The Central Michigan University Chippewas are better known for their football, wrestling and basketball teams. But this fall, a new four-man team of table tennis players emerged from nowhere at Michigan's fourth largest public institution.

The CMU table tennis players from China, Saudi Arabia and the US, all undergraduates, put in a strong showing in their debut in the NCTTA's Ohio Division competition in October. Finishing in 4th-place was a pretty good start in their initial outing. Perrenial Ohio Division powerhouse, Ohio State went undefeated throughout the event at the University of Akron, landing them in first place. Another new NCTTA member school, Indiana Tech, currently stands in third in the Ohio division. Kudos to Indiana Tech!
 
"Before we came to the tournament, our goal was don't be last,'' said CMU team member Wenwen Zhang, a native of China who's an accounting major at the school in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. "When we were actually playing the matches with other universities, we realized that we are not that bad like we thought before.'' In their first trip to a big-time college table tennis competition, these CMU players didn't set their goals too high and did much better than expected. "All of us had less stress on winning or losing the matches,'' Zhang said. And that fact helped the team perform at their best, he added.
 
The NCTTA tourney was more of a learning experience for these CMU underdogs. "All of us enjoyed the tournament so much. We treated this tournament as a great way for improving because we could have a chance to play a variety of players at different levels,'' Zhang said.
 
It's not one and done for this CMU squad of Zhang, Ameer Alsabaa, Jacob Billau and Jacob White. Alsabaa, a native of Saudi Arabia, and the two Jakes from Michigan are all freshmen. All four undergraduates promise to be back at future tournaments in their neck of the woods in the Midwest. The trio of freshmen from Central Michigan, Zhang said, "are all very willing to learn table tennis and willing to improve a lot'' whether it is stepping up their looping skills or practicing footwork.

At a university with 28,000 students that primarily serves central and northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, table tennis is just getting off the ground. It doesn't nearly have the fan base to rival Chippewa football against teams like Toledo, Ball State, Akron, Bowling Green, and Northern Illinois in the MAC Conference. Hats off to guys like Wenwen Zhang. The CMU student has been working hard to form a team since last year. The team had to ovecome cost obstacles and helped come up with the funds to participate in their first NCTTA competition a few weeks ago. Members of the team also play in local USATT tournaments in nearby cities like Farmington Hills to step up their table tennis game.
 
To contact Wenwen Zhang and say congrats to this new Central Michigan club, send him an email at wencylf@gmail.com
 
Want us to plug your new table tennis team on the NCTTA scene? 
Then drop us a line: publicrelations@nctta.org