(Wednesday, May 22, 2019) The Varsity Team headed east on the 401 at the bright and early time of 6:30 a.m. this morning as they journeyed to Trinity College School (TCS) to participate in the CISAA Championship Tournament. TCS’s ‘triple-gym’ is an excellent badminton facility and tournament players were treated to firm grip surfaces, high ceilings and the type of quality lighting where there is no problem picking out shuttles. The singles players got into action first and all three (1st – Christopher Chong, 2nd – Alexander Chow, 3rd – PJ Bujouves) secured first round victories. The second round, as expected, was tougher but both Chow and Chong were able to win, moving directly to semi-final matches. Bujouves, unfortunately, got caught up against a talented TCS player, losing in two tightly fought contests 21-19, 22-20. He would pick himself up and dust himself off, as he always does, to win the consolation side (5th place finish) of the bracket with victories over Pickering and DeLaSalle Colleges. The doubles pairings (1st – Sharavanan Kirupakaran, Justin Zhou, 2nd – Andy Wang, Dustin Yang) started a bit later, but also got off to good starts, benefitting from byes in the first round and then winning their second round matches to make the semi-finals.
At this point, the tournament draw started to bottleneck as many consolation side matches had to be played. After a lengthy break, all four semi-final matches involving UCC were played at the same time in the “Old” gym. It was difficult to follow all of the game action but there were some very good matches. Unfortunately, the Blues would finish 1-3 in these crucial fixtures, with only 1st doubles pairing Kirupakaran and Zhou winning (handily against their Royal St. George’s opponents). Chong fought hard against a Hong Kong national level player from St. Andrew’s and Alexander Chow lost a really tight match against his Crescent opponent by scores of 21-19, 21-17. The 3rd and 4th place fixtures were also really tough, with Chris Chong losing to his opponent from RSGC 21-16, 21-12 and Chow – who simply ran out of gas -- dropping a heartbreaker to his much older opponent from RSGC 15-21, 21-15, 21-18. 2nd doubles team Andy Wang and Dustin Yang fared better, beating Appleby in convincing fashion 21-14, 21-11 to win the bronze medal. Zhou and Kirupakaran, the sole finalists for UCC at the tournament, were overmatched in the gold medal fixture against their OBA ranked opponents from DeLaSalle College, and had to settle for silver.
In terms of team results, St. Andrew’s College finished first, winning its third consecutive CISAA Championship. Upstarts Crescent School finished second behind some excellent performances in the gold medal matches. UCC finished in a tie for third with rivals Royal St. George's. The Blues will take solace that they beat Crescent in both league matches in the head to head format (both tight 3-2 wins) as well as RSGC (4-1). The team is also very young (with two Year 8 and one Y9 starter), which bodes well for the future. It was an enjoyable team to coach that was comprised of a group of hard-working, talented and committed student-athletes. PJ Bujouves, the lone senior on the team, deserves special mention for his leadership and commitment to the program, competing at a high level throughout the challenging IB final examination period.
(Tuesday, May 14th, 2019) – The Varsity team hosted St. Mike’s today in its last regular season match. Upper Canada’s singles were significantly stronger than their Kerry Blue counterparts with Christopher Chong (1st), Alexander Chow (2nd), and PJ Bujouves (3rd) all winning handily in two straight games. The doubles games were more competitive, but ultimately the Blues prevailed with Andy Wang and Dustin Yang (2nd doubles) winning convincingly over their opponents and Sharavanan Kirupakaran and Brian Tu winning a slightly odd one in three games by the score of 21-13, 28-30, 21-13. It was a good confidence booster heading into the CISAA Championship next Wednesday at Trinity College School. While St. Andrew’s College remains the prohibitive favourite to “three-peat”, Upper Canada and several other strong teams should make things interesting.
(May 13th, 2019) – The rematch versus Crescent School proved to be an equally competitive affair, although a reconfiguration of the Coyotes’ line-up gave a different complexion to the matches. Crescent’s talented 1st singles player Ivan Cheng was moved to 1st doubles and performed, along with his partner, at a very high level that UCC’s Sharavanan Kirupakaran and Justin Zhou could not match. 2nd doubles pairing Andy Wang and Dustin Yang fared better against their opponents, who were not of the same caliber, winning two straight in convincing fashion. Christopher Chong had a tough outing against Crescent’s #1 singles player, but added more experience to his playbook that will serve him well when he heads into the highly competitive CISAA Tournament next week. Both Alexander Chow (2nd singles) and PJ Bujouves (3rd singles) dispatched of their opponent in straight-forward, two game wins. Final Score: Upper Canada 3 Crescent 2. Over the past week, the team has been involved in a number of highly competitive matches, which has accelerated the development of each player. The last league game is tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. against St. Michael’s College.
(Saturday, May 11th, 2019) – The Varsity team (along with the U16 and U14 squads) travelled to Aurora on a sunny and cool Saturday morning to take on league powerhouse St. Andrew’s College. We were fortunate to have exclusive use of the Upper School gymnasium, which boasted six courts. This meant that there was time and space to play lots of exhibition games against high quality competition. As expected, St. Andrew’s (having all of their starters; three were at OFSAA during the first match at UCC) were hard to handle, particularly in singles where they were notably strong. Year 8 students Alexander Chow (2nd singles) and Justin Zhou (3rd singles) deserve full marks for closing the gap against their much older opponents in the second game of their matches, where they both lost by a narrow margin of 21-18. PJ Bujouves did yeoman’s work, as he has all season, facing the 2019 OFSAA ‘B’ Flight Gold medalist (men’s doubles) Nathaniel Chan in 1st singles where he competed hard. The doubles teams fared better, with both 1st (Sharavanan Kirupakaran, Andy Wang) and 2nd (Brian Tu, Dustin Yang) doubles teams’ matches going the maximum 3 games. Tu and Yang would win a nail-biter, with the third game ending by a score of 21-19, to secure UCC’s only win on the day. Final Team Score: SAC 4 UCC 1. The Blues’ last two league games are next Monday and Tuesday when they will host Crescent School and St. Michael’s College.
(Wednesday, May 8th) – The Varsity Badminton team hosted a tri-meet with Trinity College and Royal St. George’s today. Given the format of league matches is only one fixture per “flight” (1st, 2nd, 3rd singles; 1st, 2nd doubles) that is a best of 3 games affair, competition can end relatively quickly – especially if there is a mismatch in terms of ability. The tri-meet guarantees each player at least two competitive matches where they have to play under pressure and potentially play fatigued, which is much more in line with what the CISAA Championship Tournament will be like. With both TCS and RSGC fielding solid teams, the Varsity squad was able to get in some high-quality competition. Royal St. George’s proved to be especially strong, and arguably the most entertaining match of the day was in 2nd singles where Year 8 student Alexander Chow outlasted his much older RSGC opponent in a 21-15, 15-21, 21-15 win that was truly a character performance. PJ Bujouves arrived to the match directly from his IB Paper 1 Geography exam and immediately got down to business where he dispatched his Trinity and Georgian opponents in workmanlike fashion, before exiting to prepare for Paper 2 & 3 Geography exams the following day. Christopher Chong got off to a slow start against a very strong 1st singles player from Royal St. George’s, but deserves a lot of credit for his comeback in the second game where he narrowly lost by a score of 21-23. Both doubles pairings (1st – Sharavanan Kirupakaran, Justin Zhou; 2nd Andy Wang, Dusting Yang) were pushed in their games but played well and were able to win both of their matches in straight sets. Final Team Scores: UCC 5 TCS 0; UCC 4 RSGC 1. Next up for the Blues is the return match at St. Andrew’s College this Saturday, when the Andreans will be fielding their full starting line-up.
(Friday, May 3rd, 2019) – In a rare Friday fixture, the Varsity Badminton team hosted the two-time defending CISAA Champion St. Andrew’s College Saints. The Saints were missing three of their starters who were in North Bay representing the league at the OFSAA Badminton Championships. This would give the Blues a clear opportunity to take-down their talented rivals, and the team would not disappoint. 1st singles player Christopher Chong played very well against his Andrean opponent and was able to win the highly skilled match in two straight games. The 1st doubles teams of Sharavanan Kirupakaran and William Blair also looked really sharp in defeating a strong St. Andrew’s team in two tightly fought games. Sean Lizzola at 3rd singles and the 2nd doubles pairing of Andy Wang and Dustin Yang won their matches in a relatively comfortable fashion. Year 8 student Justin Zhou deserves a ton of credit for taking a game off his much older opponent in 2nd singles, as he had literally just returned from the week long Norval trip. He played well against a skilled player and showed a lot of character by representing the team on such short notice. The Varsity Team will host a tri-meet with Trinity College and Royal St. George’s College on Wednesday, May 8th – which should see a lot of competitive and exciting badminton matches.
(Monday, April 29th, 2019) – The Varsity Badminton team got back into game action this week and were able to post a solid 4 matches to 1 win over their opponents from DeLaSalle College. The most exciting and highly skilled confrontation of the day involved the ranked Bradbury brothers from DLS in 1st flight doubles facing off against the newly minted UCC pairing of Christopher Chong and Sharavanan Kirupakaran. The UCC duo nearly pulled off the upset in the first game but fell just short by a score of 19-21. The second game was not as competitive but still showcased some excellent badminton. Dustin Yang and Andy Wang did good work in 2nd doubles, defeating their opponents in two-straight, tightly fought games. PJ Bujouves (2nd singles) and Brian Tu (3rd singles) both made short work of their opponents in singles, where the matches were more one-sided. DLS defaulted at the first singles position. Next up for UCC is two-time defending league champions St. Andrew’s College on ‘Varsity Day’ (Friday, May 3rd).
(Wednesday, April 17th, 2019) – On what proved to be a rare beautiful day this spring, the Varsity Badminton team, along with the U16 squad, walked over to St. Michael’s College for their second league match. The singles players, who had a tough outing against Crescent School on Monday, dominated their matches with Christopher Chong (1st), Alexander Chow (2nd) and PJ Bujouves (3rd) all winning their matches in straight sets. The doubles matches were tighter with Sharavan Kirupakaran and Justin Zhou having to work hard and be sharp to beat their opponents in two-straight. Dustin Yang and Andy Wang saw their first game action this season in second flight doubles and after winning a very tight first game 23-21, found their groove in the second, winning 21-9. A number of exhibition games took place after the official matches were over, and the players were able to get more valuable game playing experience under their belts before heading into the long weekend. The team’s next match will be on Monday, April 29th when they host DeLaSalle College.
(Monday, April 15th, 2019) – After two weeks of intense practice, the Varsity Badminton team played its first game at Crescent School. Match competition proved – as it typically does – to be a much different animal than training and it was an adjustment period for the players as they got used to the lighting and court surface at Crescent, while also facing off against new opponents. Crescent 1st and 2nd singles players dominated their matches in straight set wins over returning players Christopher Chong and PJ Bujouves, who got an early season look at the high-end talent they will be facing in the league. The doubles teams fared better, with Sharavanan Kirupakaran and Justin Zhou winning comfortably in two straight in 1st flight action and Brian Tu and Sean Lizzola coming from behind to dispatch their opponents in three games in the 2nd flight. Y8 student Alexander Chow played the rubber match in 3rd flight singles and was able to win his game in straight sets to give UCC a 3:2 overall team win.
While Crescent was missing its top singles player (who likely would have tilted the match in their favour), it was still a good early season win for a young Upper Canada roster featuring two Y8's and a Y9 starter. On Wednesday, the team will walk over to St. Michael’s College to taken on their Bathurst and St. Clair rivals.