The Badminton State Conference finals were held at Skyline last Saturday to determine who would earn the right to participate in the state finals in Irvine this coming Friday and Saturday. Skyline has one doubles pair and two singles players moving on to the state finals. The two singles players are also the doubles partners that made it, so there is a total of two girls from Skyline going to Irvine next weekend. Nour Abudamous and Rachell Berania both qualified for state. In singles, Abudamous qualified as the fourth seed and Berania for the eighth. In her previous match, Berania mildly hurt her arm, and so she forfeited her final game to decide who would be in the seventh and eighth seeded positions. As doubles partners, the duo wound up as the third seed. The advantage to being a higher seed is that, at the state finals, you get to skip the first round of play all together, and also, during the second round, you face the lower seeded players. The conference finals began at 10:00a.m., with 12 rounds of singles matches. It then switched to six doubles matches, and then alternated later singles and doubles rounds. Both singles and doubles require separate strategies. In singles, you have to worry about covering your entire side of the court, and so it is more demanding physically. In doubles, however, you have to work well with your partner, which can sometimes be a challenge. Many of the players from the undefeated City College team dominated in the conference finals, with the top three singles and top two doubles spots going to City College players. Coach Jan Fosberg feels that the Trojans did pretty well at the conference finals, considering who their opponents were. “This year, it was difficult to qualify because of players from City College”, Fosberg said. “The coach did a good job recruiting.” Fosberg said that she was proud of the entire team’s effort all season, and she is also really proud of Abudamous because she was the only person to defeat the girl ranked number one in the entire north conference. This didn’t happen on Saturday, but it is still an accomplishment. Marijoy Angeles, a Skyline player, lost in the first round. She said that she came because she wanted to experience it, but she wasn’t expecting a lot out of herself. She did learn from this experience, saying that “you have to be hungry coming in, play smart, and during practice test your opponents’ weaknesses.” During your match, Angeles says that it is important to keep attacking your opponents’ weaknesses that you revealed during practice. In other news, Howard Bach, who was badminton champion for two consecutive Olympics, spoke during a break in the action. He announced that he is trying to start a badminton league, with the ultimate goal of getting the teams that already exist more opponents; to basically extend the season.