PongSpace is here to enhance your table tennis experience. PongSpace has member clubs nationwide since 2022 so you can find a place to play near you.

Thomas Hu, CEO of PongSpace says, “During the winter of 2022, we established the George Braithwaite Major League so you can compete like a champion.” Several NCTTA member schools competed in the first ever GBMLTT!

Hu adds, “Every week, we post a new video on YouTube so you can learn how to improve from top players worldwide. Last year, we partnered with Pongbot to release the Pongspace Cadet to schools in the US so kids can learn table tennis without the physical presence of a table tennis expert.”

PongSpace stays busy and now have also partnered with Xu Shaofa to introduce a new, exciting sport, Peaka Pong, that will be featured at the NCTTA Championships!

PongSpace has many more exciting events and products forthcoming so your table tennis experience can go up a notch! Pong on!

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About 2025 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams. Also this year a first in NCTTA’s history is the Collegiate National Team trials on Thursday April 3rd for the 2025 World University Games.

PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Stiga and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.

Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 4th on http://www.nctta.org/champs/2025/video.html

About NCTTA

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively to promote 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 competitions throughout North America. www.nctta.org

By Willy Leparulo
Press Committee Member

The local host Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau asked NCTTA: “Where are your volunteers coming from?”, hoping to understand where volunteers will be driving in/flying in from.

We replied, “Where aren’t they coming from!”

Case in point there is one longtime volunteer, Dr. Asif ud-Doula, who serves as our Pennsylvania Division Director. He being an accomplished international umpire has a very diverse upbringing, even though he is coming from (somewhat nearby) Pennsylvania, said, “Originally, I am from Bangladesh. I grew up in Warsaw, Poland, lived in Dakar, Senegal before moving to NY for College.” Welcome to Table Tennis, the land of the diverse!

The NCTTA Championships for most volunteers is also like a homecoming and reunion rolled into one!

Ryan Hong, ex-President of Boston University Table Tennis club says, “I am primarily looking forward to giving back to the community that has given so much in my college career and supporting wherever I can! It’s an honour to return and volunteer at Champs, and further connecting and working together with the NCTTA community. I’m also looking forward to a mini-reunion of sorts with my president counterparts from other universities from my time as president”

Even the first time volunteers have similar expectations as we hear from Arunima Mandal, a current student-athlete from Florida State University, choosing to help out even though her school team barely missed the championships, “As a first-time volunteer, I'm excited to be part of something as big as the NCTTA Nationals and feel truly blessed for the opportunity while still a student. It's always rewarding to give back, and I’m excited to experience top level matches up close and the energy behind the scenes!”
Whatever one’s reasons are, there is always a home at NCTTA for our volunteers. NCTTA is by the way an all volunteer-run organization from top to bottom, no one is taking or making a salary.

We do what we do b/c we love table tennis and, further, we want to provide a wonderful opportunity for those in College Table Tennis.

Volunteers stand as a testament to the power of community involvement and the selfless contributions of NCTTA Alumni and college table tennis fans.

(Photo featured above is 2024 Championship Volunteer Family Photo at Eau Claire, WI!)

About 2025 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams. Also this year a first in NCTTA’s history is the Collegiate National Team trials on Thursday April 3rd for the 2025 World University Games.

PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Stiga and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.

Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 4th on http://www.nctta.org/champs/2025/video.html

About NCTTA

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively to promote 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 competitions throughout North America. www.nctta.org

By Willy Leparulo
Press Committee Member

Paddle Palace, a leading supplier of high-quality table tennis equipment is proud to support its partnership with the NCTTA to provide equipment for the 2025 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships. In addition to Paddle Palace, Stiga will supply the championship courts with high performance tables, barriers, and more.

Sean O’Neill, Director of Sponsorships/Social Media for Paddle Palace Table Tennis, is very excited that Paddle Palace gets to support collegiate table tennis and goes on to say,

“STIGA–one of the most respected brands in the sport globally—is supplying the championship courts with high-performance tables, barriers, scoreboards, and umpire tables. Combined with Nittaku 3-Star Premium 40+ balls, trusted at the highest levels of international play, this partnership ensures that student-athletes compete in a truly professional environment. We view this as the first step in a long-term commitment to elevate the collegiate table tennis experience nationwide.”
NCTTA is grateful to our equipment sponsors Paddle Palace and Stiga for leading the way at the 2025 Championships in Rockford, IL!

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About 2025 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams. Also this year a first in NCTTA’s history is the Collegiate National Team trials on Thursday April 3rd for the 2025 World University Games.

PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Stiga and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.

Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 4th on http://www.nctta.org/champs/2025/video.html

About NCTTA

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively to promote 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 competitions throughout North America. www.nctta.org

By Willy Leparulo
Press Committee Member

The 2025 NCTTA Championships are witnessing an exciting and historic moment as five top Canadian schools come together to showcase their table tennis talent. The University of Toronto, Toronto Metropolitan University (with women’s singles only), McMaster University, McGill University and the University of British Columbia (UBC) are all represented at the event, making a powerful statement for Canadian College Table Tennis excellence!

Great Lakes Regional staff, Andrew Areghan says about the Canadian College Table Tennis, “The diversity within Canadian schools have brought out the best talent representing Eastern and Western Canada. Overall, I wish all the players the best and I'll be rooting for them. Hoping they can bring back the gold to Canada.”

Canadian College Table Tennis has a storied history in NCTTA from the early 1990’s, where Queens University was one of the first Canadian universities to join, to now, with five universities coming to the Championships. NCTTA Championships is a truly international event.

Given that the US Collegiate Team Trials for the World University Games will happen shortly before the NCTTA Championships kicks off, it is important to state an impressive figure regarding the Canadian cohort: 3/4ths of the recently qualified Canadian World University Team traveling to Germany will be in attendance at the NCTTA Championships!

Be sure to catch the Canadian contingency and the rest of our student-athletes at the 2025 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships in Rockford, IL!

About 2025 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams. Also this year a first in NCTTA’s history is the Collegiate National Team trials on Thursday April 3rd for the 2025 World University Games.

PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Stiga and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.

Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 4th on http://www.nctta.org/champs/2025/video.html

About NCTTA

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively to promote 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 competitions throughout North America. www.nctta.org

By Willy Leparulo
Press Committee Member

NCTTA’s 2025 Championships has schools represented from all sorts of areas in North America and student-athletes from “Everywhere and Anywhere” it seems!
College Table Tennis by the numbers has always been very unique, and presented here is a snapshot of the event:

248 student-athletes
32 coaches
50 Colleges and Universities including a record 5 from our friends in Canada
Over 100 different academic disciplines
More than 25 countries represented; USA and China leading the way, including other countries like South Africa, Canada, Brazil and New Zealand

The competition itself is equally impressive:

80 Men’s Singles (full event)
40 Women’s Singles (full event)
24 Coed Teams (full event)
16 Women’s Teams (full event)
32 Men’s Doubles (full event)
16 Women’s Doubles (full event)
104 Volunteers (staff)

The NCTTA is a microcosm of our global sport that welcomes anyone from “Everywhere and Anywhere”.

About 2025 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams. Also this year a first in NCTTA’s history is the Collegiate National Team trials on Thursday April 3rd for the 2025 World University Games.
PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Stiga and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 4th on http://www.nctta.org/champs/2025/video.html

About NCTTA

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively to promote 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 competitions throughout North America. www.nctta.org

It is a clash of the West and the Northeast with a sprinkle of the Midwest and the South. We are talking about the World University Games Trials at the 2025 NCTTA Championships in Rockford, where 28 collegiate table tennis stars will test their skills to be “the best of the best”!

16 men and 12 women will compete for positions on the 5-player men's and women’s teams, respectively. The men’s draw features two heavyweights of College Table Tennis, US Team products and College teammates at Berkeley, Sid Naresh and Ved Sheth. The women’s draw features another US Team player, Joanna Sung, with the Tan sisters Emily and Angie trailing close behind!

Athletes will compete in a preliminary group stage, followed by a progressive knockout bracket to determine final placement.

Click here to see who the potential teams could be! http://www.nctta.org/champs/2025/wugtrials.html

Support the US Men’s and Women’s Collegiate team at the 2025 World University games by donating here: https://gofund.me/63df8fd2

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About 2025 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships
The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams. Also this year a first in NCTTA’s history is the Collegiate National Team trials on Thursday April 3rd for the 2025 World University Games.
PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Stiga and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 4th on http://www.nctta.org/champs/2025/video.html

About NCTTA
The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively to promote 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 competitions throughout North America. www.nctta.org

NCTTA is excited to welcome a new sponsor, Peaka Pong (https://www.peakapong.com/) . Peaka Pong, the brainchild of famous Chinese Table Tennis World Champion Mr. Xu Shaofa, is a combination of Table Tennis and Pickleball!

“The idea of PeakaPong sponsorship came about when Stephanie [NCTTA HR coordinator] asked me if we can help the WUG team last year,” says Thomas Hu, PongSpace co-founder and CEO, who joined forces with Mr. Xu Shaofa for Peaka Pong.

“She was looking for non-table tennis related companies,” Hu continues.

Later on NCTTA President Willy Leparulo requested more assistance from Thomas since there was no one else that was stepping up to the plate.
Therefore, as Hu reflected on the positive Peaka Pong feedback from others at the 2024 Champs, he “approached Mr. Xu Shaofa for both the Champs sponsorship as well as the WUG Sponsorship of the uniform.”

“Being a startup with very limited budget, Mr. Xu was very generous to sponsor both the shirt and the champs,” Hu says.

Peaka Pong is an innovative kind of table tennis that uses a special paddle. Games are a little bit different too, but then again so is College Table Tennis. NCTTA currently uses its own format that no other competition uses, so Peaka Pong will fit in perfectly!

NCTTA President, Willy Leparulo says “We at NCTTA are excited to partner with Xu Shaofa and Peaka Pong to bring this to a new generation of Collegiates and beyond!”

NCTTA and Peaka Pong will be featuring a 32-player coed competition on Sunday, April 6th for free! Sign up here: https://forms.gle/nftWoKHDccDWAkcs7 Anyone in the NCTTA Championships who wants to enter this competition may do so!

In addition, Peaka Pong will be sponsoring along with PongSpace the US Collegiate Team that will travel to represent the United States in the World University Games in Germany this summer. Exciting times for NCTTA, PongSpace, Peaka pong and the World University Games!

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About 2025 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships
The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams. Also this year a first in NCTTA’s history is the Collegiate National Team trials on Thursday April 3rd for the 2025 World University Games.
PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Stiga and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 4th on http://www.nctta.org/champs/2025/video.html

About NCTTA
The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively to promote 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 competitions throughout North America. www.nctta.org

By Michael Reff
NCTTA Press Committee Chair

Spoiler Alert: the following draws parallels between the WUG team and Captain America’s famous line ““Avenger’s Assemble!” in the blockbuster movie Avenger’s Endgame!

NCTTA is assembling it’s very own superhero table tennis team for the World University Games (WUG) and it starts with the leadership. The first two members of the team have been chosen, Men’s Coach Yanjun Gao (AKA the NYU coach that has taken it to the top contenders and helped his team win 3 Coed National Championship titles!) and Team Leader Alex Figueroa (former SoCal DD and passionate table tennis advocate!)

Coach Gao was chosen by members of the NCTTA Coaching Committee (Dr. Alan Chu, Logan Zimmerman, and Willy Leparulo) as well as a representative from the WUG Committee (Stephanie Shih).

Both leaders chosen are quite honored and happy as can be seen in their quotes below.

Coach Gao:

“I am honored to be the USA Collegiate team men’s team coach for WUG. I will work with all of team members to pursue our goals.”

Alex Figueroa:
I’m truly honored to be selected as the "Team Leader for WUG", and I’m looking forward to the journey ahead. Even though the team hasn’t been selected yet, I’m excited to be part of the process and help build a strong, motivated group of athletes who will represent us on the international stage. My focus will be on providing the best support possible, ensuring a smooth experience, and helping create an atmosphere where our athletes can perform at their highest level. It’s a thrilling opportunity, and I can’t wait to see everything come together!

Additionally, NCTTA President and Coaching Committee member Willy Leparulo had this to say about both exemplary members:
"Gao has an impressive TT resume and also trained and worked in Germany and knows many of the US Based athletes from his coaching at NYU. Happy to have him as our Men's team coach.”
"Alex has a plethora of Team Leader experience from his work with LA Ping Pong to USA Table Tennis. He is probably the most experienced team leader in our country. Alex is also very familiar with NCTTA after having served as division director for one of NCTTA's largest divisions, Southern California for several years. We are happy to have Alex join NCTTA's USA Collegiate Team."

Congrats to both Coach Gao and Alex on the first step to assembling their very own Table Tennis Avengers!

(Coach Gao featured on the left with Team Leader, Alex Figueroa on the right)

NCTTA partners with Table Tennis Minnesota and AYTTO to provide goodies to High School pongers in their respective championships! It is a known fact in our sport of table tennis that a pipeline from youth to college is monumentally important.

NCTTA, like in recent years, has supported both of these events, but this year we sent “swag” in the form of NCTTA shirts and bracelets!

AYTTO hosted the Boys and Girls Highschool Table Tennis Championships in February in New York while Table Tennis Minnesota led by Mitch Seidenfeld hosted their Championships as well.
Follow HS TT in MN Here: https://www.instagram.com/table_tennis_mn/
Follow AYTTO here: https://www.aytto.org/

NCTTA is proud to support these future college table tennis stars!
#AYTTO #TTMN #SWAG #GRASSROOTS #HSPONG

By Michael Reff
Press Committee Chair

Kelly Yenn, winner of the Hong Kong Women’s Singles Open and current Harvard freshman, is a focused, strategic learner and fighter, both on and off the table. Starting table tennis at the age of 6 in her native Hong Kong, Yenn quickly made a name for herself at just 8 years old, becoming the youngest player to have ever made the Hong Kong Youth Table Tennis Team. Winner of selection matches, she has represented Hong Kong at the World Youth Table Tennis Championships, Asian Youth Championships, East Asian Games, among many others. Now making waves in the USA, Yenn has already competed alongside the NCTTA President Willy Leparulo and the US Open where she secured 2 medals in Vegas recently.

Equally impressive as her table tennis prowess is her academic aptitude. The first-year Harvard student, intending to study Economics, Neuroscience, and Computer Science, champions that "table tennis and academics are not mutually exclusive; they complement each other”. She says that both her passions require “strategic planning, time management, adaptability, discipline, among others.”

Yenn has a thoughtful and methodical approach when it comes to preparing for her studies, as well as her matches. “Because of how tight my day-to-day schedule is… I need to be able to strategize and adapt in a way…,” she says. She mentions how in the past she would study during her commute and waiting time on her way to the Hong Kong Sports Institute (where she used to train with the full-time players as an exception, being still in school). In her studies, she suggests that to maximize effectiveness, she would always think and study from the perspectives of teachers and what the curriculum planner would want students to get the most out of the class. This approach is similar to her preparation in analyzing match videos and taking notes prior to facing different opponents.

Yenn, who first came to America this past summer, will be in her first year of college table tennis, and she is looking forward to her first NCTTA experience and making camaraderie and new core memories as she always does in table tennis.

Be sure to stay tuned for this new star in the world of college table tennis and follow Kelly on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-yenn/

(Photo Credit to Kelly Yenn)