Shaquila Sarapao, Press Committee Member

Eau Claire, Wisconsin, has been a mainstay location for NCTTA. This year marks their third year hosting the collegiate national tournament, the past years being in 2015 and 2017. As the host, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire sent in a team of four that turned into a three-person Coed team.

Their president Carter Tacke, a senior majoring in Information Systems, notes their excitement to be hosting. Tacke says, “This has been a really cool opportunity to play people with such a higher skill level than us, and it’s a really good learning opportunity.” He has been leading the club and, although not the biggest organization on their campus, is pleased at the amount of people showing up to their practices.

In their first matchup, they played against eleven-seed Cornell University. Porter Ball, another senior who is majoring in International Business, was able to hold his ground during his match. Ball kept up with the pace and stayed level-headed during the intense rallies. However, it was not enough as he was defeated 0-3. Despite the loss, he was very satisfied at how he played today. “At the start, I was a little bit nervous. I had some fans watching me and as the home team, you want to do well… I had some good points. He had some good points, and overall, it was a good match.”

Leading up to the tournament, besides practicing, they reviewed game highlights on Youtube and watched trick shots and best smashes of all time to motivate themselves.

UWEC played again in the Consolations bracket and lost to Boston University 1-3.

(Featured in photo are members of UWEC's table tennis team. Photo credit to 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