Badminton: Desert Vista's Guo repeats as singles champ

October 24, 2015 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


The top seeds in badminton singles and doubles proved worthy of their positions Saturday in collecting the first championships of the 2015 fall sports season at Independence High School.

Desert Vista senior Karen Guo didn't have a cakewalk to her second consecutive singles title, but was focused enough and when it counted to defeat Xavier No. 3 seed Kirielle Singarajah, 11-8, 13-10 in the best final of the day.

The dominating doubles tandem of Hamiton' seniors  Elle Millon and Rena Han completed an unbeaten season with a 15-10, 15-7 victory over No. 3 seeds Laike Reader and Lauren Kater from Perry -- an all Chandler schools final.

Guo become the first singles player since 2009 to win back-to-back titles. She completed her four years of visits to the state singles tourney making the top 16 her freshman year, the quarterfinals in 2013 and championships as a junior and senior.

Guo had to work hard in Saturday's semis and and final. She swept Westwood's Aitzya Alvarez in the semis, but was pushed hard in the second set of that match won, 11-3, 13-11. Meanwhlile Singarajah barely broke a sweat with 11-8, 11-0 and 11-0, 11-0 wins in the quarters and semis. Singarajah was ahead of Guo in both sets at 3-0 and 8-7 in the first set and 9-5 in the second. 

But Guo took a little extra time to ready herself for play as the sets got down to the nitty gritty and came through with winning shots.

"I was trying to focus on getting points," Guo said. "Catching my breath to focus. I think we were both playing well and ended up fighting each other mentally. To win again is awesome."

Guo and Singarajah played twice during the season with Singarajah winning in the title match at Independence's Invitational in late September and Guo prevailing 10 days ago in a dual match. Singarajah had good runs in state competition. She was on the runner-up doubles team in 2013 and reached the singles quarterfinals last year.

Millon and Han were quite methodical in taking down their opponents. They won every match and lost just one set all season. Not bad for a pairing that played together for the first time this year. Millon nabbed a third-place medal last year competing with then senior Ashley Huynh. The comfort level didn't take long nor did the dominance. Millon and Han won their other Saturday matches 15-1, 15-6 (quarters) and 15-1, 15-6 (semis). 

"It took us a couple games," Han said. "We got better as we went along."

Reader and Kater advanced to the quarterfinals last year before bowing out at state.

Alvarez, the No. 5 seed, won her third-place match with Greenway's Makaila Mason (No. 2), 11-8, 11-2. Alvarez garnered a fourth-place medal last year in doubles. 

Red Mountain's Sam Berg and Nicole LoDestro placed third in doubles with a 15-10, 15-8 win over unseeded Sydney LaPierre and Emily Woodrow of Xavier. Berg was fourth last year in singles.