Badminton comes home to go 4-0

A familiar place with familiar faces.

After three road matches to begin the season, Xavier Prep’s badminton team was finally back home in the Activity Center.

The Gators proved to be tough to beat against Mesa Mountain View, rolling up a 9-0 victory on Thursday (Aug. 31). The XCP junior varsity also prevailed 9-0.

”It was good to get a home match,’’ said Xavier coach Susan Contreras, whose team had previous 6-3 road wins over Mesa Red Mountain and Tempe Corona del Sol and 5-4 over Phoenix Sandra Day O’Connor.

“We had a good fan base today. I think there might have been a few nerves, but we settled in and played pretty well,’’ Contreras said.

“We had talked about working on some things in practice, and this offered us a chance to continue that.’’

Senior Maddie Reinhart follows the flight of her shot in her singles match against Mesa Mountain View (Photo by Sr. Lynn Winsor).

The closest match came in doubles, where Mimi Zurbriggen and Anai Hernandez allowed Xavier to preserve its shutout with a three-set win, 17-14, 13-15, 17-14.

Zurbriggen also persevered in her singles match, holding on for 13-11 and 13-10 wins.

Xavier now goes back out for three more road matches, the first on Tuesday (Sept. 5) against Phoenix Desert Vista in Ahwatukee. That will be followed by contests at Mesa High on Sept. 7 and at Phoenix Horizon on Sept. 13.

Thursday’s result

Xavier Prep 9, Mesa Mountain View 0

Singles

Maddie Reinhart, X, def. Mountain View 11-2, 11-6.

Alexa Wolfson, X, def. Mountain View 11-2, 11-4.

Mimi Zurbriggen, X, def. Mountain View 13-11, 13-10.

Misaal Irfan, X, def. Mountain View 11-8, 11-3.

Maeve Lee, X, def. Mountain View 11-3, 11-1.

Anai Hernandez, X, def. Mountain View 11-3, 11-2.

Doubles

Reinhart-Wolfson, X, def. Mountain View 15-6, 15-0.

Irfaan-Lee, X, def. Mountain View 15-9, 15-7.

Zurbriggen-Hernandez, X, def. Mountain View 17-14, 13-15, 17-14.