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2003 ACUI and NCTTA College Championships

 

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ACUI National College Championships

Association of College Unions International

Philadelphia, PA · March 28, 2003

By Larry Hodges

The annual ACUI College Championships were held in conjunction with the both the Quaker City Open and the National College Table Tennis Association Team Championships at the Pottruck Recreation Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The event, run by North American Table Tennis (NATT) with 75 players, started and finished on the Friday before the Quaker City Open and NCTTA Teams.

It was pre-ordained, just like last year, that Texas Wesleyan College would dominate in men’s singles – after all, they had the top three seeds in Eric Owens (2620), Courtney Roberts (2402) and Russell Hamilton (2272). Hamilton was upset in the quarterfinals by inverted penholder John Mar, -8,9,10,8. Mar plays his backhand almost exclusively with a reverse penhold backhand stroke, something you see more and more on the world-class level, but something you don’t see too often in the U.S. yet.

In the semifinals, Roberts also had his troubles with Mar, but won 8,9,8. Owens coasted over Sandeep Mahat, 3,3,3.

In the final, practice partners Owens and Roberts played for the title, with Eric winning the first two easily, and coming back from down 9-4 to win the third 12-10. Owens and Roberts would romp through Men’s Doubles, and defeat fellow Texas Wesleyan players Hamilton and Orin Hickerson in the final, 5,8,9.

On the women’s side, Michelle Do breezed through the draw, defeating Laura Leach in the semifinals, 5,-8,8,5, while former Hungarian Boglarka Masters (who met husband Brian Masters when both played in the Swedish Leagues) was struggling with Marta Batrzyk before coming back to win, 8,-3,-7,6,5. Coach/husband Brian (himself the 1983 Pan Am Men’s Singles Gold Medalist – how many remember that?) said that it’s not easy for her to compete with her training regimen of playing about once per year for the past three years. In the final, the first two games were close, but there was nothing she could do to Do to master her, herself a bit rusty, 9,9,5. “The hardest part is studying for finals and still finding time to practice and go to tournaments,” Do said. “That’s why I missed the USA Team Trials last week.”

For Masters, it was the third straight year that she’d lost in the final – in 2002, she lost to Jasna Reed; in 2001, she’d lost to Kyna Fong – from up 20-16 match point!

Masters would get some consolation by teaming up with Mar to win Mixed Doubles over Batrzyk and Yongqiang Zhang, -9,5,9,5. Do and partner Ying Xiong would win Women’s Doubles over Masters and Liz Wilkes, 7,8,7.

Special thanks goes to sponsor Newgy, to University of Pennsylvania, to ACUI Table Tennis Director Hank McCoullum, and NATT for running the event.

Men’s Singles – Final: Eric Owens d. Courtney Roberts, 6,4,10; SF: Owens d. Sandeep Mahat, 3,3,3; Roberts d. John Mar, 8,9,8; QF: Owens d. Robert Cuckler, 8,9,9; Mahat d. Puneet Khurna, 10,9,7; Mar d. Russell Hamilton, -8,9,10,8; Roberts d. Chandramouli Shankaren, 9,9,7.

Men’s Doubles: Eric Owens/Courtney Roberts d. Russell Hamilton/Orin Hickerson, 5,8,9.

Women’s Singles – Final: Michelle Do d. Boglarka Masters, 9,9,5; SF: Do d. Laura Leach, 5,-8,8,5; Masters d. Marta Batrzyk, 8,-3,-7,6,5.

Women’s Doubles: Michelle Do/Ying Xiong d. Boglarka Masters/Liz Wilkes, 7,8,7

Mixed Doubles: Boglarka Masters/John Mar d. Marta Batrzyk/Yongqiang Zhang, -9,5,9,5.

Men’s Elite Division 1: Orin Hickerson d. Ernesto Kawamoto, -8,10,8,9.

Men’s Elite Division 2: Casey Ching d. Aaron Aboagye, 9,7,-9,-9,7. 

Men’s Elite Division 3: Yongqiang Zhang d. Andrew Belinfanti-Knight, 7,9,7.

Women’s Elite Division 1: Liz Wilkes d. Lillian Fasman, 7,7,4.

Women’s Elite Division 2: Ting Sun d. Lucy Chen, 4,8,4.

National College Table Tennis Association Team Championships

University of Illinois Emerges as Champions

Philadelphia, PA · March 30, 2003

By Aik-Ping Ng, Public Relations Director, NCTTA  

In a championship tournament of unprecedented intensity, University of Illinois emerged as champions, winning the hotly contested NCTTA Team Championships title for the second year in a row. The event was held at Pottruck Health and Fitness Center in University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, on March 30, 2003, during a weekend of world-class table tennis displays in three separate competitions all at the same location. As the winner, Illinois walked away with the championship trophy and a Robo-Pong system, courtesy of Newgy Industries.

Illinois beat Harvard relatively easily in the final round, 3-0. The first singles match was by far the most competitive. Bob Cuckler of Illinois edged out Silas Xu of Harvard -9,9,-9,9,3. The second and third singles match saw Kai Fischbach and Xidong Xu of Illinois beating their opponents, Bertold Mueller and Boaz Tirosh of Harvard, 3-1 and 3-0, respectively. The road to the Final was rough for both teams as each met stiff resistance from their respective semifinalist opponents. In semifinal one, Harvard beat Indiana 3-2. The last decisive doubles match had to be played, with Mueller and Xu of Harvard edging out Gunduz and Algaa of Indiana, 6,6,-11,-10,6.  In semifinal two, Illinois beat Johns Hopkins 3-1. The four semifinalist teams were first and second in their respective Groups A and B round robins.

In this year’s NCTTA season, divisional champions from 10 divisions around the country converged at University of Pennsylvania to compete in the Team Championships. The 2002-2003 season, which began on October 5 last year, saw the participation of table-tennis teams from 65 colleges, up from 57 in the 2001-2002 season. The universities represented in each division faced their divisional opponents at least twice, with the winner of each division advancing to the Team Championships.

Indeed, NCTTA has witnessed phenomenal growth in the number of member schools and divisions since its inception in 1992. Khoi Than, outgoing NCTTA president who also represented John Hopkins in this year’s tournament, discusses his views about the future of NCTTA, “My hope is for NCTTA to continue this expansion, as this will ensure the organization’s status as a truly national and autonomous association.” Willy Leparulo, NCTTA Recruitment Director and Florida Division Director, has been working hard to realize this goal. “We are now concentrating on consolidating our efforts to expand into regions that have yet to be represented. Look for NCTTA to be branching out into the Southwest as well as starting a division in Canada!”

One of the major challenges NCTTA is determined to overcome in the years to come is the lack of publicity and attention given to table tennis as a sport in the United States. Presently, table tennis is the most under-represented sport in the collegiate arena and the officers are looking to change that. Zhiyong Zhou, New York City Division Director and captain of the Columbia Team, who came in third in this year’s Group B lineup, says, “We are working hard with the Athletics Department at Columbia to receive more recognition, funding and space accessibility.” Meanwhile, many of the teams are actively recruiting new members, and training them for next year’s season. Jack Wu, president of Univ. of Pennsylvania Table Tennis, who is also the incoming NCTTA vice president, says, “Our club team is very international in composition. The current member count is 30+, and increasing. This is an extremely positive sign of growth of our club.”

The NCTTA 2003-2004 season starts in the fall of this year. Given the rapid expansion of collegiate table tennis to other regions of the country, next year’s season promises to be more exciting and competitive than before. We would like to thank our official corporate sponsors Newgy Industries and Paddle Palace for their continuous support and generous contributions. For the latest information about NCTTA and detailed scores of the tournament, please log on to www.nctta.org. 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. 

 

GROUP A

Division Title

A

B

C

D

E

Record

Finish

A

 Johns Hopkins University

 Mid-Atlantic Division Champion

---

1-3

3-2

3-2

3-0

3-1

2

B

 Harvard University

 New England Division Champion

3-1

---

3-2

3-1

3-1

4-0

1

C

 University of Florida

 Florida Division Champion

2-3

2-3

---

3-1

3-1

2-2

3

D

 Virginia Polytechnic Univ.

 Virginia Division Champion

2-3

1-3

1-3

---

2-3

0-4

5

E

 California State Univ. Fresno

 *California Division Runner-Up

0-3

1-3

1-3

3-2

---

1-3

4

 

GROUP B

Division Title

A

B

C

D

E

Record

Finish

A

 Univ. of Illinois

 Midwest Division Champion

---

3-0

3-0

3-1

3-0

4-0

1

B

 Columbia University

 New York City Division Champion

0-3

---

2-3

3-1

3-1

2-2

3

C

 Indiana University

 Ohio-Indiana Division Champion

0-3

3-2

---

3-1

3-0

3-1

2

D

 Univ. of Pennsylvania

 Host

1-3

1-3

1-3

---

3-0

1-3

4

E

Queens University

 Upstate New York Division Champion

0-3

1-3

0-3

0-3

---

0-4

5

   *Division Champion Northwest Polytechnic University was unable to attend

Semifinals

Harvard University d. Indiana University, 3-2

University of Illinois d. Johns Hopkins University, 3-1

Final

University of Illinois d. Harvard University, 3-0

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