ACUI National College Championships

Association of College Unions International
Fremont, CA · April 9-10, 2004

By Willy Leparulo 

Photo Gallery

The annual ACUI College Championships were held in conjunction with the National College Table Tennis Association Team Championships (NCTTA) at the expansive multisport Citybeach Facility in Fremont, California. The tournament featured a total of 62 participants (44 men and 18 women) participating in what could be the very last ACUI Table Tennis tournament ever. ACUI is looking to restructure its recreation program and Table Tennis could be one of the casualties of this reconstruction period. The event, run by Willy Leparulo and Joseph Wells of the Florida State University Table Tennis program and started on Friday April 9th with Doubles competition and Round Robin singles matches and ended on Saturday April 10th with ferocious singles competition and an after tournament banquet hosted by the Citybeach facility. The quality of players was the best in many years as more than half of the players came up at 1900 and higher! Texas Weslyan University was going into the tournament as favorites, but little did they know that others from UCLA, University of Southern Mississippi, and Florida Atlantic University were looming to take a taste of glory from them. No more is college table tennis going to be an easy ride for the top school in the nation!

The Men's Doubles competition saw a look to College Table Tennis' depth with both Texas Weslyan teams being knocked out before reaching the finals by the newcomers to college table tennis, Florida Atlantic University pair: Keith Alban and Richard Ciz and UCLA's top doubles team of: William Liu and Vineet Agarwal. Alban and Ciz would pull it out in a 5 set win over the southern California school.

The Women's Championship singles portion of the tournament saw Biba Golic whip thru the competition with impressive wins over opponents UVA's Chao Wang and teammate Sabrina Worrell to set up a final with Michelle Do who out lasted ACUI Table Tennis fan favorite, Bogi Masters in the semifinals. Biba Golic was too much for Do whom she beat 3 games to nothing in the Women's Championship Singles finals.

The Men's Championship singles competition was great from start to finish including a near gigantic upset when Eric Owens (2559) struggled to beat UCLA's Rodrigo Della Noce's (2101) strange penhold punches in the Round of 16. Owens held out to win in the 5th 11-8. Several exciting matches here: One such match in the event, that I particularly enjoyed, involved new comer, University of Southern Mississippi's Kim Bong Geun (2277)and ACUI veteran Texas Weslyan University's Jiachen Wang (2413) involved in what one may call a "dog fight" of sorts as they battled it out forehand smash to forehand smash as Jiachen takes it in 4 grueling sets. Keith Alban (2414) silently made it thru the men's draw as the number two seed deposing of two Texas Weslyan players in succession: Jared Lynch (2312) and Jiachen Wang (2413) until matching up with number one seed, Eric Owens. The men's final saw Eric Owens from Texas Weslyan University, facing the fan favorite and underdog Keith Alban from Florida Atlantic University. With Keith going up 12-10 and 11-7 and the crowd of more than 50 behind him; this writer was sure an upset was bound to happen, but the door wasn't completely closed and Owens crept back in and would eventually tie up the match at 2 a piece and beat Alban in the 5th to take the Men's National Title winning a Newgy Robo Pong in the process.

Special thanks goes to sponsors Newgy for the barriers, NATT for the use of the tables, USATT, ACUI, NCTTA, Thrifty Rental Cars, Best Western Garden Court and Citybeach Fremont for their hospitality as well as countless volunteers for the event.

Mixed Doubles:
1) Eric Owens/Biba Golic (TWU)
2) Keith Alban/Beata Wronska (FAU)

Women's Doubles:
1) Biba Golic/Sabrina Worrell (TWU)
2) Beata Wronska (Florida Atlantic Univ.) & Bogi Masters (Augusta State Univ)

Men's Doubles:
1) Keith Alban/Richard Ciz (Florida Atlantic University)
2) Vineet Agarwal/William Liu (UCLA)

Men's Championship Division
1st Eric Owens (TWU); 2nd Keith Alban (Florida Atlantic Univ); 3rd Jiachen Wang (TWU); 4th Richard Ciz (Florida Atlantic University)

Men's Elite Division
1) Venkatosh Ranganath (Kansas State University
2) Gunnar Seiber (Univ. of Arizona)

Men's Masters Division
1) Dennis Coppola (Northeastern University)
2) Sanjin Osmancevic (Northeastern University)

Men's Expert Division
1) Konda Reddy (Virginia Tech)
2) Tom Latimer (University of Colorado at Co. Springs)

Women's Championship Division
1) Biba Golic (TWU);
2) Michelle Do (Santa Clara Univ);
3) Sabrina Worrell (TWU);
4) Bogi Masters (Augusta State)

Women's Elite Division
1) Wan-Yin Chang (Virginia Tech);
2) Shelley Lee (UC Davis)

Women's Expert Division
1) Mai Trinh (St. Cloud State University)
2) Liz Wilkes (University of West Florida)