Official Team USA Table Tennis Release

The New York University table tennis club team made history on April 20-22 by taking first place in the coed championship at the 2018 iSET College Table Tennis National Championships in Round Rock, TX.

This marked the first-ever coed national championship victory for the Violets. The team also claimed third in the women's team championship, second in the men's doubles, and third and fourth in men's singles.

The event hosted 276 of the best college table tennis players from 32 countries, representing 50 different colleges and universities across North America.

There were eight players on NYU's champion coed team: 2016 US Olympian Yijun (Tom) Feng, US National Team member Adar Alguetti, Indian Junior International player Mudit Dani, Ex-Chinese Provincial Team member Wenhao She, Michael Song, Robert Li, Liying Li (captain), and Haoran Su. They were coached by Yanjun Gao, a former NCTAA national champion.

The Violets entered the tournament as the fifth seed. Among their opponents were a plethora of highly-ranked college players, including several Olympians and national champions.

After pushing through the group stage and quarterfinals, NYU had its first major test in the semifinals where the Violets played Mississippi College, the 2015 champion and second-seed. With the match all tied up at 2-2, Feng and Alguetti narrowly edged out their opponents 11-9 in the doubles round to send the team to the finals.

In the final round, NYU faced top-seeded Texas Wesleyan University, a team that had won 13 of 14 national championships in the event's history. After taking a 2-0 lead behind singles wins from Alguetti and Feng, the Violets quickly dropped the next two matches. In danger of getting reversed swept, Alguetti and Feng once again pulled through in the doubles round, leading to NYU's 3-2 victory and national title.