By Michael Reff and Willy Leparulo
NCTTA Media Committee

Eric Pattison is a Stanford University doctoral student with a heart of gold. An American Para player utilizing a paddle he created himself (“I even tried to make my own rubber which was a disaster LOL” he says), Pattison states that “ping pong is the reason I’m doing chemical engineering.”

He is a multiple US Open champion who attributes his experiences in table tennis to establishing global friendships through international competitions. “I am the luckiest person on the face of the earth!” he exclaims, a line reminiscent of the late baseball great Lou Gehrig.

Pattison says his Stanford squad was invited to the champs right in the nick of time, “in other words within 30 minutes of the deadline!”

Right away when arriving at the venue, everyone could note Pattison’s infectious smile and willingness to help. NCTTA President Willy Leparulo appreciated the kind gesture from Pattison when he offered to lug some registration boxes from the hotel, but politely declined, saying that Pattison “is a guest.”

Pattison only has high praise for the NCTTA Champs event, remarking that it’s “One of the most well-run tournaments I have ever been to.”

Pattison and his team had quite a difficult preliminary draw, playing the likes of first seeded Indiana University, 12 seeded Yale, and 13 ranked Michigan, to ultimately end their participation at the tourney today against WUSTL in a double’s tie breaking match. This final match followed wheelchair rules, where no alternating points were allowed. WUSTL’s strategy was to avoid Pattison’s deceptive twiddling pips shots in favor of his teammate’s more standard style.

In addition to table tennis, Pattison also has a background in politics as a former student member of the Washington Student Achievement Council. According to a 2015 press release from the WSAC, “One of Pattison’s priorities is to ensure students have access to a quality education.”

With brains, table tennis prowess, and a heart of gold, Pattison has won us over on and off the table as a model NCTTA college athlete!

About 2022 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, Double Fish and Joola.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 8th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

By Brayden Glad
NCTTA Media Committee

In the first round of competition, the underdogs provided a few surprises, the biggest being #22 UCLA overcoming #9 Maryland 3-1. Close matches included #4 Northwestern and #8 Washington needing doubles to overcome #16 Texas A&M and #20 Massachusetts, respectively. #18 Carnegie Mellon received a difficult introduction to the NCTTA nationals, losing to #6 California 4-0 in their first-ever match.

Continuing onward, the opening matches for Group 5 and the first set of women’s team matches went to form, with only #5 USC- #17 UNC-Charlotte providing intrigue. Unfortunately, a roster mismanagement led to USC defaulting the deciding doubles match, and giving debutants UNCC its first ever NCTTA nationals win 3-2. The #5 Texas and #3 MIT women’s teams needed doubles to defeat #13 Boston University and #11 Texas A&M respectively.

UCLA remains the underdog story of the tournament, defeating #14 UT-Dallas 3-1 to qualify for the next round.

Group 5 continued to provide drama, with #21 Washington University at Saint Louis upsetting UNC-Charlotte 3-1 and breaking the group wide open. Coupled with USC’s 3-1 win over the shorthanded #10 Rutgers, every team in that group stood at 1-1 with all to be decided in the 3rd match.

While the upsets by #22 UCLA removed any drama from Group 2, in the other groups little was decided going into the final game. The Yale-Michigan #12-13 showdown for advancement from group 1 was delayed by almost an hour by the MIT-Syracuse marathon, and also went to doubles, where Michigan advanced with #1 Indiana. NYU easily defeated UCLA and won Group 2.

All and all the day was for upsets, cheers and jubilation as the unexpected is now very much in the thick of things!

About 2022 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, Double Fish and Joola.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 8th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

By Michael Reff and Brayden Glad
NCTTA Media Committee

It’s already been an exciting day at the 2022 NCTTA Round Rock Championships. We’ve seen the beginning of the Coed and Women’s teams event as well as single’s competition, but the main attraction for the evening were the dazzling displays of doubles talent.

High performing athletes that have already graced the national and international arenas gave the crowd quite a show tonight. On the men’s side, 2017 US Men’s National Doubles Champions, brothers Sharon and Gal Alguetti from Indiana University (IU), clinched the NCTTA Men’s Doubles title over NYU’s Jeremy Hazin and Mudit Dani 3-1. Despite the NYU pair losing, they put up a great fight with a strong crowd behind them. Ultimately the perfect communication between the IU twins proved too much for the lefty/righty pairing.

Sharon said of the competition, “These are the same people we have trained with in this part of the draw.” IU coach Luke Gillespie added, “ The kids have trained together and know each other’s games very well. This is the top echelon of Table Tennis in the United States and Canada. We are pleased to be a part of this tournament’s success.”

For the Women’s doubles finals it was an all Texas affair. Zhen Deng and Jiaqi Lin of the perennial women’s champs school Texas Wesleyan University ultimately captured the hardware and continued their school’s laudable reputation for winning the title after defeating Eden (LeiJie) Qi and Kelly Zhao of Texas 3-1 as well.

If this is any indication of what’s to come, we are in store for many more excellent matches tomorrow and Sunday! Tune in bright and early to the live streaming at the 2022 Round Rock Champs April 9 for more ponging prowess!

Pictured here are the new Men's Doubles Champions from Indiana University, Sharon and Gal Alguetti

About 2022 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships
The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, Double Fish and Joola.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 8th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

By Michael Reff
NCTTA Media Committee

University of California, Irvine player Hitoki Kidahashi is not your typical college freshman. Born in Japan, he then moved to China at a very early age, ultimately ending up in Hawaii. Kidahashi is an ambitious Computer Science/Japanese double major hoping to add a 3rd field of study in either education or general engineering to his already packed schedule.

In addition to his intense passion for table tennis, he’s also an internationally ranked Rubik’s cube puzzle solver.

Kidahashi wears multiple hats at the 2022 championships. For UC Irvine he’s basically every officer and position imaginable for the team: president, treasurer, team manager, team captain, training and on court coach, as well as safety, cleaner, and equipment manager! He’s also participating in the Men’s singles, doubles, and Coed teams events.

Consequently, he’s a perfect candidate for NCTTA volunteerism. Kidahashi caught the NCTTA volunteering bug after participating in the West Regionals and hearing about another player going to nationals as a volunteer. He found out about the different positions he could do in the Champs and reached out, inquiring, “Do you guys need more volunteers? I can help,” ultimately signing up for the Registration area.

After volunteering Thursday afternoon, he proceeded to diligently help his team in an evening multi-ball practice to prepare for their ensuing competitions.

When asked about what motivates him to take on so many responsibilities, he responds with computer programming humor: “recursion.” He says that because he is in multiple positions, it makes him inevitably take on more tasks. This recursive trait might be easily identified as a dominant one in the genetic makeup of all our loudnproud volunteers at the NCTTA!

Kidahashi has said that he used to think he was an introvert early in life, but ultimately realized he just needed to bond with people of shared interests. In high school he already demonstrated leadership skills as he managed the Rubik’s cube and cyber security club.

He has found his niche in table tennis, and, as NCTTA is the ultimate college table tennis social network, we hope to see him for many years to come as the multihyphenated NCTTA player volunteer!

About 2022 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams.
The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, Double Fish and Joola.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 8th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

By Michael Reff
NCTTA Media Committee

We’re in Round Rock two years since Covid has started
The competition’s fierce, no one hits half-hearted.
Elite shots and play before even the finals,
The loop, lob and blocking, balls spinning like vinyl.

The double’s are done now, it’s only beginning,
Tomorrow singles and teams continue winning.
So strap in for this ride, for the main attraction
Live streaming from Round Rock, don’t miss all the action!

About 2022 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships
The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, Double Fish and Joola.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 8th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

By Willy Leparulo; guest writer
NCTTA Media Committee

NCTTA’s competitions cover several different events in a competitive season from Singles to Doubles, but teams are the organization’s bread and butter. It is also the most sought after title for all entering this competition.

Women’s Team Championships has been dominated by Texas Wesleyan University winning 9 team championships since its inception in 2005. Texas Wesleyan has clearly invested in the women’s team championships as two players lead the women’s game, Jiaqi Lin and Zhen Deng. Lin and Deng are top players for the women's team as for the Men’s/Coed Team. UC Berkeley led by Angela Guan and surprise MIT, led by ex Lindenwood and ex UW Madison stalwart Maria Castillo, will certainly look to push the envelope.
NCTTA offers a Men’s/Coed Team competition which features the best male and female athletes playing together as a team. The Men’s/Coed Team competition is stocked full with incredible competitors from 1st seed to 24th seed. Texas Wesleyan is the only scholarship school among the bunch and is seeded #3 for the first time in its program history. The Rams however should not be discounted!

Indiana University and NYU are #1 and 2 respectively this year and have a collection of international and domestic talent. IU led by the Alguetti brothers; NYU led by Canada’s Jeremy Hazin, India’s Mudit Dani and the USA’s Tom Feng. Then sprinkle in the rest of the school list and you have a veritable “Who’s Who” of college table tennis prowess. Tune in to see who takes the title. Will it be another repeat from Texas Wesleyan or will we be crowning a new champion...?

Photo Credit to Dennis Yanga.

About 2022 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, Double Fish and Joola.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 8th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

By Michael Reff
NCTTA Media Committee

According to NCTTA President and Coaches Committee Chair Willy Leparulo, “Coaches are an integral part of the College TT landscape.” For a completely volunteer-run organization such as NCTTA, college table tennis coaches, who are typically unpaid as well, are giving back to the sport by instilling confidence, honing technique, and providing knowledge of tournament structure and strategy in their student athletes. Many are NCTTA Alumni themselves, looking to pass on their knowledge and enthusiasm for the game to the next generation of college table tennis players.

For the Upcoming championships in Round Rock, TX we have around 33 coaches coming along with their schools.

One such school, UT Dallas, has three coaches: Head Coach David Chou, Men’s Coach Kiyan Bhalla, and Women’s Coach Srijeet Qazi.
All three are looking forward to coaching and cheering on their teams.

Coach Chou says,
“I am excited for our team to compete in this tournament and I think that our team is an underdog in this championship. I’ve worked alongside the team to go back to the basics. We have really zoned in on their existing skills and improved upon them leading up to this tournament. We are excited to be a part of it, and I hope to coach my team to victory. I know they have been working really hard for this moment.”

Coach Bhalla added that “It’s great to see all the effort our team and our coaches have put into preparing for this tournament. We are eager to showcase our talents and I hope we’ll leave our mark at Nationals very soon.”

And Coach Qazi also remarks, “UT Dallas is extremely excited to compete at Nationals! We have been working hard throughout the year during and outside of practice, so we are immensely grateful that we get the opportunity to compete. We can't wait to see y'all there!”

Enthusiasm from the coaches is not in short supply and this is a true marker of their passion for the sport and for their student athlete!

Another coach that’s made it with his team to the nationals is Luke Gillespie of Indiana University. Gillespie is also a Professor of Music at the school. His team showcases the famed Alguetti twins Sharon and Gal, who, along with their teammates are in strong contention for clinching the title in Round Rock this year.

Coach Gillespie recognizes that being a student athlete requires a balance of studies and sports, with the emphasis on making the grade first but he also says, “physical activity and competitive sports (on any level) is an excellent way to stay in good physical and mental condition.” He remarks that his team is playing whenever they have some time off from schoolwork.

“We look forward to doing our best in this tournament,” Gillespie says. “We will arrive to Nationals with humble respect for our competitors and wish everyone the best.”

Kudos to coaches inspiring our NCTTA student athletes to shoot for the stars on and off the table!

Photo Credit to UT Dallas Table Tennis Club

About 2022 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, Double Fish and Joola.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 8th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

By: Erica Tran
NCTTA Media Committee

There are dozens of strong athletes representing a multitude of states at this year’s NCTTA championships, but there are a few particular stand-outs. Angela Guan, a chopper and crowd favorite, is the Women’s Singles top seed from UC Berkeley. She was a 2014-2015 USA World Team Member and 2016 Pan American Junior Championships Team Champion. She also has many NCTTA titles from the past several years. She will be competing in the 2022 World University Games.

On the men’s sides, some top athletes include Sharon and Gal Alguetti of Indiana University, Kai Zhang of University of Southern California, Nikhil Kumar of UC Berkeley, and Jack Wang of Northwestern University. All have been on the US National Junior and Adults teams for many years and are seasoned players in the international circuit. Nikhil also represented the US in the 2021 Olympic Games. Beside these players mentioned, there are dozens of players rated 2200+. This year’s matches will be feisty.

Tune in live or online with our livestream for top-notch action!

Pictured is Nikhil Kumar. Photo Credit to Shashank Shastry

About 2022 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, Double Fish and Joola.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 8th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

By Willy Leparulo; guest writer
NCTTA Media Committee

Round Rock is the Sports Capital of Texas and it may even be of the NCTTA world as well, as this is the third time NCTTA returns to Round Rock for its Championship event. NCTTA was in Round Rock in 2016, 2018 and slated for 2020 and 2021, both canceled by COVID. Maybe in 2022 the third time's a charm!

Nancy Yawn, CVB director for the city of Round Rock, is NCTTA’s biggest supporter. Tournament director Willy Leparulo says, “Nancy and us have had a great relationship since 2016 and we have just loved coming to Round Rock every year.”

Round Rock Sports Center is truly a gem of a venue with spacious courts and located within walking distance of so many different areas of enjoyment. Yawn says everyone should experience the world famous “Round Rock Donut,” https://roundrockdonuts.com/

Whether it is dunking those forehand slams or that world famous Texas donut, Round Rock is the place to be in 2022 for NCTTA and College Table Tennis!

Photo Credit to George Thomas

About 2022 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, Double Fish and Joola.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 8th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

By Alan Chu, PhD, Certified Mental Performance Consultant®
ITTF Level 1 Coach
NCTTA Coaching Committee

It’s the day of the big competition. This is your chance to show everyone your skills and efforts you have put into the training. No pressure, right?

How would you cope with the pressure to perform and potentially adversity in these highly competitive situations? In the February 2022 Newsletter, I discussed focusing on the team goal, trusting the process, and controlling the controllable to help cope with adversity. What else could you do for some final mental preparation? Self-talk—an internal dialog you have with yourself—is one of the techniques that you can quickly learn and utilize.

Most successful athletes talk to themselves in specific ways to help them deal with the stress and anxiety that often accompanies big competition. Without a self-talk plan, you are more vulnerable to the negative effects of high pressure and mistakes. Specifically, unproductive self-talk before a match (e.g., “I don’t want to upset my teammates,” “I gotta win. If not, my team may lose”) triggers your body’s self-defense, “fight or flight” mechanism (e.g., muscle tension, increased heart rate), and negative changes in your performance. Unproductive self-talk during a match (e.g., “That was a terrible shot that I hit,” “Why is my opponent so lucky with so many net/edge shots?!”) undermines your confidence, concentration, and subsequent performance.

So, what does productive self-talk look like? Based on research and my experience, productive self-talk consists of the 3Ps:

1. Positive Tone: Focus on your strengths, past successes, preparation, and goals rather than weaknesses, past failures, unrealistic expectations, and problems. For example, before a match, you can say to yourself, “I know my opponent is strong, but I have a strong forehand loop that I can execute consistently.”

2. Present/Process Orientation: Focus on the present process (this point/match) rather than the past (last point/match) or the future (results of the match/competition). For example, during a match, you can say to yourself, “one point at a time,” “right here, right now, let’s go!” or a task that you are going to execute (e.g., “loop to his/her middle”)

3. Personal Meaning: Before a match or competition, find the positive meaning or motivation for playing it to set an intention. For example, you can tell yourself, “let’s enjoy the match,” or “I want to challenge myself against strong players.”

Utilizing productive self-talk statements or phrases can help you be more confident and focused. Every player has their own preferences, so you may need to trying out different self-talk to see what works best for you.

While it is true that you do not always have control over what happens during the competition (e.g., making mistakes, opponents getting lucky shots), you can always control how you respond to a situation (e.g., using self-talk with the 3Ps). To do so, you can use the 3Rs routine that includes self-talk:

1. Recognize the negative situation or unproductive self-talk.
2. Reframe the situation or self-talk to be more positive and productive.
3. Refocus on the next point and the task at hand.

I hope the 3Ps and 3Rs are helpful for your final mental preparation for the big competition to be the best that you can be!

Photo Credit to Grant Bergmann

About 2022 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, Double Fish and Joola.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 8th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org