Of the many club sports teams at N.C. State, the table tennis club requires a lot of skill, according to club members. The small club currently has between 12 and 15 active members.

To be a member of this fast-paced team, players must exhibit certain skills.

“You have to be extremely quick, have good reflexes and have precise hand-eye coordination because the balls can come in on the smashes at over 100 mph,” Joel Chapman, president of the club, said.

According to freshman Cody Hamlet, all it takes to improve in ping pong is, “practice, practice, practice.”

For Evan Gold, a freshman in First Year College, the key to the game is focus.

“The speed and the spin are hard to judge,” Gold said. “You just have to be able to focus.”

The team practices twice a week in the basement of Carmichael Gymnasium. Practice normally consists of open play and sometimes round-robins. Chapman said the table tennis team is a great way to play against some better competition than the Wolves’ Den has to offer.

The club started in 1999, but it was “off and on” for a few years, according to Chapman. He said the club picked up again competitively in 2004 and has been competing ever since.

State is apart of the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association in the Carolina Division, which includes several schools from this area: Duke, UNC, UNCC and Wake Forest.

According to Chapman, the team competes in three tournaments during the year: one in the fall and two in the spring. The top three schools in the Carolina Division will then move on to the regional level. Two years ago the Wolfpack placed first at Regionals and when to on to Nationals, where the team placed 21st.

“This isn’t as good as I wanted to do, but when you think about how it’s out of the nation, it isn’t so bad,” Chapman said.

He said he hopes to improve upon that result this year.

In competitions, the top eight members of the team compete in two brackets, A and B. The top four play in A, which is like a varsity level. The remaining four are in B. Both levels play four singles matches and one doubles match.

Table tennis, like any other club, is a way to get involved and meet other people, according to Adam Lee, club vice president and a senior in business management.

“I came to college and was kind of bored, so I went down to the Wolves’ Den to start playing table tennis,” Lee said. “I got better and wanted to play with people who were just as good as I am.”

Lee said everyone is pretty much on the same level on the team, which makes it fun and competitive. The team is also composed of members from different backgrounds and cultures, which is what makes the team different, according to Chapman.

Hamlet, a mathematics major, said the team has some quality players, but it could use more girls.

“There are no girls[on the team], but I’m sure there are some really good girls out there, but we need to advertise more because I know there are more, better players out there,” Hamlet said.