Joel Lidstrom, Press Committee Member

Among the myriad matches going on around me, one catches my eye. MIT defensive specialist Sophie Wu, twiddling smooth black and long-pipped red rubber, had lost the first two games to Virginia's Jie Lu. Finally poised to take a game and gain some momentum, Wu is up 9-5. But Lu's succession of tremendous smashes on high chops, followed by missed Wu chops on easy loops, brings Lu back to 8-9.

Sensing victory, Lu's pressure forces a weak defensive shot sure to miss the table and tie the score. But no! Luck intervenes. Wu's chop clips the top of net for a winner, propelling her to the next point and the game.

With a match score of 2-1, Wu redoubles her chopping intensity, and her twiddling begins to force errors. Lu is missing high "put-away" balls, and floating pushes as Wu now becomes the attacker.
Recognizing that she had lost confidence in her attacking, Lu abruptly changes her strategy. Instead of attacking early and intensely, she loops and pushes carefully, waiting five, six, seven shots before getting one she trusts to smash. The strategy succeeds, and leads to an MIT timeout, with Virginia up 8-6.

Wu then catches a little luck once again: an unforced error from Lu, Lu’s blown serve, and a pips edge ball evens the score at 9-all. Can Wu eke out yet another tortured win?

After Wu’s tremendous, chopped save out wide that comes to naught, Lu's power smash gives her match point. But she misses the smash! Did she just invite a fifth and deciding game?

Not a chance. Lu's hotly played point with smashes and a nifty counter-smash returns her to match point. With a high and short chop from Wu, Lu ends it with a thunderous forehand.

Happy but relieved, Lu told me, "I knew I had to change my tactics. I became conservative, hitting safe loops and pushes, and waiting way longer to finish the point.”
It was indeed, the perfect tactic.

(Pictured here is Jie Lu of Virginia. Photo credit by Dennis Yanga)

About 2024 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships
The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Visit Eau Claire CVB. The event will feature: Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams.
PongSpace, Joola, the US Coast Guard, Visit Eau Claire and Bluestone Designs sponsor the event.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 12th on http://www.nctta.org/champs/2024/video.html

About NCTTA
The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively to promote 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 competitions throughout North America. www.nctta.org