State team badminton tourney opens Monday, finishes Thursday

October 16, 2011 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Xavier, Sunnyslope, Chaparral and Gilbert are the top four seeds of the Division I state team badminton tournament which begins Monday with two rounds of competition at the sites of the top four.

First-round and quarterfinal play takes place Monday with the opening round at 5 p.m. and the quarters following at 6:30.  The tournament favorite is last year's 5A runner-up Xavier, which posted a 15-0 record in matches this season. The Gators, however, are likely to be tested in the quarterfinals by #9 seed Mountain Pointe (12-1), which gave Xavier its toughest match of the season last month (a 5-4 loss). The only other unbeaten team is #4 Gilbert (14-0). The Tigers played only one team that quallified for state during the season -- its first-round opponent No. 13 Perry. #3 Chaparral, the defending 5A champ last year,  is 13-2 and suffered its only losses to Xavier and Mountain Pointe.

Opening round matches at Xavier are #16 Central vs. #1 Xavier and #9 Mountain Pointe vs. #8 Red Mountain; at Gilbert #12 Thunderbird vs. #5 Westwood and #13 Perry vs. #4 Gilbert; at Chaparral #14 McClintock vs. #3 Chaparral and #11 Chandler vs. #6 Millennium and at Sunnyslope #10 Greenway (the 4A champ last year) vs. #7 Horizon and #15 Shadow Mountain vs. #2 Sunnyslope. The semifinals and finals shift to Independence High School on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, at 6:30 p.m. both nights.