Match Review: Adelphi vs. Stony Brook

The Adelphi and Stony Brook badminton teams.

The Adelphi University Badminton Club took to the East Court at the Center for Recreation and Sports on Saturday, Oct. 19 for its first tournament match of the fall semester against local Long Island rival, Stony Brook University. The Panthers fared well in the tournament as they picked up eight wins in total in the five disciplines: men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles and mixed doubles.

The matches were conducted by traditional badminton scoring; each match was best-of-three sets to 21 points. In addition, the matches used rally scoring; rally scoring was adopted in the official rules of the sport by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) in August of 2006. Prior to the rule change, a player or team could only record a point behind their own serve; however, now the outcome of every rally counts as a point. Both sanctioned and non-sanctioned badminton matches, whether they be international, collegiate, or high school, now typically use rally scoring.

The Panthers got off to a good start as they picked up three wins in the first three matches to take the court. Adelphi's top mixed doubles team of Yao Zhao and Kevin Xuan Jianchen defeated Jackie Tang and Nicole Fransisco in mixed doubles by a 21-17, 21-10 score. In the first women's doubles match of the day, Adelphi's Evelyn Rivera and Samantha Hollinde defeated Rebecca Leung and Angelique Evangeliste, 21-10, 21-18. Finally, Matt DeFransisco and Donald Wunder defeated Kevin Song and Fan Liucong by a 21-19, 21-14 score in men's doubles.

Kevin Ferguson (left) and Kevin Jianchen Xuan
(right) in action in their men's doubles
match. (Photo by me)

Xuan Jianchen, who is the Panthers' top player, had a very strong day on the singles court. As the No. 1 men's singles player for Adelphi, he defeated Tang 21-10, 21-15. Adelphi's No. 2 men's singles player, freshman Kevin Ferguson, rallied after dropping the opening set to defeat Elan Maduro 18-21, 21-15, 21-16. In men's doubles, the pair teamed up and played a thrilling three-set match that was decided by extra points. Unfortunately, the two couldn't make it a perfect day as they fell, 21-17, 18-21, 20-22. The two teams were evenly matched and produced a number of highlight-reel points and rallies. Check out a highlight smash from Xuan Jianchen in the video below!

Daylynn Wu serves in her singles
match. (Photo by me)

On the women's side, Zhao had a strong day as she also won her women's singles match against Ammie Tamano 21-14, 21-16. However, it proved to be the only singles win that the women would pick up on the day. Junior Daylynn Wu dropped a hard-fought 19-21, 18-21 match to Angela Cho. The highlight of the day was the singles match between the presidents of both clubs: Adelphi's Jenna Cavuto took on Stony Brook's Amy Cheung. Cavuto took the opening set 22-20 in extra points, but Cheung ended up winning the next two sets, and the match, 21-7, 21-19.

It was an exciting day all around for the team, as eight players took the court in a tournament for the first time. Zhao, Hollinde, Rivera, Jillian Peters and Ashley Worthey all made their debut for the Adelphi women, while Ferguson, Sal Carollo and Adam Blumenthal debuted for the men.

Jenna Cavuto gets ready to return a serve in
her singles match. (Photo by me)

At the end of the day, Cavuto was pleased with the way that the club performed in their first tournament.

"For our first tournament of the year, I think it was a great start for us," Cavuto said. "We had our main lineup and we even had the chance to give some of our newest, dedicated members a chance to compete. I think everyone had a great time and was excited to face some actual competition. We have built a nice relationship with Stony Brook over the years and we look forward to going to their school in the spring!"

The Panthers' next tournament is scheduled for the weekend of Nov. 8th, when they will leave New York for the first time. The travel team will hit to road down to Virginia to compete in a tournament hosted by the College of William and Mary.

                                                                    

Match Preview: AU Badminton vs. Stony Brook

Cole Peters in action in the last home match that
Adelphi had against Stony Brook.
(Photo credit: Jenna Cavuto)

This Saturday, Oct. 19, the Adelphi University Badminton Club will have their first match of the year against the Stony Brook University Badminton Club. It will be a home match for Adelphi on the East Court at the Center for Recreation an Sports. The match will feature men's and women's singles and doubles matches, as well as mixed doubles matches. It is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

It is the third time in the club's short history that it will be facing a local rival. The first time the two teams faced off in Garden City was in the spring semester in 2012, while Adelphi traveled to Stony Brook last spring for a road match. A photo gallery from the match last spring at Stony Brook can be found via the Campus Recreation Sports Club web page. For more information about the Stony Brook Badminton Club, you can find them on Facebook at Stony Brook University Badminton Club. 

A full recap of the action on Saturday will follow!

Badminton Club Thinks Pink

"Think Pink" merchandise available for sale at the Jennifer Montgomery
Breast Cancer Awareness (JMBCA) kickoff event on Wednesday, Oct. 2nd.
(Photo by me)

For the seventh consecutive year, the Athletics department at Adelphi University athletics is doing its part in the month of October with the Jennifer Montgomery Breast Cancer Awareness events.

The Department of Intercollegiate Athletics has held Jennifer Montgomery Breast Cancer Awareness (JMBCA) month every October since 2007. The event is held in honor of Jennifer Montgomery, the wife of former Associate Athletic Director/Head Men's Soccer Coach Robert Montgomery, who was diagnosed with breast cancer and is now in remission.

Every October, the Adelphi community comes together to participate in a walk to kick off the event and raise money and awareness; in addition, raffle tickets, prizes and "Think Pink" t-shirts and merchandise are available for purchase in support of the cause. The department sells raffle tickets and merchandise for the entire month of October, as well as at select athletic events throughout the month; all prizes are donated by Adelphi's varsity athletic teams and other members of the Adelphi community.

Each club team is required to complete a community service event throughout the year. On Wednesday, Oct. 2, 15 members of the badminton team registered for the run/walk event held on the indoor track at the Center for Recreation and Sports. For a student registration fee of $5, each club member received this year's t-shirt in commemoration of the event and signed up to run or walk a measured distance on the track in 20 minute blocks.

"The breast cancer walk was such a powerful movement," junior Daylynn Wu said.

Badminton team members Ashley Worthey,
Jillian Peters, Danielle Medina and
Evelyn Rivera (l to r) show off their
t-shirts. (Photo credit: Daylynn Wu)

Wu currently serves as the club's secretary and co-captain.

"To see that many people come out and support was really touching. Seeing everyone [from the team] come and participate made me so happy. I hope we can continue to fight against cancer!" she added.

In addition, the team sent a smaller contingent to the main run/walk event, which was held as a part of Family Weekend on Saturday, Oct. 5.

All of the money raised during both events, and during all of the Breast Cancer Awareness events during the month of October, will go to support the Adelphi New York Statewide Breast Cancer Awareness Hotline and Support Service. Last year, athletics and campus recreation contributed $6,500 to the university-wide campaign that raised over $27,500.

You can find more information regarding the university's breast cancer awareness campaign for the month of October and the New York Statewide Breast Cancer Hotline on Adelphi's website. If you want to learn more about JMBCA, log on to http://aupanthers.com/ and underneath the "Support Athletics" tab, click on "Breast Cancer Awareness Month."

Parting Thoughts from the Brains Behind Adelphi's Sports Clubs

Jennifer Schroeckenthaler Cairns (Photo by me)

Numerous factors are responsible for the success of not only Adelphi's badminton club, but each of its 11 club sports. First, each club must have enough interested students who are willing to put in the time and effort to attend practices, compete in tournaments and make the clubs successful. Secondly, a select group of students (collectively referred to as the executive or "e-board" of each club), are responsible for organizing their teams, managing practice and tournament schedules and keep the clubs running smoothly.

However, the success of Adelphi's sports clubs would not be possible without an advocate in administration speaking for them. Jennifer Schroeckenthaler Cairns, who has served at Adelphi for the past eight years, is that person. 

Well, Schroeckenthaler Cairns was that person. On Oct. 6, she will be leaving the Adelphi family to pursue a career change; she will be returning to school to earn her second master's degree in occupational therapy.

She first became involved in Adelphi's Campus Recreation department in 2005, when she joined the staff as a graduate assistant. She served in that capacity for two years, and was promoted to Assistant Director of Campus Recreation in 2007. In that position, her duties included administrating intramural sports, supervising a staff of students and graduate assistants, coordinating group fitness classes and managing club sports and special events. However, as the go-to person regarding Adelphi's sports clubs, she spearheaded the growth of the program over her tenure.

"When I first got here, the sport club program was probably half of what it is now," she explained. "There were probably only six or seven clubs, and now we have 11. It's really grown a lot in number and size."

Screenshot of the procedures for starting a new sport club,
available online and in the Campus Recreation office.

The badminton club team is one of the newest on campus, and Schroeckenthaler Cairns can easily recall when the club was established.

"I met with [current club president] Jenna [Cavuto] a few years ago," she said. "Before that, in the years I've been in this position, no one really approached me about starting a badminton club. We really didn't know what to expect."

However, in the three years that the badminton club team has been in existence at Adelphi, Schroeckenthaler Cairns and the entire Campus Recreation staff have been surprised by the success and rapid growth of the club.

"Badminton has really grown a lot. Unfortunately, we do only have one court that we can set up three nets on, so I would say that's the one negative thing. As far as the participation level, it's 40-50 members. That's really incredible for a new club."
  

In total, she added four new sport clubs and five new group fitness classes over her tenure at Adelphi. Schroeckenthaler Cairns' replacement, who has not yet been officially introduced, will no doubt have big shoes to fill.