US Rio Contingent Repel LYTTC Challenge in New Jersey
Courtesy of USA Table Tennis
Three days of intense training at the Lily Yip Table Tennis Center, led by Olympic Team Coach Massimo Constantini and supporting Coach Lily Yip, had the Olympic Team prepared for the special team challenge ahead of them.
LYTTC had assembled it’s strongest lineup to take on the Rio-bound Men’s and Women’s teams in a special fundraising clash to support Friends with Paddles. The matches saw some fierce exchanges but a mostly dominant display by the Olympic lineup, particularly in the Women’s team match.
Led out by an exhibition between two former Under 11 National Champions (2014 and 2015), Matthew Lu overcoming Jayden Zhou 2-1 and two high level Chinese players of which Ruichao Chen swept Ziyang Chen 2-0, the event was off to a great start.
Special awards and presentations were made to VIP guests, sponsors and supporters of the event before the teams took the court to give it their all.
The women’s matches saw the Olympic Team assert their dominance, taking an early lead and showing no signs of slowing down as they quickly and efficiently worked their way through the opposition. LYTTC had assembled 3 former US National Team members but they showed no signs of being in a position to stop the current Rio team. Before we knew it the three matches were over and the team of Wu Yue, Lily Zhang and Jiaqi Zheng had overcome LYTTC’s Judy Hugh, Tina Lin and Amy Wang by a 3-0 margin.
Women’s Team Results
Wu Yue 3-0 Judy Hugh
Lily Zhang 3-0 Tina Lin
Jiaqi Zheng 3-0 Amy Wang
Team USA 3-0 LYTTC
The Men’s Team matches would prove to be a little more of a clash with the first match setting the stage for a showdown. Stretching to the full 5 sets it was Timothy Wang who overcame Allen Wang after recovering from a 2-1 deficit.
LYTTC had put forward two top US players, both currently in the US National Junior Team and the incredible 2700 Kaden Xu who proved his worth to the team by taking out Kanak Jha in 4 games to draw the team score at 1-1.
The final gave way for a determined Yijun Feng who in his first Nationals appearance (2015) had landed 4 national titles. The defending Men’s Singles champion wasted no time in unleashing a barrage of attacking strokes on his opponent, Sharon Alguetti (current US Cadet, Junior and Men’s Team). It was Tom Feng who sealed the deal, handing the US Men’s Olympic Team victory.
Men’s Team Results
Tim Wang 3-2 Allen Wang
Kanak Jha 1-3 Kaden Xu
Yijun Feng 3-0 Sharon Alguetti
Team USA 2-1 LYTTC
USATT and LYTTC would like to thank everyone who attended and supported the event which was successful in raising over $20,000 for Friends with Paddles. The incredibly hard work of the team at LYTTC, most specifically Lily Yip and Barry Dattel along with their family and close circle of supporters at the club. A huge thank you to all of the sponsors who contributed to making the fundraiser a great success and to the teams for putting on a superb show!
