Michael Pleasant is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Xavier College Preparatory for AZPreps365.com.

Heading into Thursday’s matchup with Pinnacle, Xavier badminton coach Laura Forbes was looking forward to the team “accelerating and continuing to play with a lot of focus and poise.” She had seen this poise throughout her team's recent win streak after losing the season opener to Hamilton.

Outside of the good things they’ve shown on the court, it’s been their positive and infectious energy that has been the driving force to the Gators' 3-1 record.

That energy did not result in a win for Xavier Thursday night, as the Gators lost to Pinnacle, 8-1. 

Pinnacle (5-1) took the singles matches, 5-1, and the doubles matches, 3-0.

“Pinnacle’s strategy was really good to move from side to side," Forbes said. "They used a lot of cross cuts, especially in doubles and in singles. We try to work on footwork drills quite a bit to get to those back corners, and we will emphasize that again.”

Senior Mayse Dunn of Xavier noticed those same things in her singles loss (21-12, 21-15) against Pinnacle’s Sydney Boyd.

“It really all depends on footwork … I really just have to take that extra step because I was getting there, but my racket was almost barely hitting it, so they weren’t going over enough,” Dunn said.

Shuttlecock placement is what separated these two teams. This isn’t by mistake.  Pinnacle head coach Charles Zeeb and his players go over Olympic badminton film during their preparation process for any match.

 “When we watch that film, we go over the progression of the play," Zeeb said. "Those girls really focus on trying not to hit back to the middle and trying to hit the four corners. Just keep the other girl moving around."

The Pinnacle girls were able to execute their game plan very well, especially senior Morgan Rucker.

“I realized from the second match that I just lost my placement and then the third match I just decided strategy, strategy, strategy, and I just went with it,” Rucker said.

Rucker won the 3rd match, 22-20, which gave her the win for the singles match overall.

Lina Vanderwey of Xavier was one of the players who was able to make those in-game adjustments to what Pinnacle was doing and made it to those corner shots.  She won her singles match against Chloe Strachan, one of four matches that went to a deciding third game. She won the third game, 21-19.

Vanderwey showed her ability to locate her opponent’s return and then anticipated what her opponent expected during a rally.

“I was able to see if she was expecting me to hit a drop shop and I was able to place my shot,” Vanderwey said.

“At the end of the day the final scorecard just flipped and went their way," Forbes said. "It was a really good experience for us. These are the teams we want to be paired up with and do good with."

Xavier will play in the Forner Invite at Sunnyslope High School this weekend.