NYU Women’s Doubles Pair Avenges Loss to Advance to First Time Women’s Teams Final

By Emily Zhao
NCTTA Press Committee Member

Thirteen hours after a late Women’s Doubles final, NYU’s Tiffany Ke and Yuyao Lu found themselves facing Harvard’s Kelly Yenn and Hannah Song again, this time in tiebreak for a Women’s Team semifinal.

Yenn and Song won Friday’s final 3-1. Song anchored solid front-table coverage; Yenn’s topspin smothered the first set and secured hinge points in the tight second. NYU punched back in the fourth set off a few of Song’s mishits, but on rotation, Yenn regained enough offensive rhythm to grind out the match 11-8, assisted by key offensive ventures from Song, including several singing backhand counters.

Ke and Lu entered the rematch having discussed new tactics. “We were playing a bit messy, it wasn’t really well thought out,” Ke said. “[Today] we came in with a plan, fixed our receives and placement, and that changed up the whole match dynamic.” Revenge did not seem guaranteed: Ke and Lu went down 0-2 again, with Song taking more initiative on returns and offense. Lu’s initiative on the ad side and a timeout at 9-8 cinched the third set; deep pushes, sidespun and cross-court placements, and scrappy returns limited Harvard’s winners enough for NYU to eke the last two sets to a photo 11-9 finish.

“It was really just nailing down the serve return,” Ke said after. “Because as long as we can get them to have a weak third ball, we can capitalize on that… It’s our first time pairing, so I feel like we’ve been improving really fast.” The biggest thing with doubles, they said, is making your partner comfortable. “[I]nstead of receiving it like you’d normally receive,” Ke said, “you think, how can I receive it so that my partner feels like it’s their game and playing to each other’s strengths.”

Asked what he advised at 0-2, NYU coach Gao Yanjun demurred: “I didn’t tell them anything. Everything is great. Everyone is playing the right things.” Earlier, Gao coached Ke back from a 0-2 deficit over Toronto’s Yuwen Jiang in Coed Teams. The key in such moments, Gao said, is “[b]e confident, as a coach, I cannot give them too much things. Just be confident. Every point you fight. That’s it.”

NYU fought valiantly but eventually succumbed to UCLA in the Women's Team finals in yet another thrilling tie-breaking doubles match.

Featured in the photo are NYU's Tiffany Ke and Yuyao Lu (Photo credit to Dennis Yanga).

About 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, Peaka Pong, 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