Graduates have an interesting opportunity to get involved with more table tennis in the future through USA Table Tennis! 

NCTTA Alumni get a special 62 percent off deal on USATT membership!

Follow this link: http://www.nctta.org/alumni/

The proof was evident Sunday afternoon at the TMS 2014 College Table Tennis Championships in Monroeville, Pennsylvania when the Texas Wesleyan Rams captured their 11th consecutive coed team title.

For the third straight year, the awesome coed team from Fort Worth withstood a mighty challenge from Mississippi College to take home a first place trophy on April 6.

Powerful TWU table tennis stars like Emil Santos of the Dominican Republic, Yahao Zhang of Denver, Zhedi Bai of China and Razvan Cretu of Boston brought their "A'' games to the table for the three-day NCTTA event. In the collegiate table tennis world, their names shine bright, although they're not quite as well known as Steelers star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

Following a four-match split with some potent MC players seen by audiences from the USA to China on the NCTTA's live streaming, TWU turned up the heat. It came down to the wire in a doubles match, and TWU's Santos and Zhang prevailed over MC Choctaw standouts Cheng Li and Yichi Zhang.

Plenty of hugs, high fives, and joy on the faces of the TWU players, coaches and fans followed moments later. It's become a familiar scene every spring for TWU table tennis supporters. "Honestly, it was unexpected," said TWU Coach Jasna Rather. "On paper, MC has two stronger players and they are good at doubles. But our players always push themselves beyond their ratings.''

It's never easy for anybody going up against Cheng Li, 22, who on Saturday battled his way to become the 2014 national collegiate men's singles champion. The 6' 3" native of the Yunan Province of China beat his MC teammate Yichi Zhang, who ended up No. 2 in the all-MC finals.

In fact, Rather salutes Cheng Li, the No. 1 seed heading into the Monroeville tourney, as "one of the best players in the USA,'' and noted that that goes beyond collegiate circles.

But TWU's Santos, the 2013 NCTTA singles champ, and Yahao Zhang, who's bound soon for World Table Tennis competition in Japan, were aggressive with their attacks and returned some spectacular shots against their MC opponents.

Mississippi College players played their hearts out in the Keystone State but came up short again. It happened the first time at the 2012 NCTTA championships in Plano, Texas, then again last April at the championships in Rockford, Illinois and for a third time in the Pittsburgh suburb. Playing in its 7th season, MC made progress by capturing the men's singles title for the first time in school history and battled Texas Wesleyan to the very end.

"We did pretty good this year,'' said MC Coach Ken Qiu as players peeled off their blue jerseys and exited the venue, the spacious Club Sport & Health. "I'm proud of the players. I wish we could have gotten the team championship.''

MC player Joe Xie, 27, a sports management graduate student, also tried to stay positive. "There's always hope for next year.'' MC's team consists of five players from China, and one American, Tyler Brogdan of Birmingham, Alabama. The national tournament, Tyler said, was an amazing learning experience.

Pumped up by the latest triumph in the TWU table tennis dynasty, Santos, summed things up during a live post-game interview with NCTTA Vice President Joseph Wells. "It's really nice,'' Emil said. "We worked hard. We will keep it up.''

With six championship titles up for grabs, TWU also took home the men's doubles crown. TWU standouts Zhedi Bai of China and Razvan Cretu were the doubles champs with Mississippi College's speedy duo of Junyu Xiao, and Zesheng "Leo'' Huang getting second place.

In the women's division, Princeton University was led by U.S. Olympic Team star Ariel Hsing, 18, to capture its initial title in its first year to field a team. The Princeton Tigers edged the University of California-Berkeley women to earn the first-place trophy.

A Fremont, California resident who first began swatting her paddle as a four-year-old, Ariel defeated Yuhua Li of Northeastern to win the women's singles title. Like many of the extraordinary players at the April 4-6 tournament in western Pennsylvania, Yuhua is a native of China where table tennis is king.

Players for the winning squads got their photos snapped with TMS International Managing Director Anders Thunstrom of Malmo, Sweden. The 52-year-old executive enjoyed getting a first-hand look at the collegiate tournament attracting North America's premier players.

His firm serves as the marketing partner of the International Table Tennis Federation. He plans to make recommendations to NCTTA leaders later this year to improve the tournaments, attract more support and make the sport more visible to the public. He is a former player who coached Sweden's Olympic Table Tennis team to win medals at the 1992 games in Barcelona.

With their bright blue surrounds enhancing the court for players on two main tables at the venue, TMS International was already making a difference. The company joins other fabulous sponsors of NCTTA tournaments year-round including Butterfly and Newgy Industries.

"We appreciate Mr. Thunstrom for coming to the tournament, and meeting with our leaders and players,'' said NCTTA President Willy Leparulo. "We look forward to his recommendations to advance our favorite sport.''

Players gave good reviews to the tournament venue - from the lighting to the practice tables and the hospitality. Some of the tournament's faithful volunteers drove 11 hours from their home in Iowa City, Iowa because they love reconnecting with the players, coaches and NCTTA leaders. The 2015 collegiate championship games will be played next April in Eau Clare, Wisconsin.  

By Andy Kanengiser
NCTTA Media Relations Chairman

Rivalries like Michigan-Ohio State add drama to the 2014 TMS College Table Tennis Championships.

The Michigan Wolverines will open the 2014-15 season with a friendly tournament against Ohio State for the third time next fall. But it got pretty serious once the two teams arrived at the national tourney in Monroeville, Pennsylvania.

No matter where they finish at the April 4-6 NCTTA games, the Michigan team has come far.

"Four to five years ago, the Michigan club was in debt, and the university cancelled it,'' said senior Boxin Zhou, 21. But strong support from Michigan alumni and sponsors revived the Wolverines. This year's squad from Ann Arbor advanced to Monroeville by edging Ohio State in the regional qualifier.

After being away two years, it's nice for Michigan to return to the championships with so many standouts from schools across the USA and Canada, said Zhou, the club vice president.

Matches between the two Midwestern schools add spice to the rivalry in football, basketball and baseball in the Big Ten. Millions of fans watch Ohio State's football team fight it out with Michigan on national TV every fall.

Michigan men making the trip to the Keystone State include Brian Tsang, Bo Bi, and Sam Lu from China, plus Thomas Fuentes-Afflick of San Francisco and Lester Lee of Vancouver, Canada. On the UM women's team: Yayun Gao and Liren Guo, both of China, and Angel Chen and Sherry Chu, graduate students from Taiwan.

Ohio State punched its ticket to Pennsylvania with a wild card invite. Like Michigan, the Buckeyes team is diverse. Ohio State players include graduate students Raymond Johnston of Brunswick Ohio, Po-Hsu Chen of Taiwan, Orlando McEwan of Guyana, Bobo Shi of China, Paul Park of Orange, California and Karen Pon of Australia. An accounting major, Raymond is their youngest player at age 22. Karen, an atmospheric sciences major, is their oldest at 36.

Grabbing lunch with the team Saturday, Michigan doctoral student Duc Le of Hanoi, Vietnam will be part of the Wolverines squad next fall. This weekend, he's part of Michigan's cheering section. Other Big Ten schools competing at the tournament included Penn State and Minnesota.

Michigan players say they're pleased with the venue, the Club Sport and Health, that's normally home to seven indoor tennis courts. "We were pleasantly surprised - the lighting was good,'' said Boxin Zhou.

Other college rivals brought their paddles, tricky spins and energy to the tourney. The list includes Ivy League schools like Harvard, Princeton, Cornell and Columbia; West Coast schools California, Southern California; and in-state rivals Duke and North Carolina State. NC State-Duke games typically go down to the wire. That's also the case when perennial champ Texas Wesleyan faces No. 2-ranked Mississippi College. Cheng Li, the ace for the MC Choctaws, battled TWU Rams standout Yahao Zhang in the singles championship semi-finals Saturday afternoon.

The California Bears were just thinking about playing their best game in Monroeville, and not letting rivalry talk get in the way. "We are all very close and have a good time with each other,'' said Ellen Hwang, a member of the Cal-Berkeley women's team. The 19-year-old freshman from Thousand Oaks, California is a business administration major. Like the other 250 college players at the tourney in Pennsylvania, Ellen is all business when it comes to table tennis.

The California women's team is solid and earned a second place in women's doubles on Friday.  The talented Toronto duo of Vivien Zhou and Xixi Guo, both seniors from China, won the title.

NCTTA Alums have done well once again! Barbara Wei, formerly of University of Pennsylvania, and Adam Bobrow, formerly of University of Southern California and current NCTTA Southern California Division Director, have made the final cut. David Wetherill of Great Britain also made the cut, but we focus on Barbara and Adam - two NCTTA Alumni still promoting table tennis years after their college careers have ended.

Barbara Wei, former UPenn standout, heard about the competition through social media and through her work with Butterfly had already been doing some commentating too.

She got her start in commentating quite randomly stating, "I was living in NYC last spring, and volunteered with the Westchester Table Tennis Club when they hosted the North American Cup (ITTF event) in April 2013. As a volunteer, I was quickly selected to actually type in the scores on the live streaming, but they needed a commentator so also asked me to commentate along with others who were there (Wally Green, Feiming Tong). I had a great time, and received great reviews online which gave me the confidence to pursue table tennis as a reporter/commentator/PR person in the future."

Barbara is currently living in Chicago, IL, coaching, playing and working with Butterfly and promoting Table Tennis!

Adam Bobrow, former USC player and current NCTTA Southern California Division Director, got wind of the competition back in 2011 and made it to the Top 5 but never the top 3 until this time! Adam explains, "Since then, I have listened closely to the advice of NCTTA family member, David Del Vecchio and really learned a lot."  Adam has been commentating for the NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships since 2011 and has done the same for USA Table Tennis tournaments at their major events. Adam is a unique individual whose passion and excitement transcend into whatever he does. Evidently NCTTA is not the only one who agrees as he won the ITTF Voice of Table Tennis competition! Adam states, "I am excited to be given the opportunity to commentate and hopefully add some charisma, insight and passion to a tournament that is already amazing!"

Bobrow's passion for table tennis as well as being a voice actor makes commentating right up his alley. Congrats to Adam as he will be heading to Tokyo for the World Table Tennis Championships April 29th to May 6th.

It is great to see so many NCTTA Alumni doing so well!

The Table Tennis Super Bowl is set to happen April 28th to May 5th and folks in and around College Table Tennis will be there. You might ask us - who gets to go? A number of people from the world of College Table Tennis actually will be in attendance!

Kenneth Lim: NYU player and NCTTA Media Relations Committee member; attending as a part of the media team as a winner of the ITTF Media Scholarship.

Yahao Zhang: Texas Wesleyan player; member of the US Men's National Team.

Adam Hugh: former Princeton standout; member of the US Men's National Team.

Mike Meier: former Texas Wesleyan player; NCTTA Audit/Rules Committee member,  working as an umpire.

Kagin Lee: Current NCTTA Board member; attending as a member of the ITTF Equipment Committee.

Adam Bobrow: NCTTA Southern California Division Director; attending as a video commentator as the winner of ITTF Voice of Table Tennis competition.

While it seemed everyone was busy at the TMS College Table Tennis Championships, some of the schools that didn't make it to the big game got together to play against each other. In College Basketball the NIT tournament is typically held for school teams that don't make it to the top tier of that sport, so why can't College Table Tennis have the same!

Valdosta State from NCTTA Northern Florida, a school from NCTTA Dixie division and 2 teams from local clubs in Ft. Walton Beach and Pensacola joined in on the fun. According to club director, LA Johnston, "We hope to make this an annual type of event and invite more schools that didn't make it to the big show."

NCTTA would love to see more tournaments like this and encourages such events. Joe Brown and Drew Ogden, Division Directors from Northern Florida and Dixie, teamed up to create, plan and execute the event. Kudos to them and all of the athletes that participated on the April 4th weekend!

ANY JOURNALISM majors or better yet JOURNALISM, ENGLISH graduates out there want a great volunteer gig?  NCTTA is looking for an EDITOR and WRITERS for its website and newsletters:

http://www.nctta.org/newsletters/ 

This is a great opportunity for anyone looking to get their work released to different media outlets and help NCTTA with Blogging, Newsletters, Twitter, etc.

Click here to get involved with this committee or others.