Foothill's Chen Wins 3C2A Badminton Singles Title; De Anza's Than Shares Four Career Titles, Wins Doubles with Chow
Cupertino, Calif. - Olivia Chen completed an undefeated freshman women's badminton season at Foothill College, taking the 3C2A singles championship on Saturday at De Anza College.
She won the finals in straight sets, 21-12, 21-9, over PJ Yang of Fresno City College, who finished as state runner-up for a second season. The victory marked the first badminton singles title for Foothill since the program started in 2000, and it marks the fifth-straight year that the title has been won by a school in Northern California.
"I'm really excited to be a champion here," Chen said. "I've participated on Junior National teams for China in the Asian Championships."
Chen, 29, recently immigrated from Shanghai, China with her family and resides in Sunnyvale. She coaches at an area Happy Birdie Badminton Court. She enrolled at Foothill this school year to pursue a physical therapy curriculum and was excited to learn that the college had a badminton team. She quickly joined the program, coached by Kelly Edwards.
Makayla Than, the 2025 state singles champion for De Anza, teamed with Karina Chow to win the 2026 doubles title. The pair defeated another De Anza duo, Risa Ohara and Linsey Le, 21-16, 21-12, in the title match. The same four ladies contributed to the dual team championship for the Mountain Lions on Thursday.
Than said it was "pretty nice' to be a quadruple 3C2A champion in her two-year career at De Anza. "I was very sentimental about it all." Than won the singles championship in 2025 and has now sparked De Anza to back-to-back team titles for coach Mark Landefeld.
On Thursday, Chow's winning match had scored the winning point in an 11-6 dual team championship over previously undefeated San Diego Mesa. Together the pair tallied six of De Anza 11 points.
It was the second-straight year for an all-De Anza doubles final. In 2024 Chow was on the runner-up Mountain Lions doubles team.
Than and Chow both plan to transfer to UC Irvine next season. They are graduates of Central Coast Section High Schools in San Jose -- Than from Santa Teresa and Chow from Evergreen Valley.
Than won the singles consolation title over Chrystal Micu of San Diego Mesa, 21-11, 21-17. In doubles consolation, it was Julie Li and Vicky Guan of City College of San Francisco over Pasadena City's Kharista Kristi and Thuw Tran, 21-18, 21-9, for the prize.
2026 3C2A State Badminton Championships
SINGLES
Championship:
Olivia Chen (Foothill) d. PJ Yang (Fresno), 21-12, 21-9
Semifinals:
Chen d. Karina Chow (De Anza), 21-9, 21-15
Yang d. Yumi Nguyen (Mesa), 21-23, 21-10, 21-12.
DOUBLES
Championship:
Karina Chow/Makayla Than (De Anza) d. Risa Ohara/Lindsey Le (De Anza), 21-16, 21-19
Semifinals:
Chow/Makayla d. Yumi Nguyen/Trang Tran (Mesa), 23-21, 21-12
Ohara/Le d PJ Yang/Khushi Kaur (Fresno), 13-21, 21-19, 21-19.
Courtesy of Fred Baer, CCCSIA