ACC Badminton

The Badminton season culminated in Mazenod achieving the title of State Champions! Our wonderful team of six defeated highly rated schools and academies to claim our first ever Title. The winning team consisted of Raphael Lydra (Year 11), Nicholas Pham (Year 11), Isaac Nguyen (Year 11), Reikken Lydra (Year 7), Anthony Quang (Year 9) and Justin Tang (Year 9). We defeated Haileybury College, Nossal, John Monash, Melbourne High and Maribyrnong Sports College on our way to victory. We won the final three to two, defeating highly rated Maribyrnong. Raphael Lydra was outstanding in the final defeating the under 17 National Champion to set up our victory. Special mention to James Chen for coaching and Mr Hayden Young for his support throughout the ACC Carnivals.

Senior On the 11th of May, fourteen of Mazenod’s best badminton students competed in the ACC Open Badminton title. After many hours of practice afterschool, the team was confident going into the championships. The day started smoothly with three relatively straightforward wins for the boys. In the final group stage game, Mazenod faced their first challenge against their biggest rivals, Salesian. Mazenod prevailed despite dropping a few games and the team were confident going into the knockout stage. The Nodders cruised through their semi final match and set up a second battle with Salesian, in the final of the championship. After many close matches, singles finished all square at 3–3, and the doubles at 1–1 leaving it all down to the final doubles match to decide who took home the title. With the score at 20–19 to Mazenod, everyone watched nervously on the sidelines. When Mazenod won the final point, the boys went crazy and ran on court, relieved to end their four year title drought. The 2022 Mazenod Open Badminton team would like to thank coaches Mr Hayden Young and James Chen for their help with all the after school training and coaching on the day, as well as the sports department and particularly Mr Montoya for their continued support of the badminton program. Raphael Lydra Intermediate Receiving news that both the Junior and Senior divisions won their ACC titles, the Intermediate team travelled to Glen Waverley Badminton Centre with hopes of bringing back Mazenod’s third and final title. Our day started with a victory, however this was sadly short lived as we came across the strongest opponent, Whitefriars. It was hard fought by both sides, and the scores were neck and neck, with four wins by both sides. Consequently, we fell short by six points in comparison to Whitefriars overall score, ending in our first defeat of the day. The atmosphere was dismal, knowing that we lost the title at such an early stage, but we still persisted, ironically hoping that our rivals Salesian could beat Whitefriars. We followed our defeat with a streak of wins against several schools including beating Salesian, a formidable opponent. As the day came to a close, the small hope that Salesian would beat Whitefriars was proven false, as Whitefriars came away with the title, and Mazenod followed in second place. A big thanks to Mr Young and James Chen for accompanying and coaching us on the day. Benjamin Huynh

ACC Badminton

Junior The ACC Junior Badminton title was up for grabs and with the disappointment of last year’s shortcomings, the team was determined to succeed. Emphatic victories over Parade, Whitefriars, St Bede’s, St Mary’s, St Joseph’s, St Bernard’s, and a defaulted win over De La Salle meant that Mazenod was up against Salesian for the championship. Due to previous results on the day, the team needed a 4–4 draw against Salesian to win and a close finish felt inevitable. Against Salesian, we fell to a disappointing 2–0 deficit in singles, however the team persevered and with two strong singles games we were tied 2–2. In the doubles games, each pair went back and forth until we were up 4–3 in games, before one last game which ended in a 21–17 loss. However, Mazenod had won more sets and points on a countback, so despite both schools finishing on 129 points, the final result was a thrilling victory for the team. Big thanks to Mr Young and former student, James Chen, who guided the Junior team to an intense victory. Alex Nguyen