Penn Ping Pong is undefeated against local universities

It was a clean sweep.

On Oct. 22, the Penn ping pong team competed in the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association’s Fall Divisional competition and won every single game it played.

After defeating Pillar College, Rowan University, Temple University, the Pennsylvania State University and the University of Pittsburgh, Penn emerged as the clear victor.

“We’ve usually always lost to Penn State. This year we beat them. Yes! The first time during my time at Penn,” College senior and Penn Ping Pong President Zixin Li said, smiling.

While Penn Ping Pong is under the Department of Recreation and Club Sports at Penn, the club is full of players who have been playing competitively for years.

“I was on the national team briefly in my freshman year [of high school]. I traveled internationally. I competed in New Caledonia, Canada, and around the U.S.,” College freshman Lucy Ma said.

Wharton senior Sho Hashizume was crowned Philadelphia champion of college students as a sophomore and is ranked number one on Penn’s team right now. He is shooting for the title again this year for the upcoming singles tournament in January.

With a string of victories, Penn Ping Pong is making its way to Nationals in Wisconsin.

The team will first have to compete in the Spring Divisionals first, then the Mid-Atlantic tournaments and then they will compete in Nationals if they qualify.

“We’ve qualified for the Mid-Atlantic tournaments every year, so we have to go down to the Mid-Atlantic tournament...but it’s like a ten-hour drive away...so sometimes [we can’t go],” Hashizume said.

“But we will definitely be heading out to the Mid-Atlantic tournament this year. We should have the co-ed team and maybe the women’s team going to Nationals and probably two or three singles players as well.”

“[The Divisionals] was a really fun experience overall. We definitely want to make it to nationals... we’ll just keep working at it,” Ma said.

Along with competitive players, the club also welcomes students who play table tennis for fun and even has a graduate student member. Steven Zhao, a doctoral candidate in the Perelman School of Medicine who played table tennis competitively in college, comes by once a week to play ping pong and hang out with members.

“We’re pretty close...over Thanksgiving, we have quite a few international team members, so we’re having hot pot [together],” Li said.

“Definitely, if anyone wants to play, come either check out Penn Ping Pong or sometimes we go to Ware, or Riepe, and we play a little bit, so we’re definitely open to that,” Ma said. “Everyone is definitely definitely welcome to join!”