Many people likely view table tennis, or ping pong as it is more commonly called, as a passive, recreational game where people stand around a table hitting a plastic ball back and forth for fun.

However, surely any of the 27 competitors participating in the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association tournament at the White Building Saturday, along with any witnesses, would strongly disagree with that description of the sport.

The Penn State Table Tennis Club team faced off against Pennsylvania, Princeton and Johns Hopkins at the event. Penn State, Penn, and Princeton all ended up in a three-way tie, going 2-1 against each other. Johns Hopkins went 0-3.

The two wins brought Penn State's team record to 5-5, giving it 15 points in match play for the season.

The team was unable to beat division leader Penn, which hung on to win the division with an 8-2 record and 18 points for the year.

With the division title, Penn will advance to April's national championships at Stanford.

While Penn State was unable to pass Penn in the standings, it did defeat Princeton 3-2 in a close match, and crushed Johns Hopkins, 5-0.

Players aggressively sprinted from side to side during the games, doing their best Forrest Gump impressions as they frantically tried to keep the ball in play.

Fast paced and frenzied action was the theme of the day as numerous games simultaneously took place among the 12 tables laid out in the gym.

One of the highlights of the event involved an animated match between two of the top players in the division, Jason Cherry of Princeton, undefeated heading into the match, and Penn's Casey Ching, who previously had only one loss.

The match was intense as both competitors let out yells of both victory and agony after points were scored.

Cherry took the first game 11-6, only to lose the next two to Ching, 11-2, 11-8.

Facing defeat for the first time all year in the best-of-five match, Cherry staged a comeback and won the last two sets 11-9, and 13-11.

Cherry spoke highly of Ching afterward.

"He's really mentally tough. It was definitely a tough match," he said.

Cherry also pointed out the one factor that he felt led to his victory: "He was having trouble with some of my serves ... that's what made the difference."

Thong Nguyen, vice-president of the Penn State Table Tennis Club, was very happy with the tournament because of the skill level of the players involved.

"All the teams always bring great players," he said.

While the team practices three times a week, playing against new competition is the real thrill, according to Nguyen.

While Nguyen enjoys the tournaments, he said his favorite aspect of the sport itself is that anyone can play it.

"So many people enjoy it. A 5-year-old kid can play with a grandpa, it's very diversified ... it's just fun to see how many times you can keep it on the table," Nguyen said.