Rachel Liu, senior information systems major, sends the birdie over the net at the badminton tournament last Tuesday at the Recreation Center. Liu’s team, Dragon Team, won the first round against the Flying Squirrels.
Jordan Storrer/The Bulletin
About 25 students, faculty and staff gathered for the annual fall badminton tournament last Tuesday in the Student Recreation Center.
Chang Liu, senior information systems major, won first place in the coed division with her partner Zhiye Zhao, junior business major, and the women’s singles in the tournament.
“Badminton has become one of the international games now, and it keeps me fit, though it is not popular in the U.S.,” Liu said. “Also, I took part in this tournament because I love to compete. Participating in a tournament like this can keep me playing and trying to bring myself up to another level.”
Whitney Runer, assistant director of recreation services, said they have hosted the tournament each fall for several years.
“We like to get ideas from students and staff, like things they would like to see, and that idea was one that the students expressed interested in,” Runer said.
There were nine doubles teams and four women’s singles participants at this year’s tournament.
“We went last year, and it was a lot of fun, so we decided to come up this year and (try) to win,” said Jordan Harbour, junior psychology major. “We didn’t win last year. We got out the first round.”
But Liu said that not as many people participated in the tournament as she expected. She said that events like the this should be held more often to get more people involved in them, which would be a good opportunity to meet new opponents and friends.
Liu also said there could be more advertisement for events like this to get students informed and excited for similar upcoming activities.
This year was second tournament for Justin Axman, senior biology major, and Joe Kornbrust, senior health promotion major, and they got the second place in the men’s doubles for the second year in a row.
But despite the win, Axman said he was disappointed.
“This is our last year since we are going to graduate. Two years is all we had,” Axman said.
Kornbrust said this year’s tournament was more successful than the previous year.
“There (were) more teams signed up, and the rules are more set out, more strict. But (it was) fun,” Kornbrust said.
The winners of each division also received a T-shirt.
There will be a table tennis tournament held in the spring, and dodgeball and soccer matches will be held once or twice a week.