SON NGUYEN NAMED COACH OF THE YEAR; DARBY DUPRAT NAMED MVP

For the second consecutive season, the SDCC women's badminton team has been honored with major postseason awards by the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference. Head Coach Son Nguyen was named Coach of the Year, Darby Duprat was given Most Valuable Player, and all six players were selected to the All-PCAC team.

It is the second year in a row that Nguyen has been awarded Coach of the Year and the fifth time (2006, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2013) since taking over as head coach of the Knights in 2006. He has guided the Knights to four state championships (2006, 2007, 2008, 2012) and is looking to get a fifth this year after defeating Pasadena to advance to the California Community College Athletic Association championship match vs. DeAnza College on Thursday, May 9.

Darby Duprat, a freshman from Hoover High School in San Diego, was the No. 1 player on the Knights' ladder all season and finished with an undefeated 16-0 PCAC singles record. Duprat also had an undefeated 16-0 doubles record with teammate Thao Nguyen. She became the second Knight in as many years to win the conference's Most Valuable Player award. LanAnh Nguyen won the award a year ago, also as the Knights' top player.

Duprat has earned the overall No. 1 seed in the CCCAA singles championship tournament that begins on Friday, May 10. She has also earned the overall No. 1 seed in doubles with Nguyen.

Kareen Escobedo, Cassandra Ka, Nguyen, Sophia Tran, and Lena Van were all selected to the All-PCAC team along with Duprat. It was the second straight year that all six Knights were named to the All-Conference team. Escobedo, Ka, Nguyen and Van all had undefeated 16-0 PCAC records in singles competition. Tran (14-2) suffered just two losses.

Nguyen and Tran have earned the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, respectively, for the CCCAA singles championship. Van will have the No. 7 seed.

All three doubles teams for the Knights also went undefeated during the regular season and have earned top seeds for the CCCAA doubles championship tournament. Duprat/Nguyen (17-1) are seeded No. 1, Tran/Van (18-0) are seeded No. 2, and Ka/Escobedo (8-0) have the No. 5 seed.

The CCCAA team championship match vs. DeAnza will be played at 3 p.m. on May 9 at Pasadena City College. The singles and doubles tournament will be played the following two days, also at PCC.