NCTTA’s goal for this summer’s fundraising campaign is NCTTA Video Production which now has a Go Fund Me page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/mission-possiblenctta-video-production-help

Since 2008, NCTTA has been a pioneer in bringing College Table Tennis Championships and now Regionals to life via youtube to those that couldn’t attend and family members and friends around the globe.

NCTTA was the FIRST major table tennis organization to bring live streaming of Table Tennis back in the day.

NCTTA is still an all volunteer led organization so your donation would be incredibly helpful!
Video Production isn’t cheap so any help is always appreciated!
#fundraising #videoproduction #livestreaming #give2day

Pictured above are last year's winners, who will win this year in 2023?

Nominate someone today for the NCTTA Superlatives!
The deadline is May 15th

TO NOMINATE SOMEONE
-Message us on instagram the person or team and why by the deadline
OR
-Email your nomination and WHY to info@nctta.org by the deadline.

Categories are here
Male Athlete of the Year, Female Athlete of the Year
Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year
Rookie Team
Division Director of the Year, Regional Director of the Year

*Rookie Teams are school teams that have never participated in the NCTTA (Subject to NCTTA historical records)

*Rookie of the year are players new to College Table Tennis (they can be any year Freshman/sophomore/junior/senior/graduate student) also subject to NCTTA historical records

*Division and Regional Directors must be current to 2022-2023 competition year

Winners are awarded a gift card!

Thanks!

NCTTA

Photo of 2023 NCTTA Men's Singles Champ Nikhil Kumar of UC Berkeley. Photo Credit to NCTTA

By Michael Reff
NCTTA Media Committee

Bigger and Better, Loudnproud,
Round Rock brought the fighting crowd,
Fans and players let it out,
The shouts of motivation.

New winners crowned, some were repeats,
Gravity defying feats,
Competition turned up the heat,
Ended with jubilation!

Play by play live commentary,
Points were close, some downright scary,
Clash of styles, the more the merry.
Pips, choppers, and Jpen.

Explosive footwork, screams of Cho!
Many cheers including “jiayou”!
Volunteers from years ago,
Could you ask for more, just say when!

About 2023 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, PongSpace, Major League Table Tennis.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 14th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

Picture of Visit Eau Claire's Logo.

By Michael Reff
NCTTA Media Committee

Great news college table tennis fans! The bid has been finalized and the 2024 NCTTA Championships is set to be held in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on April 12-14. This will be the third time Eau Claire has hosted the event. The previous two times were 2015 and 2017. Visit Eau Claire’s Sports Relationship Manager Lucas Connolly is quite grateful for the NCTTA returning to Wisconsin.

“Visit Eau Claire in partnership with the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire would like to thank the NCTTA committee for selecting our beautiful city to host your 2024 NCTTA Champs!” said Connolly.

He reflected on how he and others felt about Eau Claire being selected:

“I was so excited when the news came in last Thursday [April 6th] afternoon, and I couldn't wait to share the information with my team who was just as excited. Your organization will have complete support from Visit Eau Claire to ensure the event is a memorable one and is a complete success! The University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire shared our great excitement in learning that the 2024 Champs were going to be returning to Eau Claire, and we can't wait to get started!"

Congrats to Visit Eau Claire for becoming a three-time host to the NCTTA’s annual crown jewel event!

Photo of Women's Singles Champion Amy Wang of UCLA. Photo Credit to NCTTA.

By Michael Reff and Shaquila Sarapao
NCTTA Media Committee

New champions were crowned in both the Women’s and Men’s Singles events at the 2023 NCTTA Championships in Round Rock, Texas. Amy Wang of UCLA overcame Zhen Deng of Texas Wesleyan 4-1 to clinch her third title of the Champs along with the Women’s Teams and Women’s Doubles crowns, whereas Nikhil Kumar of California likewise defeated 2018 Men's Singles winner Kai Zhang of USC (formerly of Binghamton) at the same margin of 4-1.

The first seed in Women’s Singles, Wang had relatively smooth sailing until reaching the semifinals, where she faced strong opposition from second seeded Zhen Deng’s teammate Jiaqi Lin. Ultimately Wang closed it out at 4-2.

On the other end of the draw, Deng did not drop a single set until reaching the finals against Wang. There, it was a rematch from the Women’s Teams finals, where Wang had defeated Deng 3-0. In the final, Deng’s pips appeared to briefly frustrate Wang. However, she adapted and repeated her dominance of the Women’s events with a third title at 4-1 in sets.

On the Men’s Singles side of the draw, both Kumar (#2) and Zhang (#1) did not drop a single game until reaching the semifinals. Kumar’s match against Nathan Xu of Penn went the full distance where Kumar secured the win at 11-4 in the 7th deciding set.

Zhang faced NYU’s Jeremy Hazin, who had already won the Men’s Doubles and Coed Teams events. This was also a closely contested match, with Hazin winning the first two games 11-8 and 11-6, hitting strong forehands to Zhang’s forehand as well as blocking effectively. Zhang was down 2-0 then won 4 consecutive games, bringing him for redemption in the finals.
Both Men’s semifinals games exhibited matchups of lefties against righties.

In the finals, Kumar commanded a convincing lead at 11-2 in the first game and later, winning the next two sets to arrive at 3-0. An exciting moment in the finals showed Kumar with five match points in the fourth set and Zhang battled his way back to secure seven consecutive points to win and delay defeat at 12-10. Finally, Kumar reversed the scores in the fifth set, securing the match and Men’s Singles titles.

Congratulations to Amy Wang and Nikhil Kumar, the new NCTTA Women’s and Men’s Singles Champs!

About 2023 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, PongSpace, Major League Table Tennis.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 14th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

Photo of UNT's Joshua Mak. Photo credit to NCTTA

By Shaquila Sarapao, Guest Writer
NCTTA Media

The “Lone Rangers” made quite an appearance at the 2023 NCTTA Championships in Round Rock.

Joshua Mak, a Dallas-Forth Worth native, is the sole representative from the University of North Texas at Denton in Men’s Singles to be competing at Nationals.

Throughout his three years of college, this is his first time stepping foot onto the Round Rock Sport Complex stadium. “I’ve seen videos of Champs on Youtube, and [now] I’m really excited to play,” Mak says. “My goals for this tournament is to be able to play on the main table and to reach the round of 16 for Men’s Singles.”

Mak is seeded #15, having had a bye in the first round. It was a nostalgic first match against Ashwin Sankuratri (California), a teammate of Mak in California-based 888 table tennis club. For his second matchup in the round of 16s, it was an upset against #7 seed Tianming Xie (Harvard), a player also originating from the DFW area and who Mak had played as a child.

Mak’s first time at Nationals will be one to remember, but there are other great memories that this sport has brought him. “Playing Divisionals and Regionals with my team has been my most memorable experience leading up to Nationals,” he states, “UNT is a very ‘loud and proud’ team, and I plan on bringing our energy to Nationals as well.” And Mak brought that energy to the quarterfinals.

Mak’s quarterfinal match was against Nathan Xu (#4) from Pennsylvania. Being down 2-0, Mak kept fighting to bring the match to 2-1. However, it was an unfortunate end to the “Lone Ranger” after falling to Xu in the 4th set.

Viren Patel (#28) was another “Lone Ranger” from a school in Texas (TAMU in Corpus Christi) that brought the fight to the table. After emerging top in his preliminary round robin group, he defeated Robert He of UC Santa Barbara and ultimately lost in the Round of 32 to NYU’s Jeremy Hazin (#3) in a closely contested match that went the full distance.

Congrats to the “Lone Rangers” for making a strong showing!

About 2023 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, PongSpace, Major League Table Tennis.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 14th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

Photo of University of Iowa's Fatima Elmaleh in action. Photo credit to NCTTA

By Michael Reff
NCTTA Media Committee

There are a few volunteers this year who have made a dual commitment as both a player and volunteer. These are the volunteers that NCTTA hope will continue to serve the organization upon graduating as well.

One such player/volunteer is Ryan Crichton, a PhD candidate in chemistry looking to defend his dissertation soon. He’s part of the returning Rutgers University team. According to Crichton, he “always wanted to volunteer”, but “never had opportunity to go to Nationals.”

Last year he came with the team, but he said he wanted to understand the capacity of being a “player first,” then he would later learn the ropes in volunteer work. Helping out NCTTA this year, he served in setting up the venue, as well as the banquet, and many other capacities.

He says that many players are “not consciously aware of what goes behind the scenes for the champs.”

Regarding his goals to expand his NCTTA volunteer capacity, he wants to be a “large tournament director in a collegiate capacity.”

Crichton is already giving back to his Northeastern regional community by organizing “scrimmages for the schools that didn’t make it to the nationals” after the Champs passes.

Another player/volunteer is University of Iowa senior Fatima Elmaleh. An industrial engineering major, Elmaleh had a 9 year hiatus from table tennis, but the bug caught her again, and she’s back with a vengeance. She said she “wasn’t sure [she] was going to qualify for nationals, so wanted to help NCTTA regardless in a volunteer capacity.”

Elmaleh says she has only played one other year back in 2019 for NCTTA, because the pandemic ended hopes of playing for a couple years. Since she has several years of eligibility left, she says if she returns to school upon graduating with her Engineering degree, she would try and play again. According to Elmaleh, she’s “met really cool people here.”

Elmaleh volunteered in registration, and with her jovial demeanor, she was a perfect fit for greeting those entering the venue.

In addition to NCTTA, Fatima would like to help out AYTTO if she gets a job in the northeast after graduating. A lefty, Elmaleh gave it her all in singles, eventually losing in consolation rounds.

Finally, Sergio Pulido of DBU served a dual role as player and volunteer in the capacity of scorekeeper. He followed in his two brothers’ footsteps regarding playing table tennis, and his brother

Erik is also coach of the DBU team and volunteered this year as an umpire.

Sergio is a first year Computer Science student, who also happens to be quite a good table tennis player. Over the course of next year, he would like to earn his umpire certification so he can further his table tennis officiating career and help in the NCTTA Champs and other tournaments.

Kudos to these great players and volunteers that have made dual commitments to NCTTA!

About 2023 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, PongSpace, Major League Table Tennis.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 14th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

Photo of UCLA women's team. Photo credit to NCTTA

By Michael Reff
NCTTA Media Committee

For the 2023 Round Rock NCTTA Championships on Saturday April 15, a new victor in the women’s teams event was crowned.

Fresh off a third place finish in Coed Teams, the Women’s UCLA group (mostly made up of the same members as the Coed!) ousted the defending champs Texas Wesleyan in a decisive win at 3-1 in team matches. The core top seeded UCLA squad of Amy Wang, Joanna Sung, Rachel Sung, and Angie Tan, decisively defeated Texas Wesleyan’s Zhen Deng, Jiaqi Lin, Sofija Scepanovic, and Zeying Wu.

The UCLA team was stacked with US juniors full of international playing experience.

Amy Wang’s win against Zhen Deng set the tone for the team matches. Wang, with her effortless game and amazing touch play, overpowered Deng’s fast and aggressive strokes which combined smooth and pips rubbers.

All matches won by UCLA were decisively 3-0, with Joanna Sung’s loss to Jiaqi Lin still a close fifth game decider.

At the evening banquet, a 3D printed team trophy created and designed by NCTTA’s very own Logan Zimmerman was awarded to the UCLA squad for their accomplishment.

The Western women’s team came in a 3rd place finish over Columbia University.

Congratulations to the newly crowned Women’s team champs UCLA!

About 2023 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, PongSpace, Major League Table Tennis.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 14th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

Photo of 3 time Coed Champs NYU. Photo Credit: Yukong Zhang

Shaquila Sarapao, Guest writer
NCTTA Media

Saturday, April 15, concluded the National Coed Teams event. Top seed Texas Wesleyan cruised their way into the finals, beating Harvard (#7) 3-1 then California (#5) 3-1. UCLA (#2), on the other hand, was struggling in the semifinals against defending champs NYU (#3). A 5th matchup in doubles was the deciding factor to see if second seeded UCLA would be playing against Texas Wesleyan in the finals.

It was a battle of the sexes in the decider: Wang/Sung (UCLA) vs. Hazin/Dani (NYU). UCLA started off strong, winning the first game. With a change of pace, NYU won the next two games. Tension rose as NYU was catching up in the 4th set after being down 4 points.

Consecutive points ensued, favoring the northeastern school. The gap between the schools grew bigger until it was match point for NYU.

Doubles partners Hazin/Dani of NYU won the game 3-1, bringing their team to the Coed finals to defend their title.

The Coed finals consisted of defending champions NYU vs. Texas Wesleyan. The first matchup was a Japanese penholder (J-pen) style of play against a lefty. Even with Eduardo Tomoike’s (Texas Wesleyan) J-pen and fast footwork, he was no match for Jeremy Hazin (NYU), falling to him in the 4th set.

The next matchup also favored NYU. Lucas Eto’s (Texas Wesleyan) fighting spirit kept him strong against Mudit Dani (NYU) but ultimately lost to him in the 4th set. However, Texas Wesleyan quickly caught up with two wins from Zhen Deng and Santiago Montes Solarte.

Tied 2-2 for a doubles decider, the dynamic duo of Hazin and Dani, who also won Men’s Doubles, proved too much for the Texas Wesleyan pair of Tomoike and Deng.

On Saturday, April 15, 2023, NYU became three time Coed National Champions, all wins in Round Rock, Texas.

About 2023 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, PongSpace, Major League Table Tennis.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 14th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

Photo of Logan Zimmerman and Ryan Day. Photo Credit to Dennis Yanga

By Michael Reff
NCTTA Media Committee

NCTTA is an entirely volunteer-run organization, with its main aim to make the sport of college table tennis bigger and better in North America. Each year our volunteers bring to the table specific sets of skills and training that they have applied from previous or current careers, all in the spirit of teamwork and giving back to the game they love.

We wanted to take this time to honor a couple volunteers who are also military veterans: Logan Zimmerman and Ryan Day.

Logan’s first love in sports was golf. He even earned a Master’s in Professional Golf Management.

His first taste of table tennis came from a severe thrashing from his brother-in-law more than ten years ago. He recalls that the score was 4-21 (old school ping pong rules!). After this humbling experience, he vowed to defeat his brother-in-law, trained for six months, and returned the favor, almost reversing the score! Zimmerman was hooked.

His experience starting to volunteer for NCTTA would come after he began assisting NCTTA President Willy Leparulo’s FSU club in coaching. Zimmerman would later become NCTTA coach certified and then started helping at champs.

Zimmerman is not just a jack of all trades, he’s basically a master. In the Navy he was officially an Avionics Electronics technician. He’s had several positions after his military service, but now he works on troubleshooting 3D printing equipment. He even 3D printed this year’s Champs trophies! Furthermore, he was here since the beginning of the Champs setup and was a pivotal volunteer with laying down the professional blue flooring.

When asked how the military has prepared him for the NCTTA, he says it’s his ability to adapt and improvise in the face of adverse situations, as well as “breaking down problems into simpler steps.”

Thank you to Mr. Zimmerman for your service and commitment to the betterment of NCTTA!

Ryan Day is another late bloomer to table tennis, however he is an all-around athlete, having played professional soccer in Germany, baseball for 13 years, and more. It was inevitable that he would end up with us table tennis fanatics!

Day started playing the Olympic Sport in 2018 at a ping pong tourney in Texas A&M in San Antonio. Similar to Zimmerman, Day’s first experience with table tennis was losing multiple times, and likewise he vowed to do better. He says he “Literally googled table tennis clubs in San Antonio” to try and improve his form.

Ryan started helping out NCTTA after getting coach certified by the organization where he ultimately met ubiquitous volunteer matchmaker Willy Leparulo. Ryan recalls, “Willy was like ‘I love you please can you run South Texas [divisionals].'”

Ryan is ecstatic to join the ranks of table tennis and the NCTTA crew: “So glad I got involved. I love table tennis now, I’m like a fiend but more importantly I love the competitive atmosphere, these guys are athletes.”

Day says that the military has helped him develop an “acute awareness” and “attention to detail,” greatly applicable to helping out NCTTA. He too assisted in the setup of the venue and his strong work ethic perfectly complements NCTTA’s overall infrastructure.

Thank you to Mr. Day for your service as well as your willingness to volunteer for NCTTA!

The NCTTA is proud to have such great volunteers with military service who go the extra mile!

About 2023 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB. Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by Double Happiness, PongSpace, Major League Table Tennis.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday April 14th on champs.nctta.org

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 elite intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org