The De Anza College women’s badminton team is headed for its third consecutive trip to the State Championship after its 13-8 victory over Fresno on April 23.

After a tie in the first singles session, the game became louder and more intense. Players who finished their matches joined small but supportive groups of fans, screaming with each nice shot and encouraging players for the rest of time.

Defeating Fresno 7-4 in the first doubles and 11-6 in the second singles made the win obvious, and the De Anza team and fans relaxed. The head coach said he was relieved, and the player Aileen Ngo said she felt it was “the weight off the shoulders.”

“They want to be back there,” said head coach Mark Landefeld.

Landefeld explained that even though De Anza had to deal with injuries he was impressed. The, “girls fought very hard, and just having the courage to push on through this match was really important.”

Badminton player Alice Liu, 20, cognitive science major, said that cheering helped to keep the spirit of the team.

Ngo noted that, the team has a lot of newcomers, some of whom have never played badminton before, but even though the team is not as strong as it was the two past years, they continued to play at the same high level as the previous years.

“It’s kind of unfortunate that the success of the last two years casts such a shadow,” Landefeld said. He called the present season outstanding and said Liu and Megan Hsiao, 18, psychology major, are “probably, one of the top two doubles team in the demands of online gaming.

The game (played on the PS4), like previous editions, features a story mode that provides several hours of gameplay.

The story was a pleasant surprise with decent writing and compelling plot, weaving through the point-of-view concept the series used in previous games seamlessly.

The campaign begins 20 years in the past in the midst of a war between the realms of Earthrealm, our world, and the Netherrealm, the games underworld dimension. The evil sorcerer Quan Chi has resurrected the warriors who died in the story of the previous game

“Mortal Kombat,” and uses them to wage a war for his master Shinnok, an evil elder god.
The Netherrealm forces are defeated by the courage of Earthrealm warriors like Johnny Cage, and the realms return to balance.

Fast-forward to the present and the story begins to introduce the latest additions to the roster of playable, as many of the new characters are the sons, daughters, and grandchildren of classic characters.

A civil war breaks out in Outworld, another dimension in the Mortal Kombat Universe, and the spectres of Quan Chi and Shinnok lurk in the back of everyone’s minds, as the old generation and new fight together to maintain the peace.

The real value in this game, however, is the online gameplay.

The developers added a faction system, in which players generate points for their respective factions by playing matches, completing the story and other challenges.

Besides gaining points for your faction, each faction has its own “faction kill” fatality, or special finisher, which is satisfying to achieve against online opponents.

Another aspect of the faction system is the faction invasions, or wars, in which players have 24-hours to generate as many points as possible for their faction in order state.”

During the Thursday game, one of the newcomers, Julia Malakiman, DASB president, played this season for the first time and played well Landefeld said.

“It’s really helpful to have somebody who has some quality experience as a double player,” he said.

The De Anza team members left the court with their heads held high, excited to come back in two weeks. The head coach said their possible opponents in the State Championship are Pasadena and San Diego College, which have really strong programs, and the De Anza team should need to play really well to win.

“We can be the second best team the rest of the year, but on the day of the final we will find the way to be the better team,” Landefeld said.