By Michael Reff
Press Committee Chair

Saturday, April 5th in Rockford, IL concluded the coed and women’s teams event portions of the 2025 NCTTA Championships in spectacular fashion. And the theme of the day, as well as this whole tournament, has been West Coast dominance by both the UCLA women and California men and coed.

On the women’s side, UCLA clinched the team championship title for the second time by defeating first-time finalists Cornell University 3-1.

This win, along with UCLA’s doubles title dominance, now have both teammates Joanna Sung and Angie Tan vying for a triple crown come Sunday: that is, a teams, doubles, and singles title.

On the Coed teams side, a similar story played out with California doubles winners Nikhil Kumar and Sid Naresh edging past Texas Wesleyan’s Jonatan McDonald and Senura Silva, in a thrilling deciding match, with the same opponents of the previous day that earned them their first 2025 title. California ultimately defeated Texas Wesleyan 3-2 and clinched their first ever coed team championship title.

With two titles under his belt for this year, Kumar is also going for that triple crown, intent on securing a third trophy in the single’s event, which would also be his third consecutive singles title if he goes the distance!

After the teams matches finished, a wonderful banquet with a delicious dinner closed out the evening, honoring volunteers and collegiate champions alike. Production manager mastermind Ed Hogshead provided introductory remarks along with NCTTA President Willy Leparulo, who thanked and introduced sponsors Stiga, GoRockford, Paddle Palace (who was represented by Sean O’Neill and is also a commentator for this year’s Champs), and PongSpace and Peaka Pong, with PongSpace CEO Thomas Hu also in attendance. Both Mr. O’Neill and Mr. Hu also assisted in presenting the trophies to the students in the doubles and teams events.

The exquisite, custom, 3D-printed trophies designed by NCTTA’s Logan Zimmerman have become something of a mainstay at recent champs, with everyone admiring the beautiful and sleek craftsmanship.

Additionally, the Volunteer of the Year award was presented remotely to none other than NCTTA board member and HR Coordinator Stephanie Shih, who tirelessly planned and executed the successful World University Games Trials on Thursday, April 3rd.

Marketing Committee Chair Andy Nguyen MC’ed the event, as well as provided great entertainment for banquet attendees with highlight clips and other more hilarious content, showing the lighter side of student-athletes off the table.

This concludes Day 3 of the Champs, with one more exciting day of singles matches to go! Stay tuned for tomorrow's thrilling finish to the 2025 Champs in Rockford, IL!

(First time Coed Champs California reveling in their glory! Photo credit to Dennis Yanga)
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About 2025 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams. Also this year a first in NCTTA’s history is the Collegiate National Team trials on Thursday April 3rd for the 2025 World University Games.

PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Stiga and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 4th on http://www.nctta.org/champs/2025/video.html

About NCTTA

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively to promote 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 elite intercollegiate competitions throughout North America. www.nctta.org