Florida Atlantic University Wins 2026 APP Collegiate Pickleball Championship in Cape Coral

Florida Atlantic University is the APP's newest collegiate champion, and the Owls had to earn it the hard way. Utah Tech drew first blood in the championship final at The Courts in Cape Coral, with Ella Boydston and Lauren Mercado defeating FAU's Bella Nelson and Gianna Jarman 15-9 in women's doubles to put the Trailblazers up 1-0. FAU answered by winning three straight matches to take the title 3-1, securing the program's first APP collegiate championship at the 2026 APP Selkirk U.S. Collegiate Championships on March 8.

The Association of Pickleball Players hosted 40 college programs at The Courts for the three-day event, which ran March 6-8. FAU's road to the final ran through Fresno State, Mississippi State, and Radford before the Owls dispatched Texas in the semifinals. Utah Tech, led by team captain Liam Duffin alongside Clayton Boydston, Ella Boydston, and Lauren Mercado, carved a parallel path past the University of South Florida, Purdue, and a second Utah Tech entry before eliminating Florida State in their own semifinal.

The FAU foursome of Jayden Broderick, Gianna Jarman, Alex LaMacchio, and Nelson delivered when it counted in the championship match, which featured men's doubles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles games. Nelson, FAU's team captain, reflected on what made the comeback possible. "This team is absolutely amazing," she said. "We pick each other up when everyone's down, we know how to pull it together, find the game plan and have each other's backs — and that's what makes it so special."

Individual honors added to FAU's haul on the day. In the men's singles final, FAU teammates faced each other across the net: LaMacchio defeated Broderick 15-11, 11-15, 15-7 in a three-game thriller, with Will Lieberman of Grand Canyon University finishing third. LaMacchio also claimed the men's doubles title, giving FAU a sweep of both the team and individual crowns.

The national championship capped a dominant semester for the Owls, who had already won their second regional title of the year by defeating the University of Florida Blue squad at the APP Southeast Collegiate Regional. That regional also served as a qualifier, with Florida State's fourth-place finish earning FSU the final bid to nationals.

The APP's collegiate initiative, built in partnership with NIRSA, Selkirk, and USA Pickleball, is designed to expand competitive pickleball across university campuses nationwide. The championship at Cape Coral was the culmination of that regional qualifying structure. "The sheer amount of talent there is in college pickleball is truly amazing," said APP founder Ken Herrmann.

The collegiate calendar is only getting busier. The NCPA, a separate governing body that ran its own National Collegiate Pickleball Championship in Bridgeton, Missouri from February 27 to March 1, has announced a partnership with The Pickleball Cup to stage the first-ever Global College Pickleball Cup, an international collegiate championship open to all teams and estimated to take place in Texas in mid-November 2026.