The University of Nottingham (UoN) Table Tennis Team swept to victory over Nottingham Trent University’s (NTU) Table Tennis Team, with a ‘ping-pong-tastic’ 7-0 win in the Table Tennis at the Lee Westwood Sports Centre.
The Green and Gold squad had high hopes under the coaching of Kelly Sibley, a bronze-medalist at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, a member of the London 2012 Team GB squad, and five-times national champion. Alongside her is Gavin Evans, a former European and Olympic Youth table tennis champion.
The manoeuvring of UoN’s Liam brought us the stand-out point of the whole fixture
They did not disappoint. The first three matches, two men’s singles and one women’s singles, were played consecutively, with supporters egging on both teams throughout play. Nottingham players Liam, Adam and Yolanda made short work of their opponents, winning in straight sets to make it 3-0 to UoN within half an hour.
The manoeuvring of UoN’s Liam brought us the stand-out point of the whole fixture. His opponent was forced to stand against the table, hoping that Liam would miss the table whilst Liam danced around the back of the court, hitting the ball back onto the table with solid precision time and time again. Trent buckled under the pressure, missed their shot and sent the UoN crowd into a frenzy.
With 7 games being played across the event, UoN needed to win 1 out of 4 more matches for the Varsity point. The next ladies’ singles game was played slightly before the doubles, meaning that, when Maria romped to victory, she was able to shout: “We won Varsity!” Her opponent, NTU’s Evie, had a great serve, however, which wasn’t enough to win her the match, however.
The men’s and women’s doubles came to a conclusion shortly after, with UoN once again taking the points. The Trent support began to shuffle out as it quickly became clear in that there would be no comeback in the final game of the fixture. The mixed doubles won quickly to make it a sweeping victory for UoN.
Victory gave UoN a 2-1 lead in the Varsity Super Wednesday 2, as they look to open up 6-2 lead over Trent in the 2016 Varsity Series.
Words by Rachel Lewis.
Image: IMPACT Images Team & UoN Table Tennis
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