Freshman Jurate Foes continued the long tradition of Irvine Valley players performing well at the Women's Badminton State Championships.
Foes, who was the Orange Empire Conference singles champion and player of the year, finished as the runner-up at the state event at De Anza in May.
Irvine Valley women's badminton player Jurate Foes had a remarkable 2014 season.
She was named Orange Empire Conference player of the year and ended up as the singles runner-up at the 2014 CCCAA Women's Badminton State Championships at De Anza College in May.
Foes fell to defending state champion Pinky Li of De Anza, 21-13, 21-6.
Foes started off the singles championship by taking the first two points of the match. But Li ran off three consecutive points to pull ahead.
The match remained tight with Foes staying within 11-9. But then Li won six straight points to take control, 17-9, before winning the first set, 21-13.
Li jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second set. Foes won the next two points to get within, 4-2, before Li took control. She won the next 10 points to go ahead, 14-2, and then later closed out the match.
Foes received a bye in the opening round of the singles event and won her next three matches to reach the final.
She breezed through the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference singles tournament to win that title two weeks earlier.
Foes didn't drop a set in winning four straight matches. She also reached the semifinals in the conference doubles tournament.
Foes ended up with only two losses in singles on the season. Both came to Li.
Foes, who played No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles for Irvine Valley, helped lead Irvine Valley to a second-place finish in the PCAC during the regular season.
Irvine Valley will host the 2015 State Championships next May.
*In leading up to the start of the 2014-15 athletics campaign at Irvine Valley, which starts on Aug. 25 with women's volleyball, the Laser athletic department will countdown the top 10 IVC sports stories from the 2013-14 school year.
The countdown will begin on Thursday, Aug. 7 with the No. 10 story of the year and work its way down to No. 1 on Thursday, Aug. 21.
Some of the top stories in the running for the top 10 include special seasons by the women's soccer, men's tennis, women's volleyball and women's sand volleyball teams along with individual accolades earned by several IVC athletes for hard work both on the playing fields and courts and in the classroom.
