Women’s badminton 1st beat Brunel University for second time in eight days

Lesley-Anne Morley

Kingston women’s 1^st badminton team is tied for first place in their league after defeating Brunel University at Kingston College Arena on Wednesday.

The Brunel team were eager to up their game and redeem themselves after last week’s loss, but Kingston was better and won the night five matches to three.

Sam Bennet, one of Kingston’s captains, said: “We were expecting something similar to last week, but we changed players and they changed players so we faced a much stronger team tonight.”

Steady as she goes

Kingston’s Hannah Studholter had to change her strategy when she faced Brunel’s Xiang Yu who did not play last week.

Despite her more aggressive style of attack Yu struggled to make contact as Studholter served up several drop shots and near-out hits.

Studholter said: “I think I performed quite well.  I won both of my matches and I’m not feeling well.  I’m really happy now. 

“I think they performed better this week.  I thought I would play the same way this week, but they changed a few players and I didn’t expect them to be that much stronger today.”

High scores and extra games

Yu pulled it together when she met Bennet in her second match and challenged the Kingston captain to a fierce set of games.

The pair rallied to high scores and though Bennet was able to force a third game, she came up short.

She said: “It was quite a difficult match.  It was long and tiring, but it’s one of those matches you don’t begrudge because it was such a good set of games.”

The next match is on November 21 against School of Oriental African Studies women’s 1^st at the Sobell Centre at 15:30.

Singles Matches

Bennet (KU) v. Pei (BU)                       21-17, 21-17                         Kingston Win

Sudholter (KU) v. Yu (BU)                    22-20, 21-11                         Kingston Win

Sudholter (KU) v. Pei (BU)                    21-7, 21-10                           Kingston Win

Bennet (KU) v. Yu (BU)                        21-23, 21-13, 19-21            Brunel Win

Doubles Matches

Stavely-Taylor/ Yau (KU) v. Johnson/ Sripinij (BU)           21-13, 21-17                         Kingston Win

Clark/ Zhu (KU) v. Watts/ Wynveldt (BU)                         21-16, 21-16                         Kingston Win

Stavely-Taylor/ Yau (KU) v. Watts/ Wynveldt (BU)           7-21, 13-21                           Brunel Win

Clark/ Zhu (KU) v. Johnson/ Sripinji (BU)                          22-20, 12-21, 11-21            Brunel Win