By Isaac Ortiz Dominguez
Jacqueline Leong placed third in the singles championship bracket in the 3C2A Women’s Badminton State Championships. Leong is declared as an All-American athlete in the award ceremony for the competitors.
Leong played against PJ Yang of Fresno Community College. Yang placed second while Makayla Than from De Anza College placed first to win the state championship on Saturday, May 10.
Yang won 2-1, Leong took the first match, and lost the following two matches in a tense back-and-forth. Leong played with a stoic determination throughout the tournament. The Rams cheered on Leong in the nerve-wracking finale. She came close, with the series scores being: 21-17 for Leong, 20-22 and 21-7 for Yang.
When asked about her performance throughout the tournament, Leong thought it was insufficient. “I could have won, I could have pushed through,” Leong said.
Leong persevered through the grueling opening rounds. She faced difficult matchups from De Anza College and San Diego Mesa College. De Anza had four players going into the quarter-finals and two players into the semi-finals.
“Day one, I think Jacqueline’s road to the semis was tough, like she had to play a lot of really good players who kind of upset a lot of the south number ones,” Head Coach Tiffany Mariano said.
The only games lost throughout the conference were to Fresno Community College and De Anza College, with a record against Fresno of 1-1 and 0-2 against De Anza.
“A run for our money? Yeah. Last year no one really gave us a run for our money except Pasadena in the state finals. But Fresno and De Anza have always been generally good teams,” Mariano said.
Sophomores Zoe Tao and Isabella Li were classmates with Leong in high school. Tao said Leong was their pride and joy and has always been number one.