Butterfly North America: Table Tennis and Ping Pong Accessories

February 15, 2010

ACUI Region 11 Table Tennis Summary

Association of College Unions International

Courtesy of ACUI / Willy Leparulo

REGION 11 SUMMARY

Lindenwood's freshman sensation, Fernando Yamazato, took top honors by capturing the Men's ACUI Region 11 Singles Championship on Sunday, February 14th at Lindenwood's Hyland Performance Arena. He did so by beating the 2008 National Collegiate Champion, Alfred Najem from Emporia State University, in three straight games (11-2, 11-9, 11-4) in the semi-finals. He clinched the title by defeating his teammate and Brazilian countryman, Paulo Rocha, in the finals (11-7, 11-5, 11-4). Before taking the title, Yamazato was taken the distance by Lindenwood's Fred Cantarelli in the quarterfinals who barely lost at deuce in the final game (11-6, 11-3, 18-20, 8-11, 14-12).

Yamazato, Rocha, and Cantarelli qualify for the ACUI National Singles Championships to be held in Waukesha, Wisconsin April 9-11, 2010. In addition to these three Lindenwood players, the following players also played well enough to qualify for the national tournament...Alfred Najem, Kris Frank, Andre Irigoyen, Yuvraaj Dookram, and Jose Barbosa.

All four of Lindenwood's women players qualified for the Women's ACUI National Singles Championship. Freshman, Livia Mizobuchi, went undefeated to take first place. Second place went to Lindenwood's Karin Fukushima who lost to Mizobuchi (11-13, 7-11, 4-11). Third place went to Michelle John and fourth place to Esther Gusov.

ACUI Region 11 Players