HAWKS CHLOE ROWE NAMED OCAA FEMALE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
OFFICIAL RELEASE: Friday, February 16, 2018
HAMILTON, ON: To say that Hawk women have dominated the OCAA Badminton Player of the Year awards over the past number of years is truly an understatement, as evidenced by a Humber student-athlete receiving the award for the ninth year in a row. This year the award for top female player in the province was awarded to second-year sensation Chloe Rowe of the Humber Hawks.
Rowe, the defending CCAA National and OCAA Provincial champion, soared through tournament and regional play this past year.
In tournament play, leading up to the 2018 OCAA West Regionals, she won the triple crown in both college-based tournaments. The triple-crown is quite significant and incredibly difficult to attain, because the player needs to win gold in singles, doubles and mixed doubles in the same two or three day weekend event. As mentioned above, Chloe did it twice. At the St. Clair Open, and event that has both top club and collegiate players participate, she captured gold in women's doubles, silver in women's singles and just missed out on going to the final in mixed doubles.
The recent regional championships is where she set the tone for what could be another OCAA crown and a trip to defend her 2016/17 CCAA women's doubles crown. Along with her partner Liz Duong, the pair went undefeated and provided the most dominant team performance in any discipline. Only a single team was able to score eight points once, and they won matches by the incredible average margin of 21 to 4.6 in points.
"Chloe is a special player", said Hawks head coach Raymond Wong. "Obviously she is skilled and a champion, but she is also grounded and one of the finest team players I have ever coached at Humber."
Away from Humber, she is just as lethal on the court. This past year she added the Badminton U23 National Mixed title to her resume. Entering this prestigious event seeded second, she and partner B.R. Sankreeth went on to win the title in a 3-set gold medal match thriller.
"We are very proud of Chloe's accomplishment", said Humber Associate Director of Athletics and longtime Hawks badminton coordinator Michael Kopinak. "She has always represented Humber with the highest level of excellence and outstanding sportsmanship, and we applaud her for this well-deserved recognition."
Rowe will now enter play this afternoon in search of another OCAA championship. Play commences this afternoon in Hamilton at Mohawk College, and will continue until Saturday afternoon and medal round play.
