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

By Michael Reff
Press Committee Chair

Loudnproud returns to Rockford,
Student athletes ratings upward,
Shouting cho’s and var’ous hype words.
Unique playing styles are the norm.

Ceremony, processional pics
Signs and flags and fashionable kicks,
Camaraderie throughout’s what sticks
Anthem singers killed it in peak form.

Stunning upsets across the board,
Hard work pays off in great rewards,
A triumphant return to Rockford.
Our volunteers have definitely answered the call.

A potpourri of all events,
Doubles, teams, singles, Women’s, Men’s.
A kaleidoscopic table tennis lens
Day 1 really had a taste of all.

Group processional photo taken by 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

By Emily Zhao
NCTTA Press Committee Member

Sport and fashion have a long-established marriage. Athlete sponsorships, Olympic uniform reveals, athleisure, the deep encoding of “lifestyle” in pursuits like skiing, golf, and tennis. Unfortunately, table tennis gear is not always runway material. This correspondent recalls a childhood of eye-watering polos in erratic geometric patterns and harsh performance fabrics, all from other, table tennis-loving countries like Japan, Germany, and China.

At this year’s NCTTA Championships, a couple North American fashion endeavors showed out. University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) rocks color-blocked raglan shirts and flowing shorts made by Little Tokyo Table Tennis (LTTT), a Los Angeles brand that opened shop in 2021 and has worked with players like Olympian and NCTTA alum Rachel Sung. This is LTTT’s third year sponsoring UCLA. Founder Jiro Maestu said that at first it was a privilege:

[J]ust getting to sponsor them…because they don’t get sponsors. And then we built this relationship where they would come and train the kids at our club… So every year we wanted to make something new and something cute for them to wear. Any high-level, almost professional-level team should have something like this.

Maestu redesigned the logo, marrying UCLA’s cursive with LTTT’s three-star signature, and converted the sleeves to a raglan cut, more “organic” than sportswear’s traditional straight seams.

If LTTT and UCLA’s partnership captures the material support table tennis desperately needs as it grows in the States, University of Toronto’s kit brought a touch of pure whimsy. Yellow rhinestones stripe the shoulders of their black-and-purple Loki shirts, which caught my bleary eyes as I roved the floor spectating Men’s Doubles. (Toronto’s duo lost 2-3 to NYU.) The team comprises just four players, two from Canada and two from China, who walked the tournament procession in Balenciaga sneakers, giggling and vlogging for a white camcorder. “It’s just a way to express yourself, to feel confident,” said Max Ji, with an “isn’t-it-obvious” shrug to teammate Meech Dullaert. But competitive table tennis is not always a self-evident place to express yourself.

As Harvard player Marianne Wang said (wearing a plain black shirt with an H crest), “NCTTA is a nice sense of reshaping and redeveloping your relationship to table tennis...enjoying it, it’s a part of life, it’s about a lot more than winning.”

A little glitter represents the breathing space and fun NCTTA provides so many intense, dedicated student athletes.

Pictured in photos are members of Toronto's team (photo credit to Trinity Sung) and UCLA's team (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

By Luke Scotchie
NCTTA Press Committee Member

ROCKFORD, IL — Senura Silva and Jonatan McDonald shook each other's hands, both of whom did so without speaking a word to one another. Nothing needed to be said. After all, what is there to say after losing the Men’s Doubles Final in three games to UC Berkeley’s Nikhil Kumar and Sid Naresh (12-10, 11-7, 11-3), the tournament’s top seed? What could they say while watching Kumar and Naresh celebrate a trophy that was just one match away from being theirs?

The only words that could come out of their mouths were congratulatory remarks to the 2025 Men’s Doubles champions. Nothing else the Texas Wesleyan duo could say could have undone their fate.

“It's not always up to yourself,” McDonald said on Friday. “Sometimes the other team is too good.”

Plenty of teams could have said the same about Silva and McDonald. They were the No. 2 seed in the Men’s Doubles tournament that year. They reached the final match in their first year as a duo together. And if that final match hadn’t been against Kumar and Naresh, who would go on to become the primary duo for the Portland Paddlers of Major League Table Tennis, the outcome could have been very different.

Again, Silva and McDonald could not change that match’s result. But if they couldn’t alter the past, they could at least secure the future. Following that loss, the two became much more intentional with how and when they practice, seizing every opportunity to share a table.

That wasn’t difficult for these two Texas Wesleyan classmates. Silva, a business major, and McDonald, a computer science major, consider themselves great friends away from the table. They met before either started attending Texas Wesleyan, during a summer camp that both players attended in 2023. Ever since that summer camp, Silva and McDonald have built a strong chemistry that can turn most good doubles tandems into great ones.

“We’ve always been really good friends,” Silva said. “We study together; we see each other every day.”

These two friends not only have a strong bond, but also a shared goal of taking home the trophy they lost last year. Kumar and Naresh won’t stand in their way this year, either. Kumar graduated in 2025, leaving Naresh to partner with classmate Jerry Fung as the tournament’s … No. 2 seed. Naresh is not part of this year’s No. 1 seed in the Men’s Doubles tournament. He doesn’t attend Texas Wesleyan University, nor is his name Senura Silva or Jonatan McDonald.

Silva and McDonald lived up to their lofty expectations so far in this tournament, having already reached the quarterfinals on Friday without dropping a single game. But that’s not what they’re here for. They have a story to rewrite. They have a shared fate to undo.

This year, they’ve got something to say.

“We really want this,” Silva said. “But most importantly, we’re here to have fun, see what we have worked on in practice to carry over to match play.”

Featured above are Senura Silva and Jonatan McDonald of Texas Wesleyan University. 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

The crown jewel of the NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships is always the Coed Team event. NCTTA is unlike any other competition in the sport in that school teams are able to place men and women to compete together and against one another and on the same team. The best of the best rise above all other areas, united by skill and teamwork. It is out of all of the events at the National Championships the grand centerpiece of them all.

This year’s competition sees 24 of the best University teams gather in Rockford, Illinois at the UW Health Sports Factory, but also uniquely 16 out of 24 include women as a pivotal part of the team.

The age-old argument about women in sports is put on pause at the NCTTA’s as these collegiate men and women will leave it all on the table.

California Berkeley enters as the #1 seed in the event and is the defending champion of NCTTA. Lurking close behind them are perennial giants of College Table Tennis, the Texas Wesleyan Rams, who are second to none with two standouts playing in Major League Table Tennis and a team of international talent to tote. Not to be outdone are the remaining seeds, who aren’t giving in to what it says by seed; they are coming in “hot” and ready to loop, smash, and hit whatever comes at them. A veritable who’s who of domestic US, Canadian, Puerto Rican and international table tennis names.

Check it all out starting Friday April 10th for the battle of the Table Tennis Titans, aka the NCTTA College Table Tennis Coed Team Championships!

Pictured here Senura Silva from Texas Wesleyan awaiting a smash, Picture by Grant Bergmann

About the 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, PeakaPong, 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

UCLA won the 2025 Championships and is slated to be seeded #1 again this year, with the NYC Duo of NYU and Columbia nipping at their heels. Don’t count out the rest of the draw either; these are the best of the best Women’s College Table Tennis teams in North America. Two Canadian schools, Western and McMaster, are sure to turn some heads, as typically the Canadian Collegiates are much higher than their ratings. UT Austin, led by chopper extraordinaire Fan Miao, will be tough, Cornell’s one-two punch of Canadian international Gina Fu and US based player Muskan Gupta may yield lots of doubles deciders, and, of course, Harvard, led by Hong Kong Champion, Kelly Yenn, is always up for a fight.

To unseat the defending champs, however, is going to be tough as UCLA’s Women’s team is coming in with a combined rating of over 11k, which is comparable to a Men’s/Coed Team. UCLA is led by Luoxuan Shao and Angie Tan.

Check out the Women’s Team Championships on Friday, April 10th live-streamed on NCTTA’s youtube channel.

Pictured here are Cornell’s dynamic doubles duo from the 2025 NCTTA Championships

About the 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, PeakaPong, 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

There is literally nowhere to hide in the 2026 NCTTA Men’s Singles Competition. The tournament is full at 80 men and all but 1 are rated above the magical 2000 rating point. This event showcases the strongest Men’s Singles event in NCTTA history.

The highest seed is Ved Sheth from California with a Godly 2669 rating and our lowest seed is Henry Wang of Michigan at 1902, which isn’t anything to sneeze at either. USA Table Tennis National
Team player, Sid Naresh and fellow California teammate at #2 are sitting pretty!

Joe Wells, NCTTA VP, says, “We are going to see a firefight of loops and smashes, chops and if we are lucky, some lobbing!”

Statistically speaking, Texas Wesleyan, which has 9 student athletes in the competition, will be ready to pounce. From the outside looking in, prepare for some untested talent out of the relatively unknown schools outside of the USA to make some noise (Western and Universidad de Puerto Rico Arecibo).

Las Vegas may not be able to get the eventual winner correct, so check it out starting Friday, April 10th at the 2026 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships!

Pictured here from Yukong Zhang, #2 seed, California’s Sid Naresh

About the 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, PeakaPong, 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

From one year to the next, one would generally expect the same top players, but not this year in the 2026 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championship’s Women’s Singles Event!

Several new faces have come on board to make things “very interesting.” Just alone in the Top 10, almost one half are new to NCTTA. Enter center stage: Isabella Xu (North Carolina), Fan Miao (Texas), Rachel Wang (Columbia) and #1 seed, Amber Liu (Cal Tech).

Amber Liu, originally from the Atlanta, Georgia area, is an interesting player as she is from a school (Cal Tech) that did not qualify for the NCTTA Championships so she is coming to represent her club team as the only player. Making the trip by oneself can be challenging, but adding on she is also the top seed a mere 13 points higher than #2 seed Kelly Yenn.

Check them all out at the NCTTA Championships starting Friday April 10th!

Pictured here is Amber Liu at the recent 2026 West Regional Championships

About the 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, PeakaPong, 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