For the third consecutive year, Rancho Bernardo High School’s Justine Yong competed in the CIF Southern California Regional badminton championship match at Arcadia High School.
Saturday marked a rematch from last year’s girls’ singles semifinal, when Yong bested Walnut’s Angela Wang in three sets.
This time around, in a rematch that featured the top seed from the Southern Section and the top seed from San Diego for the girls singles regional title, Yong ultimately settled for her third straight runner-up title, losing in three sets that came down to the wire, 23-21, 14-21, 21-19.
Del Norte’s Mihir Thaha and Ethan Quan also made the finals by winning their first two matches. However, they fell to Arcadia’s Lorin Leung and Gavin Le to settle for the boys doubles regional runner-up.
Despite losing a difficult semifinal match where all three sets finished by three or less points, Del Norte’s Meghana Nishant and Pradyun Gowda bounced back, winning the third-place match in mixed doubles over Cerritos’ Christian Le and Ian Law, 21-9, 21-13.
In boys singles, Rancho Bernardo’s Atticus Yong placed fourth, losing to Diamond Bar’s Jaden Zhou in straight sets, 21-13, 21-13. This came before playing two three-set matches, including being victorious in his opener, defeating Fountain Valley’s Ethan Thai, 21-17, 19-21, 22-20.
Westview’s Lanting Jiang and Peiran Liang also placed fourth, falling to San Gabriel’s Shi-ting Huang and Zoe Sun, 19-21, 21-19, 21-19. Before losing in the semifinals and the third-place match in girls doubles, the Wolverines pair won their first two matches in straight sets.
Also in girls’ doubles, the consolation championship featured two teams from San Diego as Canyon Hills’ Linh Nguyen and Bryanna Tran defeated Patrick Henry’s Gaby Truong and Katie Le, 14-21, 21-17, 22-20.