Rise of the Utah Valley Wolverines: A New Era in Collegiate Pickleball?
This past weekend saw a remarkable turn of events in what was once hailed as Trailblazer territory, as the #1 Utah Tech Trailblazers were dethroned, and the Utah Valley Wolverines emerged as the champions of the Utah Super Regional.
While the western region of collegiate pickleball doesn’t have the same number of schools or density as the eastern regions, one could easily argue that the western region is the country's most competitive.
The Utah Super Regional, held at the Picklr in Kaysville, Utah, welcomed 11 schools from 4 states, forming 20 teams in the main bracket. Among them were veteran teams like Arizona State, University of Utah, and Loyola Marymount, alongside newcomers to DUPR collegiate pickleball such as Stanford and Brigham Young University.
Four of the teams that competed are ranked top ten in the DUPR Power Rankings that came out this past week on DUPR, and three of those teams are ranked top six. Not surprisingly, each one of these schools earned themselves a bid to nationals:
- #1 Utah Tech
- #3 Utah Valley
- #6 Utah State
- #10 Grand Canyon
However, the biggest story of the tournament was Utah Valley’s performance. Utah Valley was the only school this weekend that had multiple teams win every match in their group stage. The #1 team from Utah Valley won every single of their eight matches without dropping a single game against their opponents. In the finals, they handed Utah Tech their first-ever 0-3 match loss and first-ever finals loss in a regional tournament.
Will Utah Tech (or another team from the west) step up and take the crown back from Utah Valley? Either way, this is definitely the start of the newest collegiate pickleball rivalry and hints that we will see a level of competition in the 2024 Collegiate National Championship that will break records.
A very special thanks to The Picklr for hosting the second DUPR Collegiate Super Regional of 2024. To learn more about The Picklr, visit their website here: thepicklr.com
