David McBeath played a starring role as his Texas Smash team stormed to victory in the inaugural season of Major League Table Tennis. The Smash had clinched a place in the four-team Championship play-offs after finishing second in the West Division, only securing their spot on the final weekend of the regular season in Wichita, Kansas.
In the semi-final matchup in Chicago, the Smash faced off against the East Division champions, Carolina Gold Rush, whose roster featured both the male and female Most Valuable Players (MVP) of the league, Enzo Angles and Hong Lin.
McBeath led his team, defeating Romain Lorentz 3-0 in the opening match, but Carolina leveled the score as Kai Zhang beat Nandan Naresh 3-0.
The doubles duo of Hiromitsu Kasahara and Amy Wang then defeated the two MVPs 2-1 to put Texas up 5-4. Yoan Rebetez extended the Smash‘s lead to 8-4 with a 3-0 victory over Jeremy Hazin. Angles won 3-0 against Kasahara to make it 8-7 with Texas holding a one-point advantage going into the golden game.
McBeath was the last player up for the Smash, and he secured the victory with a 10-6 overall score.
In the final, the Texas Smash faced off against the Princeton Revolution, who had defeated the West Division winners, Bay Area Blasters, 21-11 in the other semi-final.
The Smash made a dominant start, with Kasahara and Naresh winning their singles matches, and the doubles pair of Kasahara and Wang defeating Liang and Angela Guan 3-0.
Despite a brief comeback from the Revolution, McBeath sealed the victory for the Smash with a 2-1 win over Jinxin Wang, and the team went on to win the final 21-7.
The third-place match saw the Bay Area Blasters defeat the Carolina Gold Rush 21-18.
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