Dons dominate San Francisco and Fresno in a span of four days

Bojana Cvijic, Freelancer

Coming back from last year’s championship season, the De Anza College badminton team has been successful in the 2014 campaign.

With expectations as high as it has ever been, De Anza Head Coach Mark Landefeld and his team didn’t shy away from them.

“We knew that we should have a pretty successful 2014 campaign,” Ladenfeld said. “That’s definitely proven to be the case in Coast Conference as our top four players have won all their conference matches so far.”

The Dons are undefeated in 10 games this season. The team beat two Southern California powerhouses in Pasadena City College and Irvine City College with scores of 13-8 and 12-9 respectively to keep the loss column at zero.

On Friday, April 25, the Dons beat Community College of San Francisco 21-0 to push their record to 9-0. In the most recent game against Fresno City College on Tuesday, April 29th, the Dons clinched their second consecutive conference championship and the right to defend their state championship by winning 16-5 to give them a perfect season at 10-0.

“Our No. 1 through No. 4 singles’ players have yet to lose a match in Coast Conference play this year,” Landefeld said.

The winning streak has proven to be an incredible feat for the team. Reflecting on how successful the team has been, Landefeld said he doesn’t know if he will ever have a stronger team.

“Honestly, I’m not sure (we) will ever see as strong a team at De Anza again,” Landefeld said.

The Dons captured the Northern California berth to compete in a rematch of last season’s opponent San Diego City College on Thursday, May 8 at 3 p.m at De Anza. In 2013, the team beat San Diego 12-9 in the final to earn the school’s first team state championship in badminton.