By Michael Reff
NCTTA Press Committee Chair

September is the start of many things in college table tennis. It is the beginning of Fall, a new season with respite from extreme heat. This also marks the start of another school year where new and old players alike come to practice again in their respective facilities. This is the essence of NCTTA: the promotion of collegiate table tennis across the continent.

Consequently, for this promotion to work, NCTTA relies on external stakeholders to generously contribute time and resources. Thus, September also ushers in an important partnership with major table tennis supplier JOOLA.

JOOLA’s marketing specialist Matt Hetherington conveyed the popular table tennis brand’s enthusiasm regarding their blossoming collaboration with NCTTA:

“JOOLA are thrilled to be partnering with NCTTA as both organizations continue to work promoting the sport in the USA. We feel many common lines between both our teams - goals, passions and work ethic. We are proud to do our part to contribute to the growth of college table tennis and look forward to a long and sustainable team effort with NCTTA into the future.”

With this partnership, NCTTA member schools will get a discount off equipment (excluding tables) on joolausa.com. More information on this to come later!

Additionally JOOLA will supply their very own JOOLA prime ball for our Divisionals, Regionals, and Champs events.

NCTTA President Willy is ecstatic. “I am very pleased that this agreement was successfully signed between our two organizations; college table tennis is better off for it!”

New season, new players, new partners. Kudos to Team JOOLA and Team NCTTA for making this happen!

Ever wondered how to get involved in NCTTA? Or how all of these events work?

Well, wonder no more: we are looking for:

· an NCTTA Alum,
· a Coach, OR
· even a player looking to get more involved in a grassroots organization like NCTTA.

Minnesota Division Director is available now and is in charge of a division that covers Minnesota, Iowa and Idaho.

Pacific Northwest Division Director is available now and is in charge of a division that covers Washington State, Oregon and Vancouver.

SoCal West Division Director is also available as well, covering parts of Southern California and Arizona.

Northern Florida Division Director is also available and covers all of Florida.

Upstate New York West is also available, and this area covers parts of Upstate NY near Buffalo, Rochester, and Ithaca

NCTTA Recruitment Director is also available, and this person is in charge of a committee that recruits new schools to NCTTA.

Contact hr@nctta.org to get involved!

World University Games Chengdu; 2023 Summary by guest writer, Team USA Collegiate Player and team leader, Angela Guan

Three is a special number. My 3rd World University Games, our team’s 3rd attempt to compete in the Games, bringing home 3rd place medals for USA.

The 31st World University Games concluded on August 8th in Chengdu, China and truly felt like a dream. The 12-day event brought together over 9500 university athletes across 18 sports from 113 countries. The US delegation had over 250 athletes, including the table tennis team with 10 NCTTA players representing 8 colleges. We experienced Chengdu’s hospitality and culture, the highest level of college sports competition, and spirit of the Games. It was an honor to represent Team USA at the 2nd largest sporting event in the world!

Previously, I attended the Games in 2017 and 2019. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2021 Games were postponed. Subsequently in 2022, our university team was canceled. Finishing first in the University Games trials in 2020, I stepped up to be team manager and coach for this World University Games, so the third time was a charm. From all Games registration to flights to getting competition uniforms and a coach, our team was 100% self-funded.

In the table tennis competition, we made the Top 16 in both men’s and women’s teams. For women’s doubles, Amy Wang and Rachel Sung won a bronze medal for USA - the 1st time US medaled for the World University Games table tennis event. Seeing the US flag raised and represented on the podium was so special! Other highlights were the opening ceremony, athletes’ village, (almost) 24 hour dining hall, cultural activities and tours to see giant pandas, exchange of pins, team uniforms, and friendships with international players, and team spirit of being part of the US team.

On behalf of the team, we’d like to extend our gratitude to Major League Table Tennis and LifeSign PBM for the uniforms! Despite lack of resources for this University Games, we hope USATT and NCTTA can support the growing college table tennis scene and future games. We appreciate USA Team, organizing committee and countless volunteers in Chengdu, and FISU (International University Sports Federation) for making the 2023 World University Games a success!

Team USA Collegiate was represented by these student-athletes featured in this picture.
Josh Mak, Yuxiang Jin, Tom Feng, Jonathan Li, Eliel Sosis, Steven Gong
Crystal Wang, Amy Wang, Lavanya Maruthapandian, Rachel Sung, Angela Guan

By Michael Reff
NCTTA Press Committee Chair

As NCTTA players and alumni, we all know that participating in team table tennis is one of the most fulfilling, exciting, and sociable ways to play our favorite sport. And now there’s a new league by one of our sponsors, PongSpace, that has a new spin on the team format.

PongSpace, run by Thomas Hu of AYTTO, started their George Braithwaite League (named in honor of the famous ambassador of USA table tennis) at the beginning of this year. According to Hu, their goal is to make table tennis a “more accessible activity.” As of this inaugural season, there were 38 teams and 20 clubs that played in the league, predominately in the Northeast. They’re looking to expand later this year to the Midwest, Chicago, Milwaukee, and South Texas.

Those wanting to play are not restricted by any age, as anyone can play in a team of up to 5 players. Some of the enticing qualities of this league are that there are home and away games. Additionally, Hu believes that the NCTTA “B” teams that don’t get as much playing time as the “A” teams will be able to take advantage of this league to participate more.

Hu’s goal is for PongSpace “to connect all the demographics” be they from his very own AYTTO youth, NCTTA alumni or current college students, and everyone in between. He says the “team environment” is “more fun.”

The first league started in January of this year and ended in May. There is a goal to have a divisions, regions, and national tournament, very similar to the NCTTA format. However, the structure of the team setup is slightly different, with a mandatory double’s match (compared to the tiebreaking NCTTA doubles matches) sandwiched between two singles matches before and after.

NCTTA looks forward to seeing our friends at PongSpace grow their George Braithwaite league. Their success is a success for all of table tennis!

To sign up go here: https://pongspace.com/clubleague/

NCTTA’s goal for this summer’s fundraising campaign is NCTTA Video Production which now has a Go Fund Me page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/mission-possiblenctta-video-production-help

Since 2008, NCTTA has been a pioneer in bringing College Table Tennis Championships and now Regionals to life via youtube to those that couldn’t attend and family members and friends around the globe.

NCTTA was the FIRST major table tennis organization to bring live streaming of Table Tennis back in the day.

NCTTA is still an all volunteer led organization so your donation would be incredibly helpful!
Video Production isn’t cheap so any help is always appreciated!
#fundraising #videoproduction #livestreaming #give2day

Pictured above are last year's winners, who will win this year in 2023?

Nominate someone today for the NCTTA Superlatives!
The deadline is May 15th

TO NOMINATE SOMEONE
-Message us on instagram the person or team and why by the deadline
OR
-Email your nomination and WHY to info@nctta.org by the deadline.

Categories are here
Male Athlete of the Year, Female Athlete of the Year
Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year
Rookie Team
Division Director of the Year, Regional Director of the Year

*Rookie Teams are school teams that have never participated in the NCTTA (Subject to NCTTA historical records)

*Rookie of the year are players new to College Table Tennis (they can be any year Freshman/sophomore/junior/senior/graduate student) also subject to NCTTA historical records

*Division and Regional Directors must be current to 2022-2023 competition year

Winners are awarded a gift card!

Thanks!

NCTTA

Photo of 2023 NCTTA Men's Singles Champ Nikhil Kumar of UC Berkeley. Photo Credit to NCTTA

By Michael Reff
NCTTA Media Committee

Bigger and Better, Loudnproud,
Round Rock brought the fighting crowd,
Fans and players let it out,
The shouts of motivation.

New winners crowned, some were repeats,
Gravity defying feats,
Competition turned up the heat,
Ended with jubilation!

Play by play live commentary,
Points were close, some downright scary,
Clash of styles, the more the merry.
Pips, choppers, and Jpen.

Explosive footwork, screams of Cho!
Many cheers including “jiayou”!
Volunteers from years ago,
Could you ask for more, just say when!

About 2023 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, PongSpace, Major League Table Tennis.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 14th 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

Picture of Visit Eau Claire's Logo.

By Michael Reff
NCTTA Media Committee

Great news college table tennis fans! The bid has been finalized and the 2024 NCTTA Championships is set to be held in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on April 12-14. This will be the third time Eau Claire has hosted the event. The previous two times were 2015 and 2017. Visit Eau Claire’s Sports Relationship Manager Lucas Connolly is quite grateful for the NCTTA returning to Wisconsin.

“Visit Eau Claire in partnership with the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire would like to thank the NCTTA committee for selecting our beautiful city to host your 2024 NCTTA Champs!” said Connolly.

He reflected on how he and others felt about Eau Claire being selected:

“I was so excited when the news came in last Thursday [April 6th] afternoon, and I couldn't wait to share the information with my team who was just as excited. Your organization will have complete support from Visit Eau Claire to ensure the event is a memorable one and is a complete success! The University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire shared our great excitement in learning that the 2024 Champs were going to be returning to Eau Claire, and we can't wait to get started!"

Congrats to Visit Eau Claire for becoming a three-time host to the NCTTA’s annual crown jewel event!

Photo of Women's Singles Champion Amy Wang of UCLA. Photo Credit to NCTTA.

By Michael Reff and Shaquila Sarapao
NCTTA Media Committee

New champions were crowned in both the Women’s and Men’s Singles events at the 2023 NCTTA Championships in Round Rock, Texas. Amy Wang of UCLA overcame Zhen Deng of Texas Wesleyan 4-1 to clinch her third title of the Champs along with the Women’s Teams and Women’s Doubles crowns, whereas Nikhil Kumar of California likewise defeated 2018 Men's Singles winner Kai Zhang of USC (formerly of Binghamton) at the same margin of 4-1.

The first seed in Women’s Singles, Wang had relatively smooth sailing until reaching the semifinals, where she faced strong opposition from second seeded Zhen Deng’s teammate Jiaqi Lin. Ultimately Wang closed it out at 4-2.

On the other end of the draw, Deng did not drop a single set until reaching the finals against Wang. There, it was a rematch from the Women’s Teams finals, where Wang had defeated Deng 3-0. In the final, Deng’s pips appeared to briefly frustrate Wang. However, she adapted and repeated her dominance of the Women’s events with a third title at 4-1 in sets.

On the Men’s Singles side of the draw, both Kumar (#2) and Zhang (#1) did not drop a single game until reaching the semifinals. Kumar’s match against Nathan Xu of Penn went the full distance where Kumar secured the win at 11-4 in the 7th deciding set.

Zhang faced NYU’s Jeremy Hazin, who had already won the Men’s Doubles and Coed Teams events. This was also a closely contested match, with Hazin winning the first two games 11-8 and 11-6, hitting strong forehands to Zhang’s forehand as well as blocking effectively. Zhang was down 2-0 then won 4 consecutive games, bringing him for redemption in the finals.
Both Men’s semifinals games exhibited matchups of lefties against righties.

In the finals, Kumar commanded a convincing lead at 11-2 in the first game and later, winning the next two sets to arrive at 3-0. An exciting moment in the finals showed Kumar with five match points in the fourth set and Zhang battled his way back to secure seven consecutive points to win and delay defeat at 12-10. Finally, Kumar reversed the scores in the fifth set, securing the match and Men’s Singles titles.

Congratulations to Amy Wang and Nikhil Kumar, the new NCTTA Women’s and Men’s Singles Champs!

About 2023 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, PongSpace, Major League Table Tennis.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 14th 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

Photo of UNT's Joshua Mak. Photo credit to NCTTA

By Shaquila Sarapao, Guest Writer
NCTTA Media

The “Lone Rangers” made quite an appearance at the 2023 NCTTA Championships in Round Rock.

Joshua Mak, a Dallas-Forth Worth native, is the sole representative from the University of North Texas at Denton in Men’s Singles to be competing at Nationals.

Throughout his three years of college, this is his first time stepping foot onto the Round Rock Sport Complex stadium. “I’ve seen videos of Champs on Youtube, and [now] I’m really excited to play,” Mak says. “My goals for this tournament is to be able to play on the main table and to reach the round of 16 for Men’s Singles.”

Mak is seeded #15, having had a bye in the first round. It was a nostalgic first match against Ashwin Sankuratri (California), a teammate of Mak in California-based 888 table tennis club. For his second matchup in the round of 16s, it was an upset against #7 seed Tianming Xie (Harvard), a player also originating from the DFW area and who Mak had played as a child.

Mak’s first time at Nationals will be one to remember, but there are other great memories that this sport has brought him. “Playing Divisionals and Regionals with my team has been my most memorable experience leading up to Nationals,” he states, “UNT is a very ‘loud and proud’ team, and I plan on bringing our energy to Nationals as well.” And Mak brought that energy to the quarterfinals.

Mak’s quarterfinal match was against Nathan Xu (#4) from Pennsylvania. Being down 2-0, Mak kept fighting to bring the match to 2-1. However, it was an unfortunate end to the “Lone Ranger” after falling to Xu in the 4th set.

Viren Patel (#28) was another “Lone Ranger” from a school in Texas (TAMU in Corpus Christi) that brought the fight to the table. After emerging top in his preliminary round robin group, he defeated Robert He of UC Santa Barbara and ultimately lost in the Round of 32 to NYU’s Jeremy Hazin (#3) in a closely contested match that went the full distance.

Congrats to the “Lone Rangers” for making a strong showing!

About 2023 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, PongSpace, Major League Table Tennis.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 14th 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