After falling to the Waterloo Warriors last weekend, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues badminton team bounced back to defeat the Ryerson Rams 12-1 on Sunday, November 2 at Ryerson University.

The Blues were well prepared prior to going on court and played error free badminton in their best performance of the season.

In men’s singles action, team captain Andy Lam (Toronto) led the way with an almost flawless match against Ryerson’s Jason Wan (Toronto). He played a control type game, which moved his opponent around the court with solid clears and tight drops.

Number two Jesse Assing (Bethany, Ont.) had difficulty finding the depth of the court and dropped the first game 21-17 to Courtney Tai (Thornhill, Ont.) but rebounded nicely with a convincing 21-8 in the second game and a closer 21-17 win in the third.

Raymond Zhang (North York, Ont.) played the most entertaining game of the day, winning a very close match against Ryerson’s captain Andrew Khoo (Toronto, Ont.) 21-17, 11-21, 21-14. Khoo had an outstanding slice that caused difficulty but Zhang found the key return to that shot and dominated the last half of the third game to pull off the win.

Zhang and Edwin Wong (Calgary, Alta.) played in the number one men’s doubles match instead of their usual number two spot. The duo had some difficulty with the pace of the game and fell to Rams Andy Yip and Eugene Lau 21-16, 25-23. Number two team Assing and Graeme MacInnes (Ajax, Ont.) made up for the loss, winning a very controlled match 21-16, 21-7. In his first match back from injury, MacInnes was the difference as he kept the shuttle low and flat and dominated the net with his dumps and knockdowns.

In women’s singles, Bluesteam captain Shilin Cheung (Hong Kong) won 21-16, 21-19 against Ryerson’s top rookie Clare Cheung (Toronto). Although Shilin Cheung had some trouble controlling the shuttle, she played a determined match and kept the pressure on her younger opponent to win in straight sets. Rookie Josee Matte (Brantford, Ont.) easily won the number two singles match 21-9, 21-5 and last minute replacement Lin Wang (Beijing, CHN) dominated her number three singles match 21-3, 21-7.

Caroline Cheung (Toronto, Ont.) and Shilin Cheung continued their undefeated women’s doubles season, winning 21-2, 21-6. Wang teamed up with rookie Marta Madzelan (Mississauga, Ont.) to easily win their number two match 21-5, 21-5.

Mixed doubles followed the pattern of the day as Lam paired with Caroline Cheung to easily win 21-13, 21-11. Dustin Yu (Mississauga, Ont.) and Matte won their match 21-9, 21-14, while Wong and Vaeda Solomon (Trinidad) came away with a 21-10, 21-11 win to finish an almost perfect day.

Results

The Varsity Blues return home next Saturday, November 8 when they host the Western Mustangs at the Athletic Centre Sports Gym. Matches are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.