(By Steve Hopkins, photo MLTT)
The second weekend of Major League Table Tennis featured six matches at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The first two matches were played on Friday – the New York Slice and the Florida Crocs kicked off at 4pm. The Slice won a tight 13-8 match that needed a strong finish in the Golden Game. Koki Niwa started the Slice off with a 2-1 lead – after three tight games with Asuka Sakai. Tiffany Ke then extended the Slice’s lead with a 2-1 score over Tashiya Piyadasa. The Croc’s double team tightened the score by winning 2 of 3 (Chihwei Yeh and Angel Naranjo over Slice’s Wenzhang tao and Jishan Liang). Croc’s Daniel Gorak won his match 2-1 over the Slice’s Hoacheng Wang to even the score and then the Croc’s Marc Duran finished off the individual matches with a 2-1 win over Yiran Wu giving the Crocs the 8-7 lead going into the Golden Game. However, the Golden Game is worth 6 points, and the Slice won 21-19 to add the 6 additional points – securing a final victory 13-8.
The second Friday match was the Atlanta Blazers and the Carolina Gold Rush. This followed the same script as the earlier match with the Blazers winning the individual matches 8-7, but then the Gold Rush taking the win on the strength of their Golden Game. Early on, the two teams were even with Blazers Yuya Oshima winning 2-1 over Enzo Angles, and then Gold Rush’s Chen Sun winning 2-1 over Minhyung Jee. In Doubles, the Blazer’s team of Kayama Yu and Tom Feng logged a narrow 2-1 win over Enzo Angles and Eugene Wang. And then the final two singles matches ended even – with Gold Rush’s Mohamed Shouman defeating Jeet Chandra 3-0 and then Blazers’ Kayama Yu winning 3-0 over Wei Wang. The end result was an 8-7 advantage going in to the Golden Game. At that point, the Gold Rush pulled ahead and won the Golden Game 21-17, securing the 13-8 win.
On Saturday, Koki Niwa logged three wins for the Slice, topping Kayama Yu of the Blazers. Minhyung Jee evened the score, winning all three of her games for the Blazers over the Slice’s Tiffany Ke. Niwa then teamed up with Yiran Wu to take 2 of 3 over the Blazers’ Tom Feng and Kayama Yu. Wenzhang Tao extended the Slice’s lead by taking 2 of 3 over Jeet Chandra. The Blazers’ Yuya Oshima won all three of the games against Slice’s Haocheng Wang to give the Blazers a one point advantages (8-7) entering the Golden Game. Again, the team with the lower points won the Golden Game – and the 21-19 victory gave them the 6 additional points and the overall 13-8 victory.
The second Saturday match was the Florida Crocs against the Carolina Gold Rush. The Gold Rush logged a dominant performance winning the first phase 9-6 and then winning the Golden Game. Mohamed Shouman topped Daniel Gorak 2-1 to give the Gold Rush the early lead. Chen Sun then swept Tashiya Piyadasa 3-0 to extend the lead to 5-1. And the doubles team of Kai Zhang and Enzo Angles managed a tight 2-1 win over Chihwei Yeh and Angel Naranjo to extend the lead even further to 7-2. At that point, the Crocs mounted a small comeback, winning the next two matches 2-1 to narrow the lead – Marc Duran over Enzo Angles, and Asuka Sakai over Eugene Wang. At that point, the match score was 9-6 with a solid advantage for the Gold Rush and they managed to win the Golden Game 21-20 to secure an overall score of 15-6.
On Sunday, the Crocs and Blazers played in the first matchup followed by the Slice and the Gold Rush. In the early match, the Crocs established a 10-5 lead into the Golden Game. Asuka Sakai gave the Crocs an early 2-1 lead with his match over Kayama Yu. Tashiya Piyadasa then extended that lead with her 3-0 win over Minhyung Jee. The Blazers won the doubles with Tom Feng and Kayama Yu winning 2 of 3 over Chihwei Yeh and Angel Naranjo. Croc’s Marc Duran then logged 3 wins over Jiwei Xia before the Blazer’s Yuya Oshima narrowed the lead a little with a 2-1 win over Daniel Gorak. With the score 10-5 in favor of the Crocs, they had a large advantage entering the Golden Game and held on 21-18 for the win. The final score was 16-5.
The final match of the weekend was between the two undefeated teams – the New York Slice and the Carolina Gold Rush. It was the hometown Gold Rush that won. The Gold Rush’s Enzo Angles topped Koki Niwa 2-1 to give them an early advantage. Chen Sun extended the Gold Rush lead with a 3-0 win over Tiffany Ke. The Slice’s doubles team of Koki Niwa and Yiran Wu won 2-1 over Enzo Angles and Kai Zhang by the narrowest of margins (11-10, 10-11, 11-9). After the final two matches split – with Eugene Wang winning 2-1 for the Gold Rush, and then Jishan Liang winning 2-1 for the Slice, it was a 9-6 advantage for the Gold Rush going in to the final Golden Game. In that Game, the Gold Rush pressed their advantage and won 21-14 – giving them an overall score of 15-6.
The week 2 results were Gold Rush 3-0, Slice 2-1, Crocs 1-2, Blazers 0-3. And the cumulative season totals now show the Gold Rush leading the East and the Texas Smash leading in the West. Its early, and the young season has yet to begin for three of the ten teams. Lots of action on tap with 15 match weekends (12 more) before the end of March.
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