De Anza’s four-time state championship title-holding badminton team struggles to maintain that reputation this season with its younger and newer players.

Last year’s team was composed of mostly sophomores, leaving this season with a batch of new freshmen, who are generally more inexperienced, to take over and learn. Only two of the players who were a part of last year’s back-to-back championship team, sophomores Renee Ou and Kelly Tran, are on the team this year.

The Mountain Lions are currently in the middle of the pack and have improved a lot since the start of the season. With four losses, De Anza picked up to take their third win in a row against Foothill College on Thursday, March 21, with a final score of 16-5.

Head Coach Mark Landelfield said that the team is “starting to get the type of results out of people who weren’t able to contribute points against the early matches.”

Malian Vuong, 18, a business major on the team, said she strategized her wins by “targeting their (opponents) backhand because most of the time that’s their weak spot, and clearing so they stay in the back of the court (which) makes them run.”

Enya Liu, 19, an environmental science major, said she struggled most throughout her doubles game today because her partner is a new pairing as her original partner has an injury.

“(My partner) struggled a bit with communication and rotation since (we) are still getting familiar with each other on the court,” Liu said.

De Anza has two rematches against Fresno City College and the City College of San Francisco coming up; the Mountain Lions lost to Fresno with a tight score of 11-10, so, Landelfield said, a victory is in the cards for the next match; he also said they also hope to be the only team to beat CCSF.

“We did not play in a way that was indicative of our abilities the first time around,” Landelfield said about their 20-1 loss to CCSF. “Until we get there, I want to believe that we’re competing to win the match, which we weren’t in a position to do weeks ago.”

De Anza will play their next matches at San Diego Mesa College on April 1 and Pasadena City College on April 2, two colleges Vuong said that the team has in their sights.