Perry badminton doesn't appear as if it is slowing down anytime soon when it comes to winning team and individual titles be it region, state, invitational, singles or doubles.

The Pumas repeated as Chaparral Invitational kingpins on Saturday claiming team, singles and doubles top spots at Chaparral High in competition with 10 other schools.

Perry coach Lerina Johnson saw her squad prevail in an invitational for the second successive week. Perry won Highland's Flying Feathers Invite on Sept. 19)

"We're going to need to work harder to keep things going this year," Johnson said. "The girls have done a great job so far. We got the kind of competition we needed today."

Perry's winning team total of 52 was enough to edge sister school and Val Vista Drive foe, Basha (49), for a plaque. The rest of the top five standings - Ironwood (44), Chaparral (38) and Horizon (10). Perry senior Kate MacPherson won the singles crown beating Ironwood's Toni DeMarco, 21-19, 21-6. The Pumas' doubles duo - two-time defending Division I state champions junior Nikhita Jayaraj and senior Ashley Rodarte - bested Basha's Sydney Flores and Jordyn Mee, 21-9, 21-19. 

Jayaraj and Rodarte received a wake-up call in their semifinal match with Basha's Hannah Doyle and Tricia DeSpain, who ended up placing third. Doyle-DeSpain won the first set handily, 21-14. It lit a fire under the champs, who rebounded to win the second set 21-5 and took a fairly tight third, 21-15.

"That was the type of competition I'm talking about," Johnson said of her top-rated doubles team. "They needed to be checked. They noticed it on their own and responded."

Tournament singles medalists from left: Kate MacPherson (Perry), Toni DeMarco (Ironwood), Emi Pham (Chaparral), Midori Pham (Chaparral) and Lauren Faust (Perry).

 

Tournament's doubles medalists: Rodarte-Jayaraj (Perry), Flores-Mee (Basha), Doyle-DeSpain (Basha), Grady-Hendrix (Ironwood) Smith-Musquin (Horizon).

Other highlights from the tournament included Chaparral advanced two singles players to the championship semis - sisters junior Midori Pham and senior Emi Pham. They lost their semifinal matches and met for third place with Emi Pham prevailing. They competed in doubles at the D-I state tournament last year and finished third.

Ironwood's DeMarco and Savannah Hendrix reached the D-II state singles quarterfinals last year. Hendrix teamed with Kelly Grady to finish fourth on Saturday. Consolation bracket winners were Perry's Lauren Faust (singles) and Horizon's Jacqueline Musquin and Karly Smith (doubles).