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CONTACT: Andy Kanengiser

PHONE: (800) 581-6770

EMAIL: publicrelations@nctta.org

 

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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