NCTTA's scholarship program has been developed to give deserving table tennis athletes the opportunity for financial support while pursuing a college education. With original support from Newgy Industries and now from the HSING Family Foundation and other NCTTA Alumni, NCTTA is able to award a limited number of College Table Tennis Athletes these awards. We would like to highlight one of the criteria on community service that requires meaningful involvement in service activities that positively impact others within the table tennis community.

First, a hearty congratulations to our winners Angie Tan (UCLA), Rachel Ou and Sushant Lebaka (UPenn), Bella Xu (UNC) and James Good (Penn State). We salute you for your efforts within our greater table tennis community!

Applicants are typically expected to document their role, hours, and the impact of their service, showing a genuine commitment to giving back beyond personal competitive achievements. Let's dive into some of the more unique accomplishments!

Angie Tan from UCLA was a cofounder of the LA chapter of a 501c nonprofit organization called Ping Pong Parkinson's LA (https://www.pingpongparkinsonla.com/). Angie, together with Joanna Sung (fellow UCLA student and NCTTA player), both with a strong passion for medicine and table tennis, decided to connect their strengths for this organization to help the discovery towards an effective therapeutic treatment for Parkinson's disease. A welcoming community where all Parkinson's patients can be together and have fun was created!

UPenn’s Sushant Lebaka and Rachel Ou were busy this year participating in NCTTA Committee's in Press and World University games. Additionally, they were part of UPenn's first free group coaching program and the local chapter of Ping Pong Parkinson's as well!

Bella Xu from UNC Chapel Hill leveraged college table tennis as a platform to promote neurological health and community engagement! Xu is a cofounder and President of the North Carolina Youth Table Tennis Association (NCYTTA) (https://ncytta.wixsite.com/ncytta) and also received a fellowship from UNC, and with those resources, she helped to develop table tennis programming in senior communities that centers on brain health initiatives.

For more information on NCTTA's scholarship click here: https://nctta.org/scholarship/

By Michael Reff
Press Committee Chair

Congratulations are in order to Round Rock, Texas, as they are set to host the NCTTA Championships for a record-breaking 5th and 6th time at their beloved venue! Everything is bigger in Texas, and it is only fitting that they are the hosts with the most Champs.

Ms. Nancy Yawn of the Round Rock Conventions and Visitors Bureau had this to say about the news:

“We are thrilled that the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association has selected Round Rock, the Sports Capital of Texas, for this exciting multi-year partnership through 2028. Hosting these tournaments brings a dynamic collegiate atmosphere to our community while also driving meaningful economic impact, from hotel stays to dining and local attractions. We look forward to welcoming student-athletes, families, and fans from across the country.”

NCTTA is looking forward to the continuation of this fruitful partnership with Round Rock.

See you there April 9-11, 2027!

By Michael Reff
Press Committee Chair

Fresh from last night with a wonderful shindig,
Where great food was had, and athletes celebrated,
Now to last day of Champs, volunteers tired but elated.
Singles showcased a close race Men’s and Women’s went the distance.

First we had Women’s Kelly Yenn of Harvard,
Defending her title from Columbia’s Rachel Wang,
Both equal parts passionate, skilled and very strong,
Yenn ultimately closed the match out, 2nd Singles secured.

On the Men’s side, an all-California school clash transpired.
Victor Xie of Cal Poly vs UC Berkeley’s Ved Sheth,
The cheering was deafening, the shots took away breath,
Again 7th game decider, Xie clinched it, then donned One Piece attire!

While all this was happening, in background, and foreground,
The volunteers were very focused and diligent,
Jobs had to be done and time of the essence,
Commencing and finishing an event breakdown.

So let’s bask in college pong glory days and share a laugh,
Remember this moment, remember the feeling,
And as you scroll through all the pong Highlight reeling
Let’s honor the champions, let’s honor unpaid staff.

Featured in photos are 2 time NCTTA Women's Singles and 2026 Double's Champion Kelly Yenn, and 2026 Men's Singles Champion Victor Xie. Photo credit to Robert He.

About 2026 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams and Collegiate Peakapong Singles.

PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Major League Table Tennis, Nittaku and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.

Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 10th on https://www.nctta.org/champs/2026/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

By Luke Scotchie
NCTTA Press Committee Member

Rockford, IL — Several student-athletes signed up for the PeakaPong Singles Tournament, the final event of the NCTTA Championships 2026. This co-ed tournament had a similar rulebook to most other Singles events, without many striking differences.

Except for the rackets these players strike the ball with.

The rackets each player grips aren’t covered in rubber, but rather an array of small holes carved into its wooden face. Players smack a much larger ball using these unique rackets, creating a distinct echo. It sounds like a table tennis ball hitting the bottom of a well after a long descent, which fits the much slower rallies these rackets induce.

At first glance, an onlooker could mistake this racket for a pickleball paddle. That’s by design. The PeakaPong paddle was invented to allow its wielders to “perform with the thrill of pickleball and the precision of ping pong.” That precision is what makes table tennis so captivating to play, but difficult to ace. So many skills are required for a player to excel at table tennis, including a mastery of the weapon they use. PeakaPong aims to rid newer players of that barrier of entry, and force the already-elite players to learn a brand-new game altogether.

“If [new players] play against Sid [Naresh] and them, they can’t compete,” said PeakaPong shareholder Thomas Hu. “But in this game, people who play pickleball, people who play tennis, actually have an advantage playing this sport.”

For a seasoned table tennis player, learning this new game isn’t easy. The ball moves downward when smacked with this racket, an obstacle some players navigate by attempting to hit it from underneath. There’s no spin. No pips. None of the features that most players have spent years getting used to. It’s as simple as a block of wood and some holes, which makes for a very complex style of table tennis.

“Most people I saw today, they were just playing it safe,” said Livia Belem Rangel De Carvalho, a freshman at the University of Central Florida who competed in this year’s PeakaPong Singles Tournament. “Because if you try to hit it hard, it’s mostly not going to work.”

These paddles have caused a racket throughout this year’s NCTTA Championships, which could be for the final time. PeakaPong intends to unveil a new racket in the near future, one with a larger surface area, a longer handle and a more angular perimeter. That may sound more like a pickleball paddle than a table tennis racket, but the racket holds a similar weight as the one players use this year. They hope this new racket can enable its wielders to fall in love with either sport more easily.

That was why PeakaPong created its racket to begin with. It’s a racket intended for a game that weds the two sports in what onlookers and participants alike hope to be a long, healthy marriage.

“I just thought it was really cool,” Belem Rangel De Carvalho said. “I hope they do it again next year.”

Featured in the photo is current PeakaPong racket. Photo credit to Dennis Yanga.

About 2026 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and

Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams and Collegiate Peakapong Singles.

PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Major League Table Tennis, Nittaku and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.

Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 10th on https://www.nctta.org/champs/2026/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

By Emily Zhao
NCTTA Press Committee Member

Everyone in American table tennis knows the Naresh brothers, Nandan and Sid. Hailing from the Greater Chicago Area, the Nareshes are fixtures on U.S. National Teams and represent America at a huge number of international events. Sid was a member of the Berkeley squad that won Co-ed teams last year. What not as many people may know is their family legacy in NCTTA.

Nandan and Sid’s father, Arcot Naresh, has served as NCTTA’s Upper Midwest Division Director since 2015. In India, where he grew up, Naresh played table tennis in high school and college. He took a twenty-year break after immigrating to the States, but returned to the sport in 2010 when some work colleagues asked him to play. This led to competing at a local club and inducting Sid and Nandan into the sport. The rest is history.

“I wish I’d known about [NCTTA] when I was in [school at Iowa],” Naresh said. “I would’ve gotten involved.” In India, he said, many schools have tables and teams. Even if people don’t play seriously, they take the sport seriously. There was no equivalent to NCTTA, however, “nothing as well-organized as this.” And Naresh knows what it takes: for ten years he has run his division of six to seven schools with just one additional volunteer. “I’ve worked twenty-five years in my life,” he said, “and the day of Divisionals is probably the hardest I’ve ever worked.”

When he’s not playing, spectating, or organizing table tennis, Naresh works as a software architect. Over the last two years, he’s begun doing start-ups, including video analysis software for coaching. It’s pickleball for now, but he hopes to add table tennis next. He doesn’t have thoughts on World Table Tennis’s TTR technology yet, but maybe someday we’ll see his version in a WTT stadium alongside his sons.

About 2026 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and

Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams and Collegiate Peakapong Singles.

PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Major League Table Tennis, Nittaku and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.

Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 10th on https://www.nctta.org/champs/2026/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

By Michael Reff
Press Committee Chair

Right away I could tell that Piquet Thengtrirat was happy to be back in an NCTTA Championships. Initially observing him interact with NCTTA President Willy Leparulo from afar, the current Yale graduate student’s amiable and jubilant nature was infectious.

Thengtrirat’s table tennis journey started in his homeland of Chiang Mai, Thailand. Several years of practice and training helped him hone his skills.

Later, at 17 years old, he left for a boarding high school in New Mexico in a town 3 hours from Albuquerque. Thengtrirat encountered the reality of USA table tennis that many American players experience: basement ping pong.

However, his impression of table tennis in the States changed upon his attendance at Washington and Lee University in Virginia.

“I always wanted to go back to ping pong,” Thengrirat said.

Well, ask and you shall receive! There he became acquainted with Willy and NCTTA, eventually making it to his first champs during Rochester, MN in 2008.
Life got in the way after those undergrad years, and Thengtrirat left for Japan to pursue an MBA, where he devoted his time to his studies, then work, and competitive table tennis went on the backburner.

“After my first NCTTA tournament experience in 2008, I only got to play casually every now and then,” Thengtrirat said, reflecting on his ponging hiatus.
But as we all know, the itch to play table tennis is too hard not to scratch…

After working 10 years back in his native Thailand, he decided to go back to the US to work in a travel technology company in Connecticut. When 2025 came around, the itch had completely reemerged in both his career goals and table tennis aspirations. Thengtrirat returned to school at Yale University to major in a one-year master’s degree in Advanced Management.
He decided to give NCTTA another shot. Making it onto the team, Thengtrirat participated in both Fall and Spring divisionals, and eventually with his team made it to the Nationals!

Looking back on those initial college pong years, Thengtrirat marvels at NCTTA’s humble volunteer numbers and player quality compared to this year. “The level, the quality of the players… has risen drastically,” he noted. “Table tennis as a sport has grown in popularity.”

He also observed that in 2008 the Champs had a mere 40 volunteers as opposed to a commanding 100 plus unpaid staff for this iteration of Rockford.

Leparulo was very happy to have Thengtrirat return. “I love to see people come back to the sport, because it means we made a good impression on them at a younger age.”

Thengtrirat reflected with a fresh perspective on the difference between his youth in table tennis as opposed to the present. During his early days, he said, I was “so focused on [the] result.” Now it’s different. “The right mindset, we want to have a good time. The result is we do our best, get to make some new friends. By having fun that is the only way you want to continue.”

Wise words from one full of intention and passion. Congrats to Piquet Thengtrirat and the Yale team on strong finishes, and we at NCTTA always welcome new and returning players with open arms!

Photo of Yale's Piquet Thengtrirat in action at the 2026 Rockford NCTTA Champs. Photo credit to Dennis Yanga

About 2026 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams and Collegiate Peakapong Singles.

PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Major League Table Tennis, Nittaku and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.

Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 10th on https://www.nctta.org/champs/2026/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

By Michael Reff
Press Committee Chair

Day 2 of Champs if you’re in the know,
Coed and Women’s teams put on the greatest shows!
With the Women’s end of things, there was close competition.
Several down-to-the wire doubles would yield the decision.

In semis, NYU vs. Harvard, former fought back from a deficit,
From 0-2 in decider to 3-2 was the end of it.
They met defending champs UCLA, who had a smoother course
To arrive at the finals, now a battle was in store!

Yet another double’s decider would deliver the winner.
UCLA vs. NYU 3-2, getting trophy with dinner!
For the Coed side, the winningest team,
Texas Wesleyan added a 16th title to their ponging dream.

Defeating 3-1 defending champs UC Berkeley,
They fought with gumption and cheers, showing who was worthy.
A wonderful day for fans, volunteers, and players,
For who wins tomorrow? Consult the ponging soothsayers!

Featured in pics are Women's and Coed's Teams Champs UCLA and Texas Wesleyan respectively. Photo credit to Dennis Yanga.

About 2026 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams and Collegiate Peakapong Singles.

PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Major League Table Tennis, Nittaku and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.

Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 10th on https://www.nctta.org/champs/2026/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

By Emily Zhao
NCTTA Press Committee Member

Thirteen hours after a late Women’s Doubles final, NYU’s Tiffany Ke and Yuyao Lu found themselves facing Harvard’s Kelly Yenn and Hannah Song again, this time in tiebreak for a Women’s Team semifinal.

Yenn and Song won Friday’s final 3-1. Song anchored solid front-table coverage; Yenn’s topspin smothered the first set and secured hinge points in the tight second. NYU punched back in the fourth set off a few of Song’s mishits, but on rotation, Yenn regained enough offensive rhythm to grind out the match 11-8, assisted by key offensive ventures from Song, including several singing backhand counters.

Ke and Lu entered the rematch having discussed new tactics. “We were playing a bit messy, it wasn’t really well thought out,” Ke said. “[Today] we came in with a plan, fixed our receives and placement, and that changed up the whole match dynamic.” Revenge did not seem guaranteed: Ke and Lu went down 0-2 again, with Song taking more initiative on returns and offense. Lu’s initiative on the ad side and a timeout at 9-8 cinched the third set; deep pushes, sidespun and cross-court placements, and scrappy returns limited Harvard’s winners enough for NYU to eke the last two sets to a photo 11-9 finish.

“It was really just nailing down the serve return,” Ke said after. “Because as long as we can get them to have a weak third ball, we can capitalize on that… It’s our first time pairing, so I feel like we’ve been improving really fast.” The biggest thing with doubles, they said, is making your partner comfortable. “[I]nstead of receiving it like you’d normally receive,” Ke said, “you think, how can I receive it so that my partner feels like it’s their game and playing to each other’s strengths.”

Asked what he advised at 0-2, NYU coach Gao Yanjun demurred: “I didn’t tell them anything. Everything is great. Everyone is playing the right things.” Earlier, Gao coached Ke back from a 0-2 deficit over Toronto’s Yuwen Jiang in Coed Teams. The key in such moments, Gao said, is “[b]e confident, as a coach, I cannot give them too much things. Just be confident. Every point you fight. That’s it.”

NYU fought valiantly but eventually succumbed to UCLA in the Women's Team finals in yet another thrilling tie-breaking doubles match.

Featured in the photo are NYU's Tiffany Ke and Yuyao Lu (Photo credit to Dennis Yanga).

About 2026 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams and Collegiate Peakapong Singles.

PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Major League Table Tennis, Nittaku and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.

Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 10th on https://www.nctta.org/champs/2026/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

By Luke Scotchie
NCTTA Press Committee Member

ROCKFORD, Ill. — Nikhil Kumar leaps from his seat behind Table 2 and claps his hands. He wears a navy UC Berkeley shirt that resembles the uniforms Sid Naresh and Jerry Fung wore in Friday's Men’s Doubles semifinal match. Kumar's shirt has a major difference, though, and it’s especially noticeable when he advises his former teammates in between games. The word “CHAMPION” reaches from shoulderblade to shoulderblade in gold letters, a not-so-subtle reminder of the legacy he left behind at UC Berkeley last year.

Champion of what? Take your pick. He’s the reigning Men’s Singles champion at the NCTTA Championships. He and Naresh earned the Men’s Doubles trophy in 2025. He was the key piece of UC Berkeley’s Coed Teams-winning powerhouse that same year. UC Berkeley won three of a possible five events last season, and Kumar’s fingerprints were all over those trophies.

He’s since graduated from UC Berkeley, but that hasn’t stopped him from attending the 2026 NCTTA Championships. He’s serving his school this year as a coach, dispensing championship-winning wisdom to a new-look UC Berkeley team that he hasn’t fully left yet.

“[My] team spirit’s always going to be there for sure,” Kumar said. “[I’m] trying to support them, trying to start some sort of a continuation from the results I was able to produce last year, and hopefully have the team continue those results.”

That team is grateful to have Kumar on the sidelines. He earned much of his success by seeing every game several steps ahead, and they felt it was impressive how he managed to stay in the present while thinking about future points.

Now, he no longer has to perform that balancing act, which means the players he coaches don’t have to, either.

“He’s a tactical genius,” Naresh said. “As a player, when we play doubles, he’s always telling me what to do. So as a coach, when he’s just fully analyzing the match, he does a really good job of explaining what to do.”

Kumar doesn’t think they need his advice, though. He was there when many of those players won the Coed Teams championship last year, and he knows that win was no fluke.

“I don’t feel I need to dispel any wisdom onto Sid, and Ved, and the rest of our teammates,” Kumar said. “I feel like we have that understanding already; we’re kind of already on the same page in a sense, but [I’m] there to kind of just be moral support.”

That moral support seems to be working. Naresh and Fung won the Men’s Doubles title on Friday. They earned an automatic bye in the Coed Teams Tournament, and their dreams of repeating as champions appear very realistic as of Saturday morning. UC Berkeley is on pace to continue its dominant run at the NCTTA Championships, without the star of last year’s show competing with them.

Well, he’s still competing with them. He’s just clapping and cheering from the sidelines.

Featured in pic is dedicated and decorated California alum Nikhil Kumar coaching his former teammates with positive vibes (Photo credits to Dennis Yanga)

About 2026 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams and Collegiate Peakapong Singles.

PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Major League Table Tennis, Nittaku and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.

Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 10th on https://www.nctta.org/champs/2026/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

By Willy Leparulo
NCTTA Press Committee Guest Writer

In an incredible day of competition at the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association championships, both the Men’s and Women’s Doubles brackets delivered high-level play and dramatic rallies from top collegiate programs across the country.

The spotlight now turns to the finals, where UPRA #9 seed has surged through the bracket and faced a formidable opponent in the University of California, Berkeley #2 seed. UPRA’s doubles teams displayed exceptional coordination and chemistry all showcase in their 3-1 win vs juggernaut and #1 seeds, Texas Wesleyan University Senura Silva and Jonatan McDonald.

The #2 seed California, consisting of MLTT star, Sid Naresh and unknown California lefty, Jerry Fung has only dropped 1 game en route to the Men’s doubles finals. California proved true to their ranking and defeated the Puerto Rican Upstarts 3-1 in a thrilling championship match featuring lefty righty combinations from both pairs. Congrats to California!

On the other side of the bracket, Harvard University delivered a commanding performance against New York University, securing a decisive victory in Women’s Doubles play. Harvard’s doubles duo, led by Hong Kong international Kelly Yenn and US based junior Hannah Song, defeated the NYU duo 3-1.

As the tournament heads into its final stage, all eyes will be on the championship team matches where both doubles finals have foreshadowed potential doubles clashes. Fans and competitors alike can expect a high-energy finale that captures the spirit and intensity of NCTTA competition.

Featured in photo are 2026 NCTTA Women's Doubles Champs Harvard Star duo Kelly Yenn and Hannah Song, and Men's Doubles Champs California's dynamic pair Sid Naresh and Jerry Fung (photo credit to Yukong Zhang).

About 2026 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships

The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams and Collegiate Peakapong Singles.

PongSpace, Peaka Pong, Major League Table Tennis, Nittaku and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.

Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 10th on https://www.nctta.org/champs/2026/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