Muskie pair play hard at OFSAA

Muskie badminton players Natalie Desjardins and Akira Kikkawa played to the best of their abilities at the all-Ontario championships last week in Timmins.
Desjardins was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the “B” flight of the girls’ singles division while Kikkawa, competing in boys’ singles, brought home the fourth-place medal in the ‘C’ flight.
Muskie head coach Manami Alexander was extremely happy with her players’ performances given the calibre of competition at the event.
“Overall we did as much as we could,” Alexander said. “They [Desjardins and Kikkawa] took everything they had and played harder than ever.
“I really congratulate them for their performance.”
Expectations surrounding Desjardins were high leading up to her third trip to the all-Ontarios. She’d had an excellent season, going undefeated in NorWOSSA play before capturing top spot at the NWOSSAA showdown.
Desjardins said she was pleased with her performance despite coming home without a medal.
“It was lots of fun,” she said. “It was a really high level [of competition]. If I’d have gone into the ‘C’ [flight], it might have gone a little bit better.”
For his part, Kikkawa, a Japanese exchange student attending Fort High, would have been happy just experiencing OFSAA. The fact he managed to come home with the fourth-place medal in the ‘C’ flight was an added bonus.
“It was a pretty good experience for me,” he remarked. “That [winning the medal] was pretty lucky.”
Desjardins cruised through her opening match in the ‘A’ flight, dumping Shannon Galea (Lake Ontario Secondary School Association) in two-straight games by scores of 15-2 and 15-3.
The win was quite an accomplishment, said Alexander. “Being from here, winning the first match in ‘A’ flight is a very big thing,” she noted.
In her second ‘A’ flight match Desjardins faced an extremely tough opponent in Carin Ho (Toronto District Secondary School Athletic Association).
Ranked fourth at the provincial championships, Ho proved too much for Desjardins, defeating her in two-straight games 15-3 and 15-8.
The loss to Ho dropped Desjardins into the ‘B’ flight, where she faced Dorothy Lui (National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association).
Desjardins got off to a great start in the best-of-three match, beating Lui in the first game 15-6. But any thoughts of an easy victory were quickly erased as Lui fought back and won the second game 15-10, setting up a third and deciding one.
It proved to be a seesaw affair. Neither player was able to seize control and with the score tied at 14-14, it was off to a tie-breaker.
Desjardins took the early advantage, forcing match point, but she was unable to put her opponent away. And that missed opportunity proved to be costly as Lui stormed back from the brink of elimination—winning 17-15 and moving on to the next round.
Unfortunately for Desjardins, she was ineligible to move into the ‘C’ flight having already played three matches.
In boys’ singles action, Kikkawa faced a very tough challenge in his ‘A’ flight match against the tournament’s number-one seeded player in Joseph Rogers (National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association).
Kikkawa competed hard against Rogers in the first game but came up short, losing 15-9. Rogers then took control of the match and won the second game 15-4, relegating Kikkawa to the ‘B’ flight.
Kikkawa then faced Darryl Lee (Toronto District Catholic Athletic Association) and once again competed hard, but the results were the same as he lost by scores of 15-9 and 15-4.
The loss dropped Kikkawa to the ‘C’ flight, where he beat Kyle Dobson (Georgian Bay Secondary School Association) by scores of 15-8 and 15-2.
The win moved Kikkawa into the semi-finals of the ‘C’ flight, where he played Randle Brus (Western Ontario Secondary School Athletic Association).
The first game was extremely close as Kikkawa gave Brus everything he could handle. The game went to a tiebreaker before Brus eventually eked out the win.
Exhausted, Kikkawa had nothing left to give in the second game and Brus cruised to 15-0 victory.
The loss moved Kikkawa into the third-place match against Simon Yip (Toronto District Secondary School Athletic Association). Once again, he played hard but it was not meant to be as Yip won both games by scores of 15-10 and 15-2.
Despite the loss, Kikkawa did not leave the tournament empty-handed. After the match, he was presented with the fourth-place medal in the ‘C’ flight.