Fresh off a six-medal haul in class singles competition, the U.S. Table Tennis Team continued its hunt for neckwear in doubles play at the 2007 Parapan American Games. The four U.S. doubles squads finished a combined 5-2 on the first day of team play.

The American men’s class 8 team of Tahl Leibovitz (Ozone Park, N.Y.) and Wayne Lo (Sunnyvale, Calif.) picked apart their opponents and finished the day 2-0. The duo swept three-match sets from Chile and Mexico.

The trio-turned-doubles-pair of Norman Bass (Inglewood, Calif.), Edward Levy (Portland, Ore.) and Mitchell Seidenfeld (Lakeville, Minn.) is 2-0 in men’s class 7 competition. Teams from Uruguay and Chile had the honor of facing the skillful American trio.

On the women’s side, the wheelchair class 5 pair of Pamela Fontaine (Double Oak, Texas) and Noga Nir-Kistler (Allentown, Penn.) won one doubles match and lost one. The two Americans beat a formidable Brazil squad 3-1 before losing a tough set to top-seeded Mexico.

“We need some help from Brazil to beat Mexico to hopefully get into a three-way tie,” U.S. Head Coach Sean O’Neill said of the possibility Fontaine and Nir-Kistler still winning gold. “Then it will come down to points and games and we have a pretty good point-game differential.”

In men’s wheelchair doubles, Stuart Caplin (Orange Park, Fla.) and Andre Scott (Fort Worth, Texas) lost a heartbreaker of a 3-2 match to Argentina. The two players will look to redeem their standing today when they continue in round robin doubles play, pulling out the close matches, especially when side by side at the table.

“It really comes down to team doubles,” O’Neill said of the importance of the two-on-two matches. “Whoever has the guaranteed doubles win, it’s like a plus-one and a half advantage.”

Team doubles matches are best-of-five combinations of singles and two-on-two action. The animated four-player contests – standing athletes rotating from front to back, wheelchair competitors flanking each other at the tables – are sandwiched between two sets of important best-of-five singles matches.

“Communication is very important and the problem is we don’t communicate as much as we should,” Levy said of the two-on-two action. “We should probably talk more in between points and show each other what serves we’re going to do.”

While verbal communication during doubles matches is tantamount to success, silent signals are also a vital tool of team players. One player often lets the other know what to expect on serves – back or side spin, a deep or a short ball – using hand movements under the table.

“It’s like a catcher and pitcher,” O’Neill said. “They’re telling depth and spins.”