao and Karen Obermeyer-Kolb. This group was the #3 seed. This Johnson doubles team played together all year as a team and were the primary doubles team. (Thao and Vang were singles players paired for doubles only a couple of season matches). It took three games for the Burnsville pair to triumph, and they needed an extra point in game three 13-21, 21-17, 22-20.

That win put them in the finals against the #1 team coming in, the home court duo from Harding, Dia Xiong and PaNhia Yang. Just as in the semis, Mortinson and Teigland lost the first game 21-17. They bounced back in game two 21-18. I was able to come in at this point as the singles championship was over. The first break point came after the game was tied at 6-6. Three Harding hitting errors put Burnsville up 9-6. Xiong and Yang had a four point burst on Harding's seventh serve to go up 11-10. The game was tied at 13 when Burnsville had their 9th serve. Harding never got the bird back as the Blaze was on fire for 8 straight service points. Seven of those points were on Harding hitting error.

With the win Burnsville prevented Harding from sweeping the top honors like last year.

Next up: Photos of the winners.