Serve Spin Smash Table Tennis Tournament for Girls and Women

“I want every girl to know that her voice can change the world.”

– Malala Yousafzai Inspired by this quote, we saw 12 amazing girls and women from our Navi Mumbai Deanery participate in the first ever SERVE SPIN SMASH Table Tennis Tournament for girls and women. Organized by STCJ Airoli Sports Association and Women Cell, we also received tremendous support from Mr. Mathew John, Mrs. Priscilla Correa and the whole of Divya Kripa Church, Kharghar as they decided to give us the venue along with a professional table and also helped in the overall organizing. The tournament featured 3 participants from St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Church, Airoli (Elita Lobo, Leeann D'cunha and Cassandra Moraes) 6 participants from Divya Kripa Church, Kharghar (Priscilla Correa, Sharon Dsouza, Jenny Rego, Sneha Saroj, Divinsi Nadar and Chrisyl D'souza) 2 participants from St. Joseph's Church, Belapur (Anitha Colaco and Venessa Colaco) and 1 participant from Vashi (Angeline Correa)

This was a singles knockout tournament in a best of 3 sets of 11 points each with a player needing to win 2 sets to be crowned the winner. Mr. Kevin Dias from St. Francis Xavier Church, Panvel was the main referee for this tournament. The first 2 rounds were incredible and everyone witnessed some moments of magic, some breathtaking shots, a lot of insane net and edge points and some high quality table tennis action. One insane thing about the tournament was that the 4 semi finalists were from 4 different parishes with Venessa Colaco (Belapur) taking on Angeline Correa (Vashi) in the first semi final and Sharon D'souza (Kharghar) taking on Elita Lobo (Airoli) in the other semi final. Venessa and Elita went on to win 2 closely competed games to set up a dream final between 2 of the best players of the deanery and of the tournament. The final had everything, some intense plays, some top class rallies, some crazy shots and blocks & many moments that had the crowd on their feet. After 3 epic sets, it was Venessa Colaco from Belapur who won the first ever Serve Spin Smash tournament despite being a set down. Elita Lobo from Airoli had to settle for a runner up trophy for this time.

The real victory though was seeing so many girls and women coming together to play tournaments which are meant only for them, we hope this inspires many young kids and girls to play their favorite sport and to keep doing what they love.