NEWS RELEASES

BADMINTON
Tournament #3

The third and last qualifying tournament for 2009-2010 took place at Douglas College on the weekend.

VIU athletes were focussed and it showed- the squad finished the 3 game matches that have been narrow losses in the past. The team took 2nd place in the Team event and moved up to 3rd overall.

The story of the day is told by the first round match against long time rival TRU. This has always been a close battle and was no exception this time. VIU started out with a tough singles match as 2nd year athlete Luke Couture brought in the Men's Singles match against veteran TRU player Garrett Babichuk in a tight 2 game match 23-21, 21-17, Megan Yim won singles handily and then mens doubles lost in 21-16 in the third, women's doubles team lost 22-20 in the second and VIU went into the mixed event tied 2-2. The key match was in the hands of Mike Clark and Cassie Larsen who finished off the long and intense match 13-21, 21-18, 21-18. VIU team dominated Langara 5-0 and then came through with very close wins against Capilano 3-2 and Kwantlen 3-2. VIU's only loss of the day was to powerhouse Douglas College and that round was noteworthy for the strong performance of men's doubles team Chris Harris and Mike Clark who took the Douglas mens team to 23-21 in the first game before National champion Alvin Lau and Darren Hong finished it off. Zack Yim and Jenny Aronson took the mixed doubles match and the round ended up 4-1 for Douglas.

In the individual events Megan Yim finished 3rd and Ali Loewen 4th in women's singles. Megan and Mike Clark were 4th in the mixed doubles event. Pat Thompson won the Men's Singles C pool, Jen Abrahamson and Cassie Larsen won the Womens Doubles C pool.

VIU hosts Provincial Championships on Feb 20-21 so come on out to see some badminton action that will blow your mind. Team event runs Saturday Feb 20th from 11:00 - 5:00. Finals of the individual events will run from 11:00 - 3:00 on Sunday and you will see some of the top players in Canada fight for a place on the BC team to Nationals.