National Collegiate Table Tennis Association

NCTTA 2002-03 Tournament Season Kicks Off With a Big Bang

By Aik-Ping Ng, Public Relations Director, NCTTA

The 2002-2003 National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) competitions started on October 5, 2002. The Carolina Division, consisting of teams from North Carolina State University, Duke University and Methodist College, began their first round of competitions at Methodist College in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The match between North Carolina State and Duke was by far the most competitive, with North Carolina State edging out Duke 3-2.

Competitions also began in many other regional divisions. These included the New England Division, Georgia Division, Florida Division, Upstate New York Division, New York Division, Mid Atlantic Division, Midwest Division and the newly formed Ohio Division. Over the course of the next few months into March 2003, the universities represented in each division will face their divisional opponents at least twice. The overall winner in each division will advance to the Team Championship, which will be played at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on March 30, 2003.

NCTTA is a student-run organization dedicated to promoting competitive table tennis at the collegiate level in the United States. NCTTA was established in 1992 as the League of Northeast Intercollegiate Table Tennis, LNITT, with the hope that the league would grow and become the national collegiate organization that it is today.  In 1999, the name was changed to NCTTA as a reflection of this rapid growth.  For the 2002 season, 57 schools competed in 12 regional divisions spanning the four corners of the country, from New England to Florida to California to Washington. This year, Ohio, Michigan, and Virginia joined the ranks of collegiate table tennis divisions. A total of 65 schools in the 14 regional divisions will compete for the hotly contested championship trophy.

The latest results for each division is updated regularly on our website at www.nctta.org. If you would like to attend the tournaments, please e-mail our divisional directors for the latest information (their contact information can also be found on our website). We would like to thank our official corporate sponsors Newgy Industries and Paddle Palace for their continuous support and generous contributions. If you would like more information about our organization, or would like to be a sponsor, please e-mail Aik-Ping Ng at publicrelations@nctta.org.