Live Oak defeated Sobrato 13-2 on Tuesday; beat Gilroy 11-4 on
Thursday
Morgan Hill – The Live Oak badminton team, under the helm of head coach Linda Seals, wants to win the West Valley division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League and send some of their players to the Central Coast Section playoffs in May.
The Acorns (5-1 BVAL) are well on their way to achieving their goals with victories over the Sobrato Bulldogs and Gilroy Mustangs this week. Live Oak rebounded from a narrow loss to James Lick, 8-7, on March 9 in San Jose.
“The match against James Lick was very close. It’s always hard to win on the road,” said Seals who is in her seventh year as Acorn coach. “We’re going to have to beat them when they come here if we want to tie for the league title.”
On Tuesday, Live Oak’s top three varsity girls singles, Minna Chan, Jasmine Tharayil and Valerie Lines did well, as each won their matches in straight sets.
The top three varsity boys, Stephen Garber, Spencer Lines and Vince Hatakeyama, also dispatched their Bulldog opponents in straight sets.
In girls doubles action, the Acorn teams of Liu and Shayuan, D. Mou and C. Mou, and Jose and Tharayil swept through their matches. In boys doubles, Barrios and Kiss recorded a win Live Oak in three sets. In mixed doubles, Correa and Huang, Nguyen and Tam and Fahi and Hernandez, all won their matches over Sobrato.
“Sobrato is a first-year program and they did very well,” said Seals. “We’re stacked because we have both sets of seniors.”
On Thursday, once again the Acorns dominated, defeating the Mustangs, 11-4. Live Oak’s varsity girls and boys singles all won their matches against Gilroy. The girls doubles teams of D. Mou and C. Mou and Jose and Tharayil won their matches, securing the victory.
“Gilroy was a more competitive for us. They’ve had a program a lot longer than Sobrato,” said Seals. “I felt we were going to win the match, but I thought it was going to be closer than it actually was.”
Next week the Acorns will take on Prospect and Lincoln on the road to complete the first half of BVAL play.
