Brandon Williams, senior in communication studies, stepped back and waited for the ping-pong ball to bounce.

He swung his paddle forward, rolling his wrist over as he hit the ball. The ball flew over the net, curving downward in flight — and hit the side of the table, bouncing well out of reach and scoring a point for Williams.

“You can improve your speed [playing intramural table tennis],” Williams said. “You can also put awesome spin on the ball.”

Williams was one of many students competing in the table tennis tournament Monday.

“Table tennis is popular with several students [who] do not always play your traditional team sports,” said Garry Greenlee, associate director of recreation services.

Williams said there are many ways of putting different spins on the ball. One way is rolling your wrist over as you hit the ball, which causes the ball to curve downward. Another way is to undercut the ball with the paddle horizontal to the ground.

“Undercuts cause the ball to go in a C-motion,” Williams said. “The ball will bounce and come back in your direction.”

Whoever scores 21 points first wins the game. If the two players are tied at 20, then one player must score two more than the other. Matches are played best-of-three.

Table tennis can be very competitive and many players show their disgust by yelling, shaking their heads and smacking their paddles with their hands.

There are four divisions, separating players by their skill level.

“We have a Class A with about six to 10 very highly skilled players [who] stand six feet behind the table smashing shots,” Greenlee said. “We also have the Class D, where there are truly more novice players [who] just enjoy playing.”