Xavier, Gilbert, Sunnyslope, Chaparral advance in badminton

October 17, 2011 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


The top four seeds advanced Monday night to the state team badminton finals with a variety of wins in the quarterfinal round.

No. 1 seed Xavier (17-0) engaged in a tough battle as expected with No. 9 seed Mountain Pointe in the quarters, pulling out a 5-3 win. Xavier beat Mountain Pointe, 5-4, in a regular-season match. Xavier took out Central in the first round 5-0. No. 4 seed Gilbert (16-0) also advanced in the top bracket with a pair of 5-0 wins over Perry and Westwood. Xavier and Gilbert meet in one of Wednesday's semifinals at 6:30 p.m. at Independence High School.

In the other half of the bracket, defending big-school champion and No. 3 seed Chaparral (15-2)  took care of McClintock, 5-0, and pesky Chandler, 5-2. Chaparral faces No. 2 Sunnyslope in Wednesday's other 6:30 p.m. semifinal at Independence. Sunnyslope (14-2) was pushed in both its matches, topping Shadow Mountain, 5-2, and last year's 4A champ Greenway in the quarters, 5-3. Earlier this season Sunnyslope edged Greenway, 5-4.