Ping-pongers fall in year's first match

Dozens of sweaty, panting students gathered in Gimbel Gymnasium over the weekend for a few fierce games of basketball. At the opposite end of the gym, however, a different -- but no less intense -- kind of ball game was in action, as Penn's Table Tennis Club hosted Johns Hopkins University in a closely-contested tournament Sunday afternoon. Hopkins edged out Penn in the final match. It was the first meet of the year for Penn's Table Tennis Club, a member of the Mid-Atlantic Division of the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association. Originally intended to be a four-team competition, the tournament turned into a two-school showdown after both Pennsylvania State University and Princeton University canceled due to the wintry weather. Defending national champion Hopkins braved the snow and drizzle to face Penn. The tournament wasn't the most glamorous of sporting events. Amid the sound of bouncing basketballs and squeaking sneakers, one could barely hear the light pitter-patter of ricocheting ping-pong balls. The "small ball" warriors, dressed in assorted T-shirts and shorts, didn't exactly ooze intimidation. And only a meager handful of spectators showed up to watch the decidedly casual contest. But what the table tennis meet lacked in noise, wardrobe and numbers, it made up for in agility, precision and competition. Each club was represented by two teams -- A and B, determined by skill level -- in rounds of singles and doubles matches. With flashing paddles, Penn's A team defeated Hopkins' B team in the first round, but Hopkins recovered in the second round as its A team beat Penn's B team. "So far, we're playing awesome," said College junior and club captain Matt Simon, after Penn took an early lead in the third and final round. It wasn't long before Hopkins caught up, however. With the clubs splitting the third round singles matches at two apiece, the entire tournament boiled down to the last doubles match between the top two-seeded players of each club. Simon and Wharton senior Eu Han Lee, respectively the first and second-ranked Penn players, faced off against Hopkins senior Jeff Hsin and Hopkins graduate student Qianfei Wang. Bolstered by cheers and clapping from teammates and spectators, Simon and Lee played well, but were eventually defeated, 21-12 by the Hopkins duo in the last game. Table tennis "is rapidly growing," said Hsin, who hopes that table tennis will become a NCAA Division I sport within the next five or six years. "It'll be interesting to see what happens a few years from now."