(Adar Alguetti and Yijun "Tom" Feng above in the doubles that won it for NYU in 2018)

By Michael Reff

NCTTA Media Committee

The time for predicting the winner of the coed teams’ event, the highlight of the NCTTA champs April 12-14 in Greensboro, NC, is upon us. With each year, there is fiercer competition from an ever-expanding group of schools. In the past, Texas Wesleyan (TWU) has garnered an amazing 13 national coed teams’ titles, but now there are new contenders on the horizon. The top six schools coming into the champs this year are Mississippi College, TWU, NYU, Berkeley, UC Davis, and UC Irvine. NYU won last year’s acclaimed title, and Mississippi has played several times in the finals, winning once in 2015.

There are several possible upset schools such as Duke, USC, and UT Austin. Pillar college is also one such school because they have two players rated around 2700 and 2400, and two players that are below 1000. Due to the beauty of team play, any school with two highly rated players and two lower rated players could try and win at least two teams’ singles’ matches, ultimately a deciding doubles match. If these schools play their cards right and practice for singles as well as doubles play, there could be a new national titleholder!

Joseph Wells, NCTTA Vice President adds, “Every year outlasts the other in terms of competitiveness and this year is no different. We expect to see an incredible competition unfold at the Championships.”  

So, here’s to rooting for your favorite team, in loudnproud fashion, and let’s hope for a nail-biting tiebreaking deciding match to leave it all on the table!

The 2019 iSET College Table Tennis Championships is hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and Sports & Properties Inc. and Greensboro CVB and is one of the premier table tennis tournaments in North America featuring 6 events: Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams.  The event is sponsored by iSET, Double Happiness, SPI, Greensboro CVB, Double Fish and USA Table Tennis

Players and spectators alike will enjoy a jam-packed weekend of table tennis at the iSET College Table Tennis Championships. The event starts Friday April 12th and continues through Sunday April 14th.

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 intercollegiate competition throughout North America. www.nctta.org

About USA Table Tennis

Headquartered in Colorado Springs, USATT is the national organizing body for table tennis in the United States, serving 9,000+ members and nearly 300 clubs. USATT sanctions 200+ events a year including the US Open and US Nationals. USATT is affiliated with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), as well as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). www.usatt.org