College table tennis players seeking money to help pay school costs should check out Newgy scholarships.

After all, textbook prices, college tuition, plus room & board keep going up. Newgy scholarships will provide a limited number of $1,000 awards toward rising college costs. These days, every dollar helps!

As the 2015-16 season gears up, NCTTA players should note there were significant changes in the scholarships first awarded by Newgy Industries during the 2008-2009 academic year.

NCTTA players Whitney Ping of Stanford and Chermie Cheung of the University of Chicago received the first awards that year. Scholarship winners during the 2014-15 season included players Cheng Li and Yi Chi Zhang of Mississippi College, and Caroline Kajihara of Texas Wesleyan University. Bliss Chang of the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Ellen Hwang of the University of California-Berkeley and Nancy Zhou of Brown University were the other recipients last season.

Major eligibility changes for 2015-16 are now in effect:  

• Players must be a U.S. citizen.
• Players cannot win a scholarship more than once.
• The players receiving the scholarships must be incoming freshmen.
• Deadline dates were changed to give new college freshmen more time to apply.

This year's deadline for applications will be November 30, 2015. Players will be notified of the awards on December 18, 2015. The scholarships will go to players on March 18, 2016.

Newgy is a major producer of equipment for the dynamic Olympic sport, including table tennis "robots.''

There's no chance to win a scholarship for players who fail to fill out the applications, write the essays and take care of other paperwork.

For more information on the scholarships go to http://nctta.org/scholarship.

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association supports the Newgy scholarship program. Folks that desire to help expand it are encouraged to make a contribution.

By Andy Kanengiser

NCTTA Media Chair

Billed as the Sports Capital of Texas, Round Rock will serve as the host city for the 2016 TMS College Table Tennis Championships.

A thriving high-tech city of 100,000 residents, Round Rock is the choice of the NCTTA Board of Directors with the selection announced on Friday June 5.

Located 15 miles north of Austin, home of the University of Texas, Round Rock beat out two other city bidders, Spokane, Washington, and Hampton, Virginia. The lively three-day tournament attracts about 250 of the best collegiate table tennis players from campuses across the USA and Canada.

“The NCTTA is delighted to be going back to Texas where we have been several times before,’’ President Willy Leparulo said. “We are excited to be working with the Round Rock Convention & Visitors Board.’’

Round Rock Mayor Alan McGraw gave a big thumbs up to the selection of his city to welcome the national tournament.

“We are thrilled to host the best college table tennis players here in the Sports Capital of Texas,’’ McGraw said in a statement. “We know the players, fans and their families will have a smashing time in Round Rock.’’

Round Rock CVB leaders couldn’t be reached for comment on Friday.

The three-day tournament will be held on the weekend of March 27, 2016. It comes a little earlier than usual for the national championships that typically are booked in April. It will likely cause NCTTA to adjust its divisional and regional college tournament dates in the spring of 2016.

Round Rock, Texas remains a big-time sports town. The city is home turf for the Round Rock Express, the Pacific League AAA baseball affiliate of MLB’s Texas Rangers. The Round Rock team plays at Dell Diamond that opened in 2000.

In addition, Round Rock is home to giant companies like Dell and Westinghouse. It is the 31st largest city in Texas. Want to taste good barbecue? It’s there in abundance in Round Rock. So is Mexican food. Try the MasFajitas restaurant. Café Java is the place to go for Round Rock coffee lovers.

This will be the 4th time the Lone Star State will host the national collegiate table tennis championships in recent years. Located near Dallas, Plano, Texas welcomed the 2012 NCTTA championship games in 2012. Prior to that,  Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth hosted the tournament in 2005 and 2006.

The games have been staged in several regions of the USA over the years.

In 2013, Rockford, Illinois welcomed collegiate players from about three dozen institutions. In 2014, the championships were staged in Monroeville, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh.

 In 2015, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire hosted the sea of college players, coaches, volunteers and fans. Eau Claire sits 90 minutes from St. Paul, Minnesota. Rochester, Minnesota hosted the games in 2009, among others. Other sites in years past have included Ohio State University in Columbus and the state of California.

The NCTTA oversees collegiate table tennis competition at more than 150 colleges and universities in the USA and Canada.

By Andy Kanengiser

NCTTA Media Chair

Mississippi College's table tennis team ended a decade of dominance by powerhouse Texas Wesleyan to capture their first national collegiate championship in Wisconsin Sunday.

Moments after the thrilling two-point triumph over the Texas Wesleyan Rams, MC players rushed onto the court to celebrate the victory. On Monday, they will bring a giant trophy home to the 5,000-student university in Clinton, Mississippi.

With games split at two apiece, the fierce match with Texas Wesleyan was decided with doubles play. MC's dynamic duo of Cheng Li and Tong Zhang overcame a 7-3 deficit to shine at the end. The MC stars from China defeated two Texas Wesleyan standouts 12-10 to emerge as the 2015 champions.

After three consecutive years of finishing No. 2 in the nation, staying as runner-ups once again wasn't in the script for the Blue and Gold. MC players rushed onto the court and exchanged hugs and smiles moments after the win.

Ironically, the historic victory came at the 11,000-student University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire that also promotes its Blue and Gold colors, just like the MC Choctaws.

"We are so lucky,'' MC Coach and Captain Cheng Li said at post-game interviews on National Collegiate Table Tennis Association live streaming broadcasts. But it really took lots of skill and a little luck for the 6'3" native of China and teammate Tong Zhang to knock off TWU players Zhe Feng of China and Bruno Ventura Dos Anjos of Brazil. Feng, 38, finished as the new men's singles champion.

"This is a huge step for us,'' added Tyler Brogdon, the lone American on the mighty Mississippi College squad with three other players from China. Putting a funny spin on the moment, Brogdon joked that the MC team was going to Disneyland, the dream of NFL stars at the Super Bowl.

"The whole team worked together,'' said assistant MC coach Zhicheng "Johnson'' Liang. While there were many moments when it looked like MC would end up No. 2 once again, the players never gave up. "We believed in MC,'' he said.

Texas Wesleyan Coach Jasna Rather offered her congratulations to the new champs. But she also thanked her team for another strong effort at the April 10-12 tournament that attracted 250 top collegiate players from the USA and Canada.

 "This is table tennis history - they (MC) took us down after 11 years,'' Rather said while Mississippi College players displayed their trophy and posed for pictures. "It's tough.''

Rather said the victory by MC players was "well-deserved.'' Every game, she said, was "so tense.''

It took a team effort by Mississippi College to make it happen. The pressure was on MC's  Yi Chi Zhang, but he narrowly captured his singles match to force the final round of doubles. Yi Chi managed to hold on and edge Bruno Ventura Dos Anjos, three games to two.

"To say this is a big deal is  really an understatement,'' said National Collegiate Table Tennis Association President Willy Leparulo. "It is a monumental win by Mississippi College.''' The MC triumph, he said, "elevates all of college table tennis'' after Texas Wesleyan's coed team ruled for so many years.

Mississippi College claimed another big trophy from the 2015 TMS College Table Tennis Championships in Wisconsin MC's Cheng Li and Tong Zhang took home the title of No. 1 in the nation with its doubles team.

In its 8th season of table tennis competition, MC's squad received help from assistant coach  Liang, who shouted words of encouragement during the games and served as the team's driver for four days in Wisconsin.

Former head coach Ken Qiu, a native of China, built the squad from scratch, with the team ending its first season at the 2008 NCTTA championships as No. 14 in the nation. In 2009, the MC women's team finished 4th in the nation. After a couple of consecutive seasons in 5th place, the Choctaws finally reached the No. 2 spot in 2012 at the national championships in Plano, Texas.

To reach the coveted spot of No. 1 for its coed team, MC defeated schools like Penn State and McGill University of Canada. The team from Clinton entered the tournament seeded No. 2 over bigger schools like California-Berkeley, Princeton, Southern California, Lindenwood of Missouri, Michigan, Mcmaster of Canada, Columbia of New York, and UCLA.

Last season, Cheng Li, an MC business major, returned home to Clinton as the No. 1 men's singles player in the nation. While he lost that crown to a Texas Wesleyan standout Zhedi Bai on Saturday, Li was delighted to see the MC comeback result in its first championship.

Other titles went to Texas Wesleyan for men's singles, California for women's singles, and Princeton for its women's team that included U.S. Olympic stars like Ariel Hsing and Erica Wu. Cal's Lily Zhang, the women's singles champ, played on the U.S. Olympic team, and hopes to be on the squad for the 2016 games in Rio.

While only a sparse crowd was on hand for the final games as many players headed to airports for trips back to their campuses, those that stayed saw fantastic contests with long volleys, amazing spins, slams and great defensive play.

"Credit goes to our fantastic group of players who practiced for countless hours at Alumni Gym and traveled to tournaments around the nation,'' said Andy Kanengiser, the MC table tennis sponsor."We hope the entire MC family welcomes them at an exhibition at Alumni Gym Wednesday night starting at 6 p.m.''

New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz and a three-time Caribbean champion Robert Roberts will challenge the nation's No. 1 MC team.

Shortz is a table tennis fanatic who's played the Olympic sport in 48 states (except for Mississippi and Hawaii) and in more than two dozen countries. Will's the owner of the Westchester Table Tennis Center in New York and National Public Radio Puzzlemaster with a show every Sunday morning. A reception for the New Yorkers will be at the Leland Speed Library at 5 p.m. on April 15. The events are free and open to the public.

The 2015 TMS College Table Tennis Championships is hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Visit Eau Claire and is one of the premier 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 TMS International, Double Fish, Joola and PepPod.

NCTTA's main event of the year, the 2015 TMS College Table Tennis National Championships, took place April 10-12, 2015 at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire.
 

• Results
• If you missed it, or want to do so again, watch video of the action as it unfolded
• Bracket challenge results - congrats to the winners!

Congratulations to the champions!

• Women's Doubles: Ariel Hsing & Erica Wu, Princeton University
• Men's Doubles: Cheng Li & Tong Zhang, Mississippi College
• Women's Singles: Lily Zhang, University of California - Berkeley
• Men's Singles: Zhe Feng, Texas Wesleyan University
• Women's Team: Princeton University
• Coed Team: Mississippi College

Thanks to all the volunteers, sponsors, and players who made it happen! Thanks as well to all who watched and supported the event!

Congratulations to the winners of the 2015 NCTTA Superlatives (End of the Year Awards), sponsored by Joola:

• Male athlete - Feng Zhe (Texas Wesleyan)
• Female athlete - Lily Zhang (UC Berkeley)
• Rookie of the year - Tong Zhang (Mississippi College)
• Coach of the year - Sam Howes-- (University of Western Ontario)
• Rookie team of the year - McGill University
• Most improved - UCLA
• Division Director of the Year: John Drsek (Ohio division)
• Regional Director of the year: Jay Lu (Northeast)

Each of the winners will receive a prize from Joola.