SAS Puxi campus middle school table tennis team was nearly invincible this past Saturday at the ninth annual CISSA table tennis tournament hosted by our school.

One hundred paddlers from five international schools took part, and our team was in fine form thanks to the training they received by our talented coaches, Craig Tafel and James Waltz.

After the preliminary round-robin segment was completed, SAS had seven out of the eight quarter-finalists in the boys’ senior division, five out of eight in the junior boys’ division, and two out of the four semifinalists in the girls’ division.

Mervin Law completed his undefeated tournament performance by defeating teammate Tom Wang to capture the boys’ senior division title. Charles Lee knocked off Dylan Ley in the consolation match to give SAS the top four places which is the first time any CISSA school has accomplished such a “sweep.”

The future looks promising as our junior boys (grade six) also represented our school well. Andrew Yin had a perfect 9-0 record as he held off a strong challenge from the British School’s top seed. Tae Joon Kwak’s only loss was a heart breaker in the semifinals to that BISS player, but he recovered nicely to win his consolation match and finish third.

For the second year in a row, Jessica Flohn and Wen Ni Chew were our top ranked female players, so it was not surprising to see them both go undefeated and end up facing one another in the championship match. Jessica’s powerful slams and tricky serves allowed her to narrowly edge past her good friend to win the girls’ division title.
SAS was fortunate to have Coach Waltz help prepare these players. A U.S.A. national champion as a teenager he was here in Shanghai visiting Tafel, his former table tennis coach when Craig taught in Illinois.
By Lou Wegener, SAS Puxi campus CISSA coordinator