It was a successful weekend for the Lindenwood Table Tennis team at the ACUI Singles Championships and NCTTA Regional Championship that were held at Lindenwood.
Freshman sensation,
Fernando Yamazato, took top honors by capturing the Men's ACUI Singles Championship. He did so by beating the 2008 National Collegiate Champion, Alfred Najem from Emporia State University, in three straight games (11-2, 11-9, 11-4) in the semifinals. He clinched the title by defeating his teammate
Paulo Rocha in the finals (11-7, 11-5, 11-4).
Yamazato, Rocha, and
Fred Cantarelli all qualified for the ACUI National Singles Championships to be held in Waukesha, Wisconsin April 9-11, 2010. In addition to these three Lindenwood players, the following players also played well enough to qualify for the national tournament
Kris Frank,
Andre Irigoyen,
Yuvraaj Dookram, and
Jose Barbosa.
All four of Lindenwood's women players qualified for the Women's ACUI National Singles Championship. Freshman,
Livia Mizobuchi, went undefeated to take first place. Second place went to Lindenwood's
Karin Fukushima who lost to Mizobuchi (11-13, 7-11, 4-11). Third place went to
Michelle John and fourth place to
Esther Gusov.
Lindenwood's Co-Ed team dominated the NCTTA Midwest Regional competition by going undefeated. They beat Illinois, Murray State, SLU, and WashU without even losing a game. Lindenwood's Co-Ed team now automatically qualifies for the National Teams Championships in April. Not to be outdone by the Co-Ed team, the Lady Lions team also qualified for the National Teams Championships and will travel with the Co-Ed team in their quest to win the National Championship.
Next up for the table tennis team is the 2010 Think Spring Open to be held in Indianapolis February 20-21.