San Jose State Spartans Emerge as Northern California Power
An NCTTA Feature - January 2012

By Andy Kanengiser
NCTTA Media Relations Chair

When 13,000 San Jose State University Facebook fans were recently asked to name their favorite place to study on campus, the overwhelming choice was the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.

If the SJSU family was asked to name the school’s best sports team, the obvious pick would have to be the Spartans fabulous table tennis squad. At the moment, the coed team is ranked No. 4 in the USA and Canada, according to this month’s NCTTA mid-season rankings.

That’s super for a team that showed strength in the Northern California Division last year with a No. 19 ranking nationwide. They showed they are no flash in the pan. This team is great and getting better no matter where they play. They are undefeated – 4-0 – so far in the division and are already looking ahead to the West Regional competition and perhaps the national tourney in Plano, Texas in April 2012.

With seven players on the team, SJSU is led by No. 1 player Truong Tu, a native of Vietnam who once played on a team in Ho Chi Minh City. He brings a powerful 2454 USATT rating to the table. He’s also a smart guy who’s in pursuit of an MBA at San Jose State after getting his marketing degree at the school in the Silicon Valley.

Other top players include Sean Lee, a USA native who once was on the U.S. Cadet Team. His USATT ranking is 2432. Lee is a civil engineering major. Sally Su is also a fierce competitor. A sophomore and native of the Tianjin Province in China, her USATT rating is a nifty 2249. Another oustanding player is Joseph Coorey, who once played the Olympic sport on the Sri Lanka Junior Team. The SJSU junior is studying mechanical engineering. Coorey’s USATT ranking is also pretty strong at 1921.

Mitchell Ong, Kyle Wong and Stephanie Wiley round out the Spartans team.

It’s also a SJSU team that’s bonding quite well with friendships growing stronger every day on the campus in Northern California in the heart of high-tech innovations. It’s at a school where one of its premier professors recently announced the discovery of two earth-sized exoplanets. After every NCTTA tourney, the San Jose State team gets together to eat dinner and talk about their experiences on and off table tennis courts, notes their leader Truong Tu.

When they get together, table tennis fans these days are saying this amazing San Jose State team is riding high, and well on the road to greatness!

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