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CONTACT: Andy Kanengiser PHONE: (800) 581-6770 EMAIL: publicrelations@nctta.org |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April
13, 2013 Doubles teams from USC and Texas Wesleyan Win Crowns at 2013 NCTTA Championships Doubles
in College Table Tennis College table tennis fans
watching the NCTTA doubles finals were in for a treat Friday afternoon. At
the 2013 championships in Rockford, Illinois, Justin Huang and Grant Li of
the University of Southern California defeated the Texas Wesleyan duo of Yahao Zhang and Razvan Cretu to hand the trophy to the Trojans. “It’s exciting to bring
home the championship to USC," Huang said at the Forest City Tennis
Center moments after the Trojans from Los Angeles stole the show before a big
crowd of noisy onlookers at the tournament’s opening day. “We focused on our
shots." A 20-year-old sophomore
who’s a mathematics major at USC and native of China , Huang got lots of help
from Grant Li, his standout teammate and a member of the 2012 US National
Team. The dynamic USC duo
stands tall near the top of the charts
when it comes to NCTTA ratings. Li’s ranking is 2486 and Huang is also tough
to beat with an NCTTA rating of 2421. “I was very pleased how we played. We
stuck to our game plan," said Grant, an 18-year-old freshman who’s
studying business administration at USC. TWU beat Mississippi
College and USC defeated Lindenwood to make it to
the finals. Just a few feet away, the
hotly contested NCTTA women’s doubles championship was going on with the
Texas Wesleyan Rams knocking off the University of Ottawa women. “They were really, really
tough,’" said TWU’s Claudia Ikeizumi, 26,
after she and teammate Sara Hazinski defeated righty-lefty
twin sisters from Ottawa, Sara & Stephanie Yuen, by a 3-2 margin to
emerge as the 2013 doubles champs. Wesleyan led 2-0 before Ottawa staged a
comeback to even the match at 2-2, however TWU was up to the challenge and
won the final game 11-8. “We practiced a lot with people
at the tournament," Hazinski , 25, said
minutes after the final match. It wasn’t easy for Texas
Wesleyan’s team just to get here. Due to bad weather earlier this week,
including several tornadoes that skipped across the South, the TWU team was
delayed at least three hours at the airport in Dallas before they could board
a plane for Chicago. The weather was a problem for many other teams traveling
to Rockford, but none could be kept from attending this season finale
competition. The TWU women’s victory
Friday drew cheers from Rams coach Jasna Rather,
who came to the tourney with her 16-month-old baby Izabel.
There was much more table tennis to come through Sunday. Coming into the April 2013 NCTTA games, perennial team
champ Texas Wesleyan (they’ve won every year since 2002) was ranked No. 1 in
that category with Mississippi College in 2nd place, Lindenwood rated third, Southern California 4th
and San Jose State holding down the 5th spot. The 2013 College Table Tennis
Championships is hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Rockford Area Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and
is one of the most competitive table tennis tournaments in North America
featuring 6 events: Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed
Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Newgy
Industries, Butterfly, PR etc. Rockford Table Tennis Club, Fitzgerald
Equipment, Rockford Park District Full list of participants and
seeds: http://www.nctta.org/champs/2013/news.html Players and spectators alike will
enjoy a jam-packed weekend of table tennis at the 2013 College
Table Tennis Championships.
The event starts Friday April 12th and continues to Sunday April 14th at the
Forrest Tennis Center in Rockford, Illinois. About NCTTA The National Collegiate Table
Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established
exclusively for promoting the sport of table tennis at the college level. As
the national governing body for college table tennis in the United States and
Canada, NCTTA organizes intercollegiate competition throughout North America.
www.nctta.org About USA Table
Tennis Headquartered in Colorado Springs,
USATT is the national organizing body for table tennis in the United States,
serving 9,000+ members and nearly 300 clubs. USATT sanctions 200+ events a
year including the US Open and US Nationals. USATT is affiliated with the
International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), as well as the United States
Olympic Committee (USOC). www.usatt.org
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