Photo of Sergio (left) and Erik (right), photo credit to Grant Bergmann.

By Shaquila Sarapao, Guest writer
NCTTA media

The Sung Sisters

One set of siblings comes in the form of twin sisters Joanna and Rachel Sung from UCLA. With one being right-handed and the other left-handed, they make the perfect doubles pair. The Sung sisters have pushed each other to the limit, motivating the other to work harder. Joanna tells me, “I feel like she [Rachel] pushes me a lot in practice, possibly because she hits the ball really wide because she finds it funny to see me struggle, but I have seen immense improvement on my footwork from that.”

But as all siblings do, they fight—even during their doubles matches. “I feel like our arguments have taught us to put aside personal matters on the court and just focus on winning the match,” Joanna says. Through the arguments, they are each other’s support system. They hope that this year, their UCLA Women’s team will take home the gold.

The Pulido Brothers
Similar to the Sung sisters, brothers Sergio and Erik Pulido (DBU) have a very positive and supportive relationship, focused on helping each other out rather than competing about who is better. One notable difference about these two, compared to other sibling athletes, is that Erik is the coach for DBU while Sergio is a student athlete under him.

Sergio expresses that his brother, Erik, has been a key player to his success, noting that his brother’s support has been a significant source of confidence and mental fortitude in this sport. Both DBU brothers were inspired by their older brother who played for Columbia in 2012. Sergio’s goal this year at nationals is to make it through the round robin and into the top 32 players.

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