It was a remarkable year for the Lindenwood athletic program in 2009-10. Over the next 10 weeks, www.lindenwoodlions.com will bring you the top 10 moments of the last school year.

The No. 6 moment comes from the Lady Lion table tennis program and the program's first ever national championship.
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In only the second year of existence, the Lady Lions table tennis program would end the 2009-10 season as the best team in the country and the 2010 national championship is moment No. 6 of the 2009-10 athletic season.

The 2010 National Collegiate Table Tennis Championships were held April 9-11 in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The top 16 women's teams were invited to the nationals. The format for the tournament was four singles and one doubles match. The doubles match is only played if needed to break a 2-2 tie in singles.

Seedings for the national competition were determined by adding up the NCTTA ratings of the top four players for each team. The Lady Lions had a combined score of 7783 which placed them second in the country behind three-time defending champions, Texas Wesleyan University.

The national competition started with pool play consisting of three teams competing for a spot in the main draw. Lindenwood was paired with Michigan State and the University of Washington. The Lady Lions defeated Washington 4-0 and beat Michigan State 3-1. Lindenwood moved out of the round robin competition with a 2-0 mark and advanced to the main draw.

In the quarterfinals, Lindenwood would find itself facing the fifth seeded Canadian team from Western Ontario. After winning the first two matches with ease the Lady Lions were tested but would advance by a score of 3-1.

In the semifinals, it was the University of Wisconsin-Madison that would test the depth of the Lady Lions. Wisconsin came into the nationals seeded No. 6 but scored a huge upset over No. 3 Columbia University earlier in the competition.

Co-head coach Kelly Kendle told her team before the match, “Stay focused and play one point at a time.” Her team took to her advice and beat Wisconsin 3-0 to move onto the national championships. With the win the ladies would be playing for the school's first-ever national table tennis championship.

In the national championship match, Lindenwood would face three-time defending champion, Texas Wesleyan University.

In the opening singles match, Lindenwood's top player, #Livia Mizobuchi#, would face the top women's player in the country, Sara Hazinski. Mizobuchi would put up a valiant effort, but in the end would lose in five games, 5-11, 7-11, 11-4, 11-6, and 11-6.

With the Lady Lions trailing 1-0, #Esther Gusov# would match-up in the second singles against Ines Perhoc. Gusov would fall to Perhoc 11-6, 11-3, and 11-1.

Now trailing 2-0, the third singles match would be crucial to keep the national title hopes alive. If Lindenwood lost that match, then Texas Wesleyan would be national champions for the fourth straight time.

The Lady Lions had to win both the third singles and the fourth singles to even the competition and force a doubles match to decide the championship.

#Karin Fukushima# won her match decisively over Tina Chen, 11-5, 11-4, and 11-8 to put the Lady Lions on the board.

Lindenwod would pit their national title hopes on the shoulders of #Michelle John# who needed to beat Tahereh Roufeh to keep the Lady Lions alive. John would win the first two games 11-9 and finished off the sweep with an 11-7 win to force the competition into the final doubles match.

The tension in the air was apparent as the three-time defending champions were being pushed to the limit by the depth of the Lindenwood. The winner of the final doubles match would be crowned the national champs.

The final doubles match paired the 2010 National Collegiate Women's Doubles champions of Mizobuchi and Fukushima of Lindenwood against the 2010 runners-up Hazinski and Chen.

The Lindenwood pair had just beaten its opponent in four games the previous day to capture the National Collegiate Women's Doubles title. Now, they needed to repeat that result to claim the women's team championship for Lindenwood.

The final match started with the Lady Lions winning the first game 11-6 but Texas Wesleyan would answer and win the second game 17-15. With the final match all squared up at one the Lady Lions took over and won games three and four 12-10 and 13-11, respectively. With the win the Lady Lions dethroned the three-time national champions and capture the program's first ever national championship.

No. 7 Moment of the Year: Softball Scores a Huge Win Over MidAmerica Nazarene
No. 8 Moment of the Year: Baseball Wins a Wild One Against Central Methodist
No. 9 Moment of the Year: Women's Soccer Scores Upset of Ranked Team
No. 10 Moment of the Year: Women's Tennis Wins HAAC Championship