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FREMONT, Calif. — The Portland Paddlers defeated the Princeton Revolution in a back-and-forth semifinal match on Saturday, 21-19.
Saturday’s match was the Paddlers’ first-ever appearance in a Major League Table Tennis (MLTT) Championship Weekend match. Their victory ensures that they will compete for the MLTT Cup for the first time in Paddlers history.
“We were definitely going in as underdogs in the semifinals,” Paddlers coach Christian Lillieroos said. “It was a fantastic fighting victory.”
The Paddlers entered Saturday’s match without Kang Dong-Soo (SPINDEX: 2788), Hampus Nordberg (2758), Min Hyeok Kim (2735) and Minhyung Jee (2488). They signed free agents Darryl Tsao (2550) and Carlos Hernandez (2593) for the weekend, the latter of whom competed on Saturday.
That limited the Paddlers’ active roster to only four players who have suited up for the team in Season 3, all of whom played pivotal roles in Saturday’s win.
“The part of our team that’s still amazing is that we have depth,” Portland’s Nikhil Kumar said.
Jens Lundqvist (2771) put Portland on the board first with an 11-5 win over Princeton’s Cho Seungmin (2802) to start Singles 1. Cho tied the match with an 11-9 victory in the second game, but Lundqvist won the third game after a golden point to put the Paddlers up 2-1.
In Singles 2, Portland’s Kotomi Omoda (2585) took down Princeton’s Hsien Tzu Cheng (2589) in another 11-5 first game, only for Cheng to storm back with another 11-9 recovery. Cheng took the third game over Omoda to tie the match score three games apiece.
Portland star duo Nikhil Kumar (2784) and Sid Naresh (2606) kicked off Doubles with two straight 11-8 wins over Cho and Jinxin Wang (2737). Cho and Wang avoided the sweep with a 9-11 third game victory.
Princeton’s Benedek Olah (2755) defeated Carlos Hernandez twice in Singles 3, tying the match score at seven points each. Kumar once again took an early two-game lead in Singles 4 over Koyo Kanamitsu (2670), only for Kanamitsu to earn the final point before the Golden Game.
“We honestly didn’t even expect to be leading before the Golden Game,” Kumar said. “But obviously, [that’s] amazing for us as well.”
Ahead by one point, the Paddlers entered the Golden Game with a one-point lead. The Revolution kept the score close until Hernandez swept Olah to increase the Paddlers’ lead to four.
“He’s played for some of the other teams as a free agent and had some positive results in the Golden Game,” Kumar said. “I was hoping it transferred to us as well, and I think he did better than that, honestly.”
The Revolution did not recover from that matchup until Hernandez and Olah saw each other again. Olah cut the Paddlers’ lead to two points before Kanamitsu tied the score at 18 points apiece against Naresh.
Omoda then scored two points against Cheng to put the Paddlers up 20-18. Cheng scored an additional point to cut the Paddlers’ lead to 20-19, but Omoda scored the deciding point to send the Paddlers to tomorrow’s Championship Match.
“She is such a warrior,” Lillieroos said. “She puts everything on the line. You can see that even if she loses sometimes, she will never give a point away to anybody.”
The Paddlers will face the winner of today’s 4:30 p.m. PDT match between the Chicago Wind and the Carolina Gold Rush in the Championship Match tomorrow. That match will stream exclusively on Table Tennis TV, starting at 4:30 p.m. PDT.
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