Ohlone's Ying Wang Takes Women's Singles Title
Pictured above is Ying Wang accepting her award from NCTTA's Kevin Li and Sam Huang
By Brent Hearn
The women’s singles final pit two of the dominant players of the tournament against one another: Ohlone College’s Ying Wang and Texas Wesleyan University’s Anastasia Rybka.
Wang served first and took the first three points. Rybka was able to claw her way back into the game, but it wasn’t enough, and she dropped the first game 9-11.
Game Two started off in similar fashion and then some. Wang jumped to a 4-0 lead this time, leaving Rybka a deep hole to dig her way out of. Rybka’s shots were finding their way into the net far too often, though, and Wang simply refused to make mistakes. Wang took the second game 11-3.
Game Three began as a replay of the second, with Wang again taking a 4-0 lead. Just as in Game One, however, Rybka was able to will herself back into the match, tying up the score at 6-6. She was able to up the quality and consistency of her play, and the two were locked into a dead heat, staying within a point of each other until Wang pulled ahead 10-8. Wang took the game 11-9, and Rybka had a monumental task ahead of her if she wanted to salvage her shot at the title.
Rybka clearly wasn’t going to give up easily; the fourth game was the first that saw her open with the lead. At 5-5, neither woman wanted to give ground. Rybka ratcheted up her level of aggression, and it paid dividends. In no time, the two players found themselves in a dogfight, with Rybka pulling ahead, only to see Wang catch up.
Wang had match point at 10-9, but Rybka answered with two straight points to gain her first game point. Wang got it back to deuce, and then it was point for point. Rybka took the game 14-12 to avoid the sweep.
Wang served to start Game Five, and the two players split her serve. Rybka had found her rhythm and clearly had no intention of going softly. Wang wasn’t about to let up, though, and Rybka soon found herself at a 6-2 disadvantage.
Rybka managed to take three more points off Wang, but Wang grabbed what she came for and took the game, the match, and the championship with an 11-5 score in the fifth. Though she gave a champion’s effort in the latter part of the match, Rybka just could not find a way to overcome Wang’s rock-solid play. The final score was 11-9, 11-3, 11-9, 12-14, 11-5. Congratulations to our NEW Women's Singles Champion in a well deserved win.
The 2016 TMS College Table Tennis Championships is hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock 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 TMS International, Gerflor, Double Fish, and Joola.
Players and spectators alike will enjoy a jam-packed weekend of table tennis at the TMS College Table Tennis Championships. The event starts Friday March 25th and continues through Sunday March 27th at the Round Rock Sports Center
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