Skyline College women’s badminton team lost 16-5 against Fresno City College in the first home game of the season on Tuesday, March 28.

Fresno City College women’s badminton team currently holds the top seed in the conference and was the team that Skyline was most concerned to face. Skyline’s head coach Jan Fosberg spoke about this before the match started.

“I think It’s a good test for us because Fresno is very strong,” Fosberg said. “It’s the biggest test that what we can do, how will do in the postseason.”

The game started off with the first round singles game on six different courts. Each win from the singles game received one point on the scoreboard.

In the first round singles game, Skyline won two out of the six matches by the freshman player Paola Candolada defeated Soua Kong who is the key player of Fresno City College with 18-21, 21-19, 21-18. Meanwhile, in another match between freshman player Katie Tan against and Fresno’s Nari Chang, the first two games were tied by 21-18, 18-21. In the deciding game, Tan withstood the pressure and won the third games in Deuce (one side must lead by 2 points to win the game) by 22-20.

After a short break, Skyline and Fresno began playing doubles for three matches. Out of those three games, Skyline won one of the three matches and received two points by Candolada and Tan. During the middle of the second game, Paola’s right ankle was injured and cramped, the game was suspended for a while, but fortunately, it didn’t affect the final result.

Both players still dominate the game with 21-12, 21-10 defeated the Fresno main doubles pairs Nari Chang and Stephanie Tran.

“I’ve like Sprained ankle but then I didn’t take care of it and didn’t mind it, it was the old injury,” Candolada said about her injury after the game.

Candolada and Tan have been working together and became a pair in doubles for a while.

“I think we have good chemistry because we’ve been playing for quite a while and I know what she’s weak on so I take over,” Tan said. “We’re just used each other.”

The doubles match it was followed by the second-round singles match, Although Candolada was injured during the doubles match, she still played the second-round singles match against Nari Chang.

The game was back and forth, both players playing fast clear out in each rally to consume the physical strength of the opponent. Candolada was losing the first game with 19-21. In the second game, the score was tied all the way, but after deuce, Candolada was winning by the lift shot error over the baseline from Chang, ending in 25-23. In the deciding game, Candolada smashed and retrieved each rally, and finally, she won the third game by 21-12.

“It’s all about pride because I’ve been playing badminton and training for so long, so if I lose, I’m gonna be sad and lonely,” Candolada said. “If I lost that game, I would say I didn’t try my best, I would blame myself for that.”

Regarding the match, the head coach gives the players affirmation.

“Paola really really work hard today, she was having muscle cramped throughout the match, so it’s really proud of her effort and how well she did,” Fosberg said.

Out of the entire game, Skyline’s Candolada and Tan won the three matches in singles and once together in doubles, giving Skyline five points.

“I think Paola and Katie did super well against two of the strongest players in our conference,” Fosberg said. “I really like the effort to the end, the Angelica and Naz really started playing well together doubles partners.”