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.