RUTTC’s Divisional Season

by Khaled Elfarra on Apr.07, 2008

Despite the improvements, the Rutgers team was still considered to be an underdog, because in our same division (the NYC Division) is longtime rival Columbia University who came in 3rd place at the National Championships the previous year. This was accomplished in large part by their two best returning players Victor Leung (previous Hong Kong Boys Team Member) and Michelle Yang (previous Taiwanese Girls National Team Member). Rutgers came in 2nd to Columbia in the division for 2 of the past 3 years and was looking to try and come in 1st to even the score. At the 1st Regional Tournament, both Rutgers and Columbia preformed as expected beating the 7 other teams in the division. It was headed for a heads up event at the end of the day to see who would be in 1st place going into the 2nd regional. Our 1st match was between our own Judy Hugh and Columbia’s Victor Leung. It was a hard fought match with long rallies with Judy attacking strong and Victor making consistent returns, but in the end Judy won in 3-0 with all of the games going the distance. Our second match was between Ben Huang and Felix Yu. It was a close match and went all the way to the 5th game, but Ben came up just short and lost at deuce in the 5th . Adam Formal was matched up against Michelle Yang against Columbia. In the 1st game he marched up to a 7-2 lead only to lose in deuce. Adam stepped it up in the 2nd game winning 11-4. In the 3rd , Adam won very close in some long rallies putting him up 2 games to 1. In the 4th game, it was all back and forth. Adam near the end had a couple match points and could not deliver in the end. In the 5th Game Adam started down 1-5, he caught up to 8-all , but lost in a heart breaking finish. The final match was between Leon and David. Leon won the 1st game quickly. Then in the 2nd things got closer, but Leon was able to finish strong taking a 2-0 lead. Then David changed tactics. The match went close. Leon even had a few match points in the 3rd and 4th game, but could not hold on and lost in the 5th . In doubles, Judy and Adam won in the 5th , but yet again it was another close call for Rutgers. In the 2nd regional Rutgers came back with vengeance. Just as Rutgers did the previous semester we beat all other teams going into our last match with Columbia. Columbia on the other hand had lost a close battle to NYU. This put Columbia and Rutgers at 1 loss a piece. The winner of this match would decide who came in 1st place in the division. Judy quickly won her match. Adam followed suit. Iuliana played on fire the 1st game against their team captain Victor Leung and won the 1st game only to fall in a close 4 game battle losing 1-3. Then Leon played against David and lost in a similar fashion to Iuliana. So then it all came down to doubles. Judy and Adam vs Columbia. Both teams were tired but mustered the strength to forge ahead and Rutgers came out with the victory 3-1! For the 4th year in a row Rutgers will be going to Nationals and this time as #1 from their division.