The VSU table-tennis club may not be well known, but with the number of members growing and the team’s success in competitions, their notoriety is on the rise.
 
The team’s president, Jacob Miller, a junior business major, was also one of the team’s founding members last school year.

Becoming club president, however, was not Miller’s original intention.

 “I really became the president because no one else wanted to do it to start off with,” Miller said. “There were only like three or four guys that really wanted to start it up and I was the guy who organized it.”

 There are two types of tournaments in table tennis, individual and team. VSU’s team has entered both types, but has had more success in the individual tournaments.

 Each tournament has different divisions depending on the skill level of players, and the team has done fairly well in its divisions.

 “We got a bunch of firsts and a bunch of seconds,” Miller said. 

 He and the team have the trophies to prove it.

 The team has competed in four regional tournaments this semester.

 Three of the tournaments took place in Atlanta, two of which were on the same day. The fourth was in Pensacola, Fla.

 Miller placed first in his division in the Pensacola tournament as well as the third Atlanta tournament.

 The team also competed in three tournaments last year.

 Though the team has yet to reach the upper echelons of club table tennis tournaments, they are moving in the right direction and facing some much bigger schools.

 “We play a bunch of huge schools like Georgia Tech, UGA, Georgia State, Clemson and Furman,” Miller said.

 The team currently has around eight regular members, with as many as 15 showing up at different times.

 What keeps the main members so determined to do well at their sport is the sense of friendship and camaraderie that they feel as a team.

 “I like it a lot.” Miller said. “It’s fun to hang out with friends and make new ones while I play something I love.”

 The team practices in the Student Recreation Center at 3 p.m. on Saturdays. Any students with an interest in table tennis are welcome to join at any time.