Lindenwood table tennis picked up three wins and three runner-up finishes in six events at the Two-Star 2011 Bernard Hock Open in New Albany, Indiana October 8-9.
The Lions advanced three players to the semifinals of the Open Division on Saturday where
Paulo Rocha narrowly escaped a match against Lindenwood teammate
Fernando Yamazato winning the seventh game at deuce 13-11 after splitting the initial six games of the match (7-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-7, 8-11, 11-9). In the other semifinal, Lindenwood's
Venkat Ramesh was unable to keep pace with Samson Dubina from Ohio falling in five games (11-5, 6-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-5) in the best-of-seven match. In the final, Lindenwood's Rocha prevailed over Dubina in five games to take the Open Division title (11-4, 6-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-5).
In the Under-2200 singles event, Lion
Yuvraaj Dookram took the first two games of the best-of-five finals, but was unable to close it out, losing the next three games and settling for second (6-11, 7-11, 11-4, 11-9, 11-8).
Lindenwood dominated the Hardbat event, advancing Lions to all four spots in the semifinals with
Andre Irigoyen,
Munkhbold Bayarsaikhan, Ramesh and Yamazato. Irigoyen and Bayarsaikhan advanced to the finals with perennial favorite Irigoyen earning the title in two straight games (21-9, 21-14).
Competition on Sunday included a two-player event where each member of the team played a singles match against an opponent, followed by a doubles match and then reverse singles until a team won three games. The Lions took all three of the top spots in the A Division as Rocha and Ramesh went undefeated in round-robin play to take the title. Third seeded Irigoyen and Fred Cantarelli upset second seed Yamazato and
Karin Fukushima to finish second.
Lindenwood Table Tennis has several weeks off before hosting the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) Lower Midwest Division meet at the Hyland Arena on Sunday, November 6. The event is the first of two meets that Lindenwood must win in order to qualify for the Midwest Regional competition in late February, 2012. In addition to Lindenwood, the meet will feature teams from Saint Louis University, Washington University (St. Louis), Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, the University of Indiana, the University of Illinois and Murray State. Competition begins at 1 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
