Those who go to Dodge Fitness Center on Thursday nights or Sunday afternoons witness one of the biggest clubs on campus in action: the Columbia Table Tennis Club. Active since the early 1990s, the club is open to everyone, offering players of any level a chance to play ping-pong. "We have a large community of grad students, undergrads, and from all across the Columbia community," John Xie, SEAS '13 and president of the Table Tennis Club, said. "It is not about how good you are—it is about meeting new people. That is the goal of the club," team member Gary Wong, a student in the medical school, said. However, within the club is a highly touted traveling team comprised of the top five players. For several years, the Columbia team has consistently ranked in the top 10 nationwide, and has recruited some of the top table tennis talent from around the world. "We went to the national tournament last year, coming in second within our regional division. At nationals, we came in 13th, a few seeds higher than our ranking going in," Wong said. The Lions are anchored by a father-daughter combo of coach Santos Shih, a junior champion in Taiwan in the 1970s, and his daughter, Stephanie Shih, BC '12, who recently represented the United States in the World University Games. Shih coaches on a volunteer basis and has done so for four years—he came to coach because of his daughter. "I like helping the young generation do what I used to do—study and play," he said. With both Shihs, the Lions have been one of the top teams in the nation, finishing as high as third place in the 2008-2009 season. This season, Columbia came out strong in its fall divisional tournament, going undefeated to obtain first place among all schools in the New York City area. In its most recent tournament last Sunday, Columbia again competed against teams from across New York at the Fashion Institute of Technology, in the second round of a round-robin tournament. The Lions had high hopes of repeating their victory from the fall in order to ensure a bid to regionals. However, NYU—the team's divisional rival—barely edged them out to win the tournament. "Obviously we were all a little disappointed we didn't come in first place, but overall I was very pleased with our performance at the tournament. Everyone came to work and did their best," Stephanie Shih said. "In addition, we had an enthusiastic and extremely supportive cheering squad consisting of club members and friends ... which we appreciated very much." Even though the Lions came in second place at the tournament, their record is currently tied with NYU's—each team had one loss at each tournament. The good news is that the head-to-head favors Columbia, which gives the team hope for a chance to continue its season at regionals, even without having received a formal invitation thus far. "Our goal is to be in the top eight this year. Hopefully we can upset a lot of good teams like Texas Wesleyan, Princeton, and Berkeley—the schools that have scholarships," coach Shih said. In addition to the team-wide aspirations, four of Columbia's players—Eric Leung, SEAS '15, Yuanhang Jiang, a student at the School of Continuing Education, Ruixiang Ma, GSAS, and Shih—advanced as individuals to the regional tournament in the single events. Regardless of how the rest of the season pans out, the team will have to look to a future without Stephanie Shih, who is graduating in May. This season, she has remained undefeated and is considered by both her teammates and players worldwide to be a superstar. To fill her shoes, the team will look to two freshmen, Leung and Janiel Li, SEAS '15. While the two come from opposite ends of the Earth (Li from northern Virginia, Leung from Hong Kong), their youth offers a chance for Columbia to remain competitive long after Shih's departure. "Definitely we are going to help set up practices, since we are familiar with the competition and different styles of play. We will definitely have to step up a lot for sophomore year," Li said. "Another thing is that we will have to train other people, which is difficult. But we will need to in order to keep up with what Steph has set up over the last four years." But before the Lions look to the future, their focus will be squarely on finishing the 2011-2012 season strong. "People should come out and show us some love as we try to make nationals. All the teams there also came in first place in their divisions, so they will all be strong, and we will need all the support we can get," Shih said. Behind this competitive and successful team, though, is still a close-knit club—one that emphasizes friendship and love for the game regardless of skill level. "Just come here and have fun and relax," Leung said.