By Kaci Demarest

Sunnyslope High School played its second badminton match of the season Thursday at Xavier College Preparatory.

History between Sunnyslope and Xavier runs deep as they generally play this freedom match at the start of every season. Last year, Sunnyslope fell to Xavier 1-8 and the year before that the Xavier Gators trumped the Vikings in a 9-0 sweep.

This year’s match told a different story with Xavier winning 6-3, the closest a match has been between the two schools in a number of years.

According to Sunnyslope head coach Sarah Schlesinger, the team is strong and deep this year with five of the six varsity slots belonging to seniors.

Despite the strength, Sunnyslope is still reeling from the loss of its No. 2 seeded varsity player, senior Mackenzie Knobbe. Before the season officially began, Knobbe fractured her right foot during practice.

“It’s been really hard missing my senior season, especially as a four-year player, but my team has been really supportive. This situation has taught me how to be a leader off the court,” Knobbe said.

Junior Aimee Clifford leads the Vikings this season followed by seniors Linnea Weicht, Rachel Goettl, Emma Rutin, and Carly Denial. Because of Knobbe’s injury, junior Sienna Case has been brought up to varsity for the time being.

Knobbe and Goettl are the only two returning varsity members from last season. Schlesinger said the lack of returning varsity players creates additional hurdles for the team, but it’s nothing they can’t overcome.

“We’re a little bit young, but the girls have come out so strong that I think they’re a force to be reckoned with,” Schlesinger said.

Thursday’s matchup against Xavier truly put the team to the test. Earlier in the week, Sunnyslope swept district rival Washington High School 9-0 in the match.

Xavier holds back-to-back badminton championships at the team level, however, it only has two varsity players returning from last year.

“We have a very equal team. We have a very strong No. 1 player, but we’re still working through challenges,” Xavier head coach Nancy Meyer said.

This year, senior Kirielle Singarajah holds the number one spot for the Gators. Singarajah has played on the badminton team all four years and has held a slot on varsity since her sophomore year. Behind her, the remainder of Xavier’s varsity squad is comprised of juniors Tatum Clarke and Emily Woodrow and seniors Sydney LaPierre, Katie Russell, and Laura Pearl.

In Thursday’s match, the No. 1 varsity singles set featured Singarajah and Clifford. In the first game, Singarajah swept Clifford 11-0, however, the second game featured a more comfortable Clifford, who started landing strong clears and forced Singarajah to move around the court more. Singarajah claimed the second game as well (11-5 score) thanks to her deep clears following shallow drop shots from Clifford.

The No. 2 seeded singles featured Weicht and Clark. Weicht won the first game 11-7.

After a number of failed drop shots and short smashes, Weicht managed to pull out an 11-8 win.

“I was really nervous, but the whole team was supporting me. Overall, my placement was more important than the quality of shots,” Weicht said.

Sunnyslope’s fifth seeded varsity player, Denial, scooped up the team’s second win of the day. Facing off against Pearl, Denial claimed the first game, 13-12, and dropped the second. Denial won the tiebreaker game 11-9.

The remaining varsity singles matches featured third seed Goettl and LaPierre (Xavier: 11-7, 11-8); fourth seed Rutin and Russell (Xavier: 11-2, 11-1); and sixth seed Case and Woodrow (Xavier: 11-1, 11-2).

Following the varsity singles matches, the doubles teams featured Clifford and Goettl against Clarke and Pearl at number one, Denial and Rutin against Singarajah and Russell at number two, and Case and Weicht against LaPierre and Woodrow at number three.

Clifford and Goettl won their first game 17-14 and easily won the second 15-5. In the beginning, the duo possessed a sense of uncertainty, but once they found their rhythm half way into the first game, their momentum took off.

Xavier managed to win the second and third seed matches. Singarajah and Russell won 15-5, 15-12 while LaPierre and Woodrow won 15-9, 15-7.

According to Schlesinger, it’s been difficult to formulate varsity doubles teams that have chemistry since Knobbe’s injury.

Denial propelled the second seeded Sunnyslope doubles team to a closer game with her powerful net smash, however, once Xavier took off in the second set, it was a quick finale.

As for Case and Weicht, their faults generally came with shots that had too much power on them.

Sunnyslope’s record dropped to 1-1. Its next match is at Ironwood on Sept. 9 at 4:00 p.m.

Kaci is a sophomore at Arizona State University majoring in Sports Journalism. She co-hosts Double X Sports, a talk show about women's sports, on college radio station Blaze Radio. After college, she aims to work as an on field sports broadcaster.

Twitter: @Kaci_Demarest