The new freshman class is one with students of many impressive talents, one of them being Rory Liu, with her astonishing table tennis career.

Liu has been playing the sport – better known by the trademark name Ping-Pong – since she was seven years old and started a career out of her need for glasses and bad vision. Her parents thought that focusing on a small object for extended periods of time would help her sharpen her vision.

“My parents forced me to do it when I was younger because they said it’d make me better at seeing,” Liu said. “Like what in the world?”

At one point in her career, Liu practiced table tennis for three hours every day after school and on the weekends. While this took up a lot of her time, Liu traveled to Europe with the USA Ping-Pong team.

At the pinnacle of Liu’s career, she played professionally and was ranked No. 1 in the state of Texas.

“I used to go to Houston every summer and then Las Vegas to play in the open and the U.S. Nationals,” Liu said.

Liu discontinued her profession of Ping-Pong due to the extreme time commitment of the sport.

“I had to stop because of school, and just balancing a ton of stuff was hard,” Liu said. “And then I also stopped because there was a really big lack of coaches in Dallas.”

Liu wants to utilize Ping-Pong as a leisure activity and not play competitively. Even though Liu does not play  professionally anymore, she plays matches with her peers at the Upper School tables that are brought out in the spring.

“She moves beautifully around the court,” said freshman Ricardo Santisteban, who has played against Liu. “I mean, she’s just a great player, and she’s got a crazy spin on everything.”