Twelve people, two tables, four paddles, two balls, one champion.

In the main lobby of the John Nett Center, at 4:00 on Thursday, November 20,  a ping pong tournament commenced.  Twelve people participated in the hour long event.  Eleven of those twelve went home vanquished, while one, Carlos Morera, was able to leave undefeated and triumphant.

The twelve contestants were: Songhee (Julia) Hyoung, Hongyou (Raiden) Ding, Haozhang (Michael) Deng, Sanghyuk (Lee) Lee , Alimu (Harry) Alibotaiken, Jin Kyu (Jin) Kim, Sam French, Jeremiah Kapsner, Carlos Morera, Hunter Ramsden, Zhenghao (William) Lin, and Fengbo Ma.

In the first round, Julia lost to Raiden, Michael lost to Lee, Jin lost to Harry, Jeremiah lost to Sam, Hunter lost to Carlos , and Fengbo lost to William.

The victors then went on to play each other as follows: Lee vs. Raiden, and Sam vs. Carlos (Harry and William had a bye).

Lee defeated Raiden by a score of 21 to 14,, and Carlos defeated Sam 21-13.

The third round started off with a hotly contested match between Carlos Morera, a senior in his first year at Cotter from Barcelona,  and the red hot William.  The game was back and forth, literally and figuratively speaking.  Carlos was able to pull away enough to edge William 21 to 18.  On the other side of the bracket, Harry defeated Lee in a squeaker,  21 to 19.

The time had come for the championship match: Carlos vs. Harry.  The match stayed within in three points throughout the match. Each player made impressive little runs, just to lose it a couple serves later.  The only thing that mattered in this game though, was the final point.

The score was 20 to 18, Carlos on top, his serve.  The ball floated across the net only to be immediately returned by Harry.  After the return by Carlos, Harry came hard over top with a speedy forehand.  Carlos played a defensive return to the smash that landed deep in Harry’s court, and Harry attacked the floater.  Harry, licking his chops, approached the ball as if to release all of his might into a final winner  Unfortunately, Harry’s shot carried long and  Carlos was the champion.

After the tourney, the Spaniard who stole the show was in a jovial, but gracious mood.

“It was quite tough, I played some tough rivals.”  “It was fun,” Carlos later stated, “You have to stay concentrated.”

Activities director, Jamie Herrick, was responsible for getting the tourney off the ground.  He  posted signs around the campus for the tournament.  Mr. Herrick was responsible for the four brand new paddles and new ping pong balls.

“I hope that they see it as another opportunity to compete (in an athletic event), have fun and meet different people.  This hopefully will spur them onto different activities that are available to the student body at Cotter.”

Based off of the success of this tournament, it is safe to say that more ping pong tournaments will be held in the future.