Underdogs Rule College Pickleball Across Western Region

As the second installment of theTUNDRA’S five-part series exploring the state of collegiate pickleball across the U.S., today’s entry focuses on the sport at Western colleges and universities.

The Background

Unlike NCAA sports, college pickleball consists of student-run club teams competing against other schools at regional matches and tournaments. Ratings system DUPR has emerged as the main governing body in college pickleball, with 12 regional tournaments hosted nationally in 2023 (expected to increase substantially in 2024) including DUPR Collegiate Individual National Championship (awarded to single player) and DUPR Collegiate National Championship (team competition).

With the sport’s rapid growth now scaling at the collegiate level, established organizations including USA Pickleball and APP are investing heavily in the vertical as well as start-ups including the new National Collegiate Pickleball Association (NCPA), which has plans to host four regional tournaments and a national championship during 2024.

The Teams

College pickleball may be too young to have established powerhouses in the same vein as Duke men’s basketball, UConn women’s basketball or Alabama football, but that doesn’t mean pickleball doesn’t have its contenders.

In the West, the gold standard is Utah Tech University. The Trailblazers won every DUPR regional tournament in the West last year. Currently ranked No. 3 in the country per DUPR’s GAMMA Power Rankings, the St. George, UT university is the only school in the country to offer pickleball scholarships. The scholarships, awarded annually to four members of the team, are sponsored by St. George-based staffing company UCP. The scholarships don’t cover full tuition, but they’re not insignificant – they cover six credit hours which is nearly half of a traditional semester.

The Trailblazers took second place in the 2022 DUPR Collegiate National Championships, before getting bounced by the eventual champions, the University of Virginia, in the semifinals this year. They finally took home gold at a national tournament in early January, winning the APP Tour’s first ever Collegiate Championships. The club’s weekly meetings draw over 80 students and in total, it boasts 600 members. That’s one out of every 20 students at the 12,000-student school.

Just over three hours up I-15, Utah Valley University in Orem ranks No. 5 in the country, per DUPR. The 44,000-student school entered the National Championships ranked No. 4 before being upset in the quarterfinals at the hands of then-No. 7 Florida Atlantic University. The team bounced back with a strong showing at the APP Collegiate Championships, though, reaching the semifinals before losing to Utah Tech.

Believe it or not, the next-highest ranked team in the West also hails from Utah – Utah State University ranks No. 7. Like their valley-dwelling neighbors, Utah State fell one spot in the DUPR rankings after a disappointing showing at the National Championships – the Aggies didn’t make it out of the group stage.

Coming in at No. 9, Grand Canyon University is the only school in DUPR’s top-ten in the West outside of the Beehive State. GCU also suffered an early upset in the National Championships, capping a concerning trend for the West. Better known for its online offerings, GCU’s Phoenix campus houses 20,000 students, who apparently love pickleball. The school recently converted space in its gym into new pickleball courts.

The West isn’t nearly as well represented in the teens of DUPR’s rankings as it is in the top ten. The University of Utah is the next highest ranked Western school at No. 18 – 15 spots below their more technical counterparts. At No. 19, Arizona State University puts a dent in Utah’s monopoly on the sport at the collegiate level. UC San Diego and the University of Arizona round out the list of Western schools in the top-25, coming in at No. 22 and No. 24, respectively.

The West: Region of Underdogs

Interestingly, the top teams in the West tend not to be traditional powerhouses in other sports. This makes sense, as college pickleball is so new, and very accessible and low budget compared to established NCAA sports. But this isn’t at all the case in other regions. Of DUPR’s top 20 teams, only five come from schools that don’t compete in the NCAA’s “Power Five” conferences in other sports. Four of those are from the West. The fifth, Florida Atlantic University, is still a strong sports school, making the NCAA Men’s Final Four last year.

Yet in the West, the strongest schools have virtually no national sports presence outside of pickleball. Utah Tech didn’t play Division I sports until 2020. Grand Canyon didn’t until 2013. Both, along with Utah Valley, currently compete in the Western Athletic Conference – which doesn’t even have football – for other sports. You’d have to go all the way down to the fifth best team in the region, the University of Utah, to find a “Power Five” school.

Meanwhile, nationally other names in DUPR’s top ten, including the University of Florida, University of Virginia and University of North Carolina, are among the most prominent sports schools in the country.

According to Hunter Aiono, president of the Utah Tech club, there are a few factors that played into the team’s surprising success.

“We’ve been a little bit lucky. It’s been a perfect storm of a bunch of different variables,” Aiono said in an interview with the St. George News. “One, the community here is just awesome. They’ve seen our growth; they’ve supported us from the beginning. Pickleball is ingrained in the blood of St. George. Two, the school has been amazing to us.”

Perhaps the biggest underdog in the West is Ricks College, also known as BYU–Idaho. Located in tiny Rexburg, ID, the school only became a four-year institution in 2001, and doesn’t have any official sports teams. Yet, their pickleball squad ranks No. 33 in the country. Not bad at all.

The Tournaments

In 2023, the DUPR collegiate circuit made three stops in the West. The first, the Arizona Regional, was held in March in Tempe, with Utah Tech taking first place.

In late August, the DUPR tour headed to Bloomfield, CO for the Colorado Regional, which was again won by Utah Tech.

Two weeks later, the Trailblazers also took home gold at DUPR’s Utah Regional in South Jordan, UT, before making it four-for-four at the Nevada regional in November.

DUPR's schedule will look different in 2024. In addition to its regional tournaments, the organization will host eight "Super Regionals." Three of those will take place in the West, starting with the Utah Super Regional in early March. In early October, the circuit will head to Las Vegas for the Nevada Super Regional, before going South to Gilbert, AZ for the Arizona Super Regional two weeks later.

The organization will also host 16 on-campus regional tournaments at colleges across the country. DUPR will partner with host colleges to run each tournament.

DUPR isn’t the only organization with a presence out West though. The Southern California-based NCPA has strong roots in the region – last November, the NCPA held its California Alumni Fundraiser tournament in Spring Valley, CA, just outside of San Diego. That was just the preview for the main event, though. In March 2024, the NCPA will return to Spring Valley to host its National Championships - with over 50 teams registered, expect a strong presence from schools in the West.

The Players

The West has no shortage of star power. Utah Tech is led by sophomore Dylan Ciampini. One of the Trailblazers’ four scholarship recipients, Ciampini swept the women’s side of the DUPR Individual National Championships in April, while taking second in mixed doubles.

Ciampini’s doubles partners and fellow gold medalist on the women’s side was Katelyn Nadauld, while in mixed doubles she was joined by Jared Brungard. Brungard, in turn, teamed with Max Nadauld in men’s doubles, reaching the semifinals before losing to the eventual champions from the University of North Carolina. Nadauld, for his part, reached the semifinals in the singles bracket too, losing to Martin Michelson from the University of Florida.

Another Trailblazer was the breakout star of the APP tournament. In addition to the team gold, Averee Beck took first place in women’s singles and women’s doubles, alongside Ciampini.

Utah Valley also had a pair of breakout stars at the APP event. Thatcher Schwendiman
and Tyler Miller took gold in men’s doubles, beating a field that included David Bieger and Eli Mautner from 2023 Virginia’s national champion squad.

Utah Tech was by far the most successful team at the DUPR championships from the West, but Elise Fortino of the University of Colorado made waves as well. Despite the Buffaloes having the No. 38 spot in the DUPR rankings, Fortino reached the semifinals on the women’s side at the Individual National Championships – a perfect example of why DUPR hosts two different events.

Carter Eldridge didn’t feature prominently at the DUPR championships, but the Grand Canyon team president was named the GCU Athlete of the Week in early October, an impressive feat at a school with 37 sports teams.

Looking Forward

With Utah Tech already so dominant and now offering scholarships that promise to attract the top talent, the Trailblazers' stretch at the top of the region figures to continue. But with bigger and more prominent schools at their tails, maybe Utah State or Grand Canyon University can unseat them.

Meanwhile, will the NCPA’s college-only focus give them a leg-up on DUPR in the long run? Will the two coexist? 2024 will be an interesting year for collegiate pickleball in the West, so stay-tuned.