#1 posting 5.8.2008
badminton news & information
ST. PAUL CHAMPIONS
KHOUA XIONG-SINGLES
DOUA THAO/DA CHANG-DOUBLES
The St. Paul City conference wrapped up their tournament today with #1 Khoua Xiong of Highland Park winning the singles and the St. Paul duo of Doua Thao and Da Chang taking the doubles titles. It was a battle of Xiongs for the singles title as Khoua Xiong beat Mee Xiong for the third time this year. The Central pair beat two Central doubles teams for the title.
Luckily I was able to make it just in time despite congestion on 694 due to construction in Fridley and also in the unweave the weave site.
SINGLES
SEMIFINALS: MEE XIONG vs GOLY YANG
#1 Khoua Xiong beat #4 Yer Chang of Central in the semis 21-14 and 21-10. I watched the other semifinal battle between #2 Mee Xiong of Harding and #3 Goly Yang of Johnson. Xiong started off the first game with three straight points and had a 10-2 lead after finishing her second service. Yang had one run good for three points to cut the margin to 12-6. The side out game was working for Xiong after that as she finished up with 3/4 side outs. Xiong also used the clear for two of her last four points.
Game two lasted linger and had a different flavor. Xiong led 3-0 early, but never had the 7 point run she had in game one. Goly Yang scraped and battled using the clear for four points, three on consecutive side outs. On Yang's sixth serve she had her own 7 point run to go up 14-9. Xiong had a rare four straight error string. Yang got her last point via the clear. Xiong got the side out with a soft drive and added four more to tie the game at 14. Yang added two more points to lead 16-14. With a deep hitting error Yang gave the bird up and didn't get another serve in the rest of the game. Xiong served out with six straight points, two of which were clears.
The key difference Xiong had a +13 advantage on hitting errors.
badminton news & information
ST. PAUL CHAMPIONS
KHOUA XIONG-SINGLES
DOUA THAO/DA CHANG-DOUBLES
The St. Paul City conference wrapped up their tournament today with #1 Khoua Xiong of Highland Park winning the singles and the St. Paul duo of Doua Thao and Da Chang taking the doubles titles. It was a battle of Xiongs for the singles title as Khoua Xiong beat Mee Xiong for the third time this year. The Central pair beat two Central doubles teams for the title.
Luckily I was able to make it just in time despite congestion on 694 due to construction in Fridley and also in the unweave the weave site.
SINGLES
SEMIFINALS: MEE XIONG vs GOLY YANG
#1 Khoua Xiong beat #4 Yer Chang of Central in the semis 21-14 and 21-10. I watched the other semifinal battle between #2 Mee Xiong of Harding and #3 Goly Yang of Johnson. Xiong started off the first game with three straight points and had a 10-2 lead after finishing her second service. Yang had one run good for three points to cut the margin to 12-6. The side out game was working for Xiong after that as she finished up with 3/4 side outs. Xiong also used the clear for two of her last four points.Game two lasted linger and had a different flavor. Xiong led 3-0 early, but never had the 7 point run she had in game one. Goly Yang scraped and battled using the clear for four points, three on consecutive side outs. On Yang's sixth serve she had her own 7 point run to go up 14-9. Xiong had a rare four straight error string. Yang got her last point via the clear. Xiong got the side out with a soft drive and added four more to tie the game at 14. Yang added two more points to lead 16-14. With a deep hitting error Yang gave the bird up and didn't get another serve in the rest of the game. Xiong served out with six straight points, two of which were clears.
The key difference Xiong had a +13 advantage on hitting errors.
photo: Goly Yang moves away from the net to make a back hand shot. photo by kja
SEMIFINALS SINGLES NUMBERS
SIDEOUTS:
Xiong 8/14-.571; Yang 6/15-.400
RUNS OF 3+:
Xiong 6, Yang 2
POINTS:
Xiong 42
Winners 17: Clears 5, Smashes 3, Drops 3, Drive 3, Soft Drives 3
Yang Errors 25: hitting 24 (Wide 12, Net 6, Fan 4, Deep 2), serving 1 (short 1)
Yang 27
Winners: 15: Smashes 6, Clears 6, Soft Drives 2, Aces 1
Xiong Errors 12: hitting 12 (Wide 6, Fans 3, Net 3)
Time: 14:35
CHAMPIONSHIP: KHOUA XIONG vs MEE XIONG
In the battle of the Xiongs it was Khoua over Mee in two games. Khoua used her soft drive cut shot to great effect. In fact she used it 17 times for points in the two games, which is one more than the winners for Mee Xiong in total. Khoua overall had 35 points on winners and only 7 points given too her. Khoua's winner advantage was 19 points. Mee had a +12 advantage on error points.
Khoua started off in the lead in game one with two straight soft drive shots. Mee tied it at 3 and 4. Khoua had two runs of three sandwiched around a hitting error to go up 10-5. Khoua pushed the lead out to 15-9. Mee used a clear to get the bird back and added three more points on her serve to close to 15-13. Khoua got a key side out on her soft drive cut and added two more to go up 19-14. A missed serve gave the bird back. Khoua sided out at 70% in game one and used her patented soft drive cut to get the bird again. Once again, for the 9th time in game one, the soft cut made the difference.
Game two lasted longer again. The total serves of each player went to 13 and 12.
Again Khoua 
took the early lead at 3-0 with two of the points coming via the soft drive. Six straight side outs later it was 6-3. Mee had a four point run to tie it up at 8. The game was tied again at 11. At some point around this stage of the game the count was off for Mee by -1. So when the score was stated 13-11 it really was 13-12. So from here on out I will state what the players considered to be the real score. Mee closed to 14-13. Two of the Khoua soft drives put her up 16-13. Mee had a three point run to tie the game at 17. All were hitting errors in the net from Khoua, the last on a smash attempt. Mee led 19-18 when Khoua got a clear for a side out. She smashed for point #20 and dropped for point #21 and the city championship.
Runs were few and far between in game two. The side out game was Khoua .583; and Mee .538 in the second game. In the third place contest Goly Yang beat Yer Chang.
SEMIFINALS SINGLES NUMBERS
SIDEOUTS:
Xiong 8/14-.571; Yang 6/15-.400
RUNS OF 3+:
Xiong 6, Yang 2
POINTS:
Xiong 42
Winners 17: Clears 5, Smashes 3, Drops 3, Drive 3, Soft Drives 3
Yang Errors 25: hitting 24 (Wide 12, Net 6, Fan 4, Deep 2), serving 1 (short 1)
Yang 27
Winners: 15: Smashes 6, Clears 6, Soft Drives 2, Aces 1
Xiong Errors 12: hitting 12 (Wide 6, Fans 3, Net 3)
Time: 14:35
CHAMPIONSHIP: KHOUA XIONG vs MEE XIONG
In the battle of the Xiongs it was Khoua over Mee in two games. Khoua used her soft drive cut shot to great effect. In fact she used it 17 times for points in the two games, which is one more than the winners for Mee Xiong in total. Khoua overall had 35 points on winners and only 7 points given too her. Khoua's winner advantage was 19 points. Mee had a +12 advantage on error points.Khoua started off in the lead in game one with two straight soft drive shots. Mee tied it at 3 and 4. Khoua had two runs of three sandwiched around a hitting error to go up 10-5. Khoua pushed the lead out to 15-9. Mee used a clear to get the bird back and added three more points on her serve to close to 15-13. Khoua got a key side out on her soft drive cut and added two more to go up 19-14. A missed serve gave the bird back. Khoua sided out at 70% in game one and used her patented soft drive cut to get the bird again. Once again, for the 9th time in game one, the soft cut made the difference.
Game two lasted longer again. The total serves of each player went to 13 and 12.
Again Khoua 
took the early lead at 3-0 with two of the points coming via the soft drive. Six straight side outs later it was 6-3. Mee had a four point run to tie it up at 8. The game was tied again at 11. At some point around this stage of the game the count was off for Mee by -1. So when the score was stated 13-11 it really was 13-12. So from here on out I will state what the players considered to be the real score. Mee closed to 14-13. Two of the Khoua soft drives put her up 16-13. Mee had a three point run to tie the game at 17. All were hitting errors in the net from Khoua, the last on a smash attempt. Mee led 19-18 when Khoua got a clear for a side out. She smashed for point #20 and dropped for point #21 and the city championship.Runs were few and far between in game two. The side out game was Khoua .583; and Mee .538 in the second game. In the third place contest Goly Yang beat Yer Chang.
photos: Khoua sends the ball back to Mee in game two. on the left St. Paul City Singles champ Khoua Xiong and her Highland Park coach Bobbi Fitzenberger. on the right Singles runner up Mee Xiong and her Harding coach Tracy Hrouda. photos by kja
CHAMPIONSHIP SINGLES NUMBERS
SIDEOUTS:
Khoua Xiong 14/22-.636; Mee Xiong 11/24-.458
RUNS OF 3+:
Khoua Xiong 5, Mee Xiong 3
POINTS:
Khoua Xiong 42
Winners 35: Soft Drives 17, Smashes 8, Drops 5, Clears 3, Ace 1, Drive 1
Mee Xiong Errors 7: hitting 6 (Net 3, Wide 2, Deep 1), serving 1 (deep 1)
Mee Xiong 35
Winners: 16: Drops 7, Drives 3, Clears 2, Smashes 2, Soft Drives 2
Khoua Xiong Errors 19: hitting 17 (Net 11, Wide 5, Deep 1); Serving 2 (wide 2)
Time: 14:35
DOUBLES
You could say it was a D squared Double championship with the Central pair Doua Thao and Da Chang beating teammates for the title. It was all Central all the time.
SEMIFINALS
Doua Thao/Da Chang, Central beat Malinda Xiong/Mai See Xiong, Central 21-18, 21-13
Phoua Xiong/Mai Sia Yang, Central beat PH/K, Arlington 21-15, 18-21, 21-15
CHAMPIONSHIP
Doua Thao/Da Chang, Central beat Phoua Xiong/Mai Sia Yang, Central 21-15, 18-21, 21-15
All the matches were going on simultaneously so I
wasn't able to watch the doubles final until game three. D&D led early at 2-0. A three point run by P&MS put them in front 3-2. There were four ties up to seven. A D&D run of three put them in front 10-7. Another run of three made it 13-9. P&MS cut the margin to 13-12. It stayed a one point game until D&D ran off five points to lead 20-14. Two more P&MS points cut the lead to 20-16. A smash ended the day.
One of the key difference in this game was the side out %. D&D was at 50%; P&MS checked in with 33%. Also D&D had 10 winners in this game compared to 6 for P&SY.
CHAMPIONSHIP SINGLES NUMBERS
SIDEOUTS:
Khoua Xiong 14/22-.636; Mee Xiong 11/24-.458
RUNS OF 3+:
Khoua Xiong 5, Mee Xiong 3
POINTS:
Khoua Xiong 42
Winners 35: Soft Drives 17, Smashes 8, Drops 5, Clears 3, Ace 1, Drive 1
Mee Xiong Errors 7: hitting 6 (Net 3, Wide 2, Deep 1), serving 1 (deep 1)
Mee Xiong 35
Winners: 16: Drops 7, Drives 3, Clears 2, Smashes 2, Soft Drives 2
Khoua Xiong Errors 19: hitting 17 (Net 11, Wide 5, Deep 1); Serving 2 (wide 2)
Time: 14:35
DOUBLES
You could say it was a D squared Double championship with the Central pair Doua Thao and Da Chang beating teammates for the title. It was all Central all the time.
SEMIFINALS Doua Thao/Da Chang, Central beat Malinda Xiong/Mai See Xiong, Central 21-18, 21-13
Phoua Xiong/Mai Sia Yang, Central beat PH/K, Arlington 21-15, 18-21, 21-15
CHAMPIONSHIP
Doua Thao/Da Chang, Central beat Phoua Xiong/Mai Sia Yang, Central 21-15, 18-21, 21-15
All the matches were going on simultaneously so I
wasn't able to watch the doubles final until game three. D&D led early at 2-0. A three point run by P&MS put them in front 3-2. There were four ties up to seven. A D&D run of three put them in front 10-7. Another run of three made it 13-9. P&MS cut the margin to 13-12. It stayed a one point game until D&D ran off five points to lead 20-14. Two more P&MS points cut the lead to 20-16. A smash ended the day.
One of the key difference in this game was the side out %. D&D was at 50%; P&MS checked in with 33%. Also D&D had 10 winners in this game compared to 6 for P&SY. A further note--Central had three doubles teams in action today plus two singles players for eight total players, the most of any school today. Host Arlington furnished a doubles team, Highland Park had two players in singles competition; Harding and Johnson each had one singles player.
Photos: #1 Phoua Xiong and Mai Sia Yang in the championship decisive third game. Doua Thao and Da Chang ready to serve in the third game. Central coach Brian Reinhardt and two of the Central doubles teams, second place finishers Phoua Xiong and Mai Sia Yang on the left and Doua Thao and Da Chang on the right. photos by kja
next up: tomorrow with the state seeds
Photos: #1 Phoua Xiong and Mai Sia Yang in the championship decisive third game. Doua Thao and Da Chang ready to serve in the third game. Central coach Brian Reinhardt and two of the Central doubles teams, second place finishers Phoua Xiong and Mai Sia Yang on the left and Doua Thao and Da Chang on the right. photos by kja
next up: tomorrow with the state seeds
