Six members of the Mount Allison badminton team travelled to Nanaimo, B.C. for the CCAA national badminton championships this past week. In this tournament the Mounties played teams from Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Representing the Mounties were Michael Miller and Hamza Munawar in men’s doubles, Olivia Adams and Kristyn Visser in women’s doubles, and Gillian Tetlow and Jaryd Morrissey in mixed doubles. In the six-team field, each of the Mt. A teams were very tough against teams that are accustomed to much higher-level competition in their individual leagues.
Miller and Munawar showed great fight and tenacity throughout the round robin section of the tournament pushing every team hard and making them fight for every point. The team was able to pull off one victory over the second Alta. team from , with scores of 21-9, 29-27. This allowed them to finish with one win and four losses in the round robin falling just short of qualifying for the semifinals. Instead they competed in the 5-6 match in which they again defeated the second team from Alta. to secure a fifth-place finish.
Adams and Visser found themselves in a very tough women’s doubles draw. They both competed hard and played as well as they could but were unable to come away with a victory, finishing the round robin with zero wins and five losses. They then played in the 5-6 match losing a tough match to the second Ont. team 21-10 and 21-7.
The team of Tetlow and Morrissey had the highest expectations coming into the week with the hopes of qualifying for the semifinals. Things just didn’t fall their way throughout the round robin as they lost two close three-set matches to teams from B.C. and Ont. before defeating the second team from Alta. This gave them one win and four losses, just missing the semifinals. In the 5-6 match they fell to the second Alta. team from in three sets, falling to the sixth position overall.
The ACAA was also represented by Maddie Alvarez and Sam White from the University of King’s College. Alvarez fought hard but was unable to win a match in the women’s singles division, finishing sixth overall. In men’s singles, White was the most successful of all ACAA players. He finished the round robin with two wins and three losses, qualifying for the semifinals, losing to the eventual champion and then coming up just short in the bronze-medal match.
