New Season of the Lone Rangers: Repping Solo
Here at NCTTA, we always like to spotlight a special demographic that braves a solo trek to the Nationals: the Lone Rangers. These players are the only representatives from their team, but play not only for their individual glory, but also for their school pride. There are a handful of such Lone Rangers representing various schools this year, and we got a chance to ask them how they feel about their unique experiences making it to the Champs individually.
There were some similar themes in their responses across the board. Several, while sad that they were the only ones from their team going to champs, found respite in the fact that they would be able to forge new friendships at this National event.
For Aman Thawani of the University of Chicago, he says regarding already experiencing the Divisionals and Regionals tourneys, “I was most surprised by how tight-knit the community is. Everyone who is an active part of the community seems to know and respect everyone else, and people genuinely love playing, training, and analyzing games together. It makes the community really comfortable, and makes it feel like we all truly belong here.”
Another Lone Ranger, Albert Yang, an Indiana University freshman, echoes Thawani’s socializing sentiments with, “I'm most excited about reconnecting with some of my friends within the table tennis community.”
As Indiana has attained great heights at Champs in past years, Yang is already fired up from hearing stories about the event through his club advisor, Professor Gillespie.
Jinghe Xiao (Jennifer) from Johns Hopkins University is a Lone Ranger who used to play in China and won a provincial title! She has a unique situation, because although technically a Lone Ranger, her twin sister Jingyan will also be there playing for the Columbia University team!
Additional Lone Rangers are none other than the women’s #1 seeded player Amber Liu, who is also an accomplished musical composer, Erfan Ramezanpour from Alabama, who is the only Dixie Division representative, Jhoan Fernandez of University of Rochester, Kim Iwasaki of DBU who originally hails from Brazil, Nikhil Chawla, who is a chopper from College of William and Mary, and Jasmine Goodwin of UC Davis.
Congrats to the 2026 Lone Rangers for making it to the Champs and braving the solo journey to Rockford!
About the 2026 NCTTA College Table Tennis Championships
The championships are hosted by the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association and GoRockford (Rockford Convention and Visitors Bureau). The event crowns national champions in Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, Men’s/Coed Teams, and Women’s Teams, and Collegiate Peakapong Singles.
PongSpace, PeakaPong, Major League Table Tennis, Nittaku and Paddle Palace will sponsor the event.
Watch the event on live stream starting Friday, April 10th on https://www.nctta.org/champs/2026/video.html
About NCTTA
The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively to promote the sport of table tennis at the college level. As the national governing body for college table tennis in the United States and Canada, NCTTA organizes elite intercollegiate competitions throughout North America. www.nctta.org