Last day of badminton this semester

The week after the tournament I managed to play one more game with Payten and friends. Although unfortunately I did not get the chance to play a full game against payten as we played doubles too long and payten had to leave. The teams were either me and Piper vs. Payten and her friend Mikayla or me and Mikayla vs. Piper and Payten. 

The games were more just us having fun than anything else. We had moments of intensity but it wasn’t a super intense set of games. We knew it was the last time we could all play together till  September and just enjoyed our time. I didn’t focus on anything specific during these first games. I just tried to gauge if I was playing somewhere near Payten’s level. I thought it was looking good (Spoiler I was not close). It was also a very busy day for the badminton courts so we swapped in and out with a couple other groups after a game out of two. 

Eventually there was a guy that asked if he could join our doubles games since he didn’t have others to play with. Now this man was GOOD! First “game” if you can call it that was him and payten vs me and mikayla. He was basically a one man team. Anything Payten gets he would get to it. He also had some insane power in his smashes, I cowered instead of trying to return them about 50% of the time when they were coming right at me. Also I said “game” because we kept score till it was 10/0 and then just gave up as whatever team the new guy was on was crushing it. 

After about 10 minutes of being crushed by payten and the new guy, me and payten swapped so that I was now on the team with the new guy (I will now refer to him as Bob). Being on a team with Bob made me realise how often I leave a birdie that I felt was too much effort to reach only for Bob to reach it from a farther position than I was at. It was also during this point when if i was swerving to pattern I would try and mix up my short and long swerves, which did trip her up a couple times, but only cause she didn’t expect. After I did it a couple times she was ready for short or long. Playing with Bob felt ridiculous at times as I would be jumping around behind him in case he missed one, which he  rarely did, so it was just me hoping around looking silly. Although I can say I technically beat Payten after these games, but only as a joke Payten gave me a hard stare when I said  it to her lol.

It was around this point Bob said he was heading out. This also when Payten said she had to leave too. Took some convincing  but managed to get her to play part of a game with me. I felt I managed to hold my own decently well. The rallies went on longer than they usually do, but Payten was still kicking my butt. Payten racked up 4 points before I got my first point. And then it was a fight to get any more. We ended the game at 7/4 for Payten, ending the game early as she really had to leave. I managed to get a quote from Payten saying “Compared to our first match, ya you got better” that was the best i could get out of her. So now I will have to work hard this summer to come back stronger than before. Maybe this section of the blog will get a badminton update in September if I beat her. Until then, my next posts will be on climbing.