Spikeball College Series returns to UC Irvine for third annual tournament

UC Irvine brought the Spikeball College Series back on July 16, 2026, and the third annual tournament gave the program a clear sign of staying power on the West Coast. A one-off campus event would not draw a third straight run under the college banner; this one did, with UCI again serving as a stop in a structured college roundnet calendar.

That matters because UC Irvine has built the event around an actual competitive club, not a casual rec program. UC Irvine Campus Recreation lists Club Roundnet at UCI as a competitive Roundnet team, gender-inclusive and open to driven, self-motivated players of all skill levels. The club says it competes in the Spikeball College Roundnet Series and has its sights set on Nationals, while UCI’s ZotSpot listing identifies it as Club Roundnet at UCI, formerly Spikeball at UCI. That name change and the repeated tournament hosting point to a program that has already outgrown a novelty phase.

The series itself has the kind of scaffolding that separates real collegiate competition from pickup play. The Spikeball Tour Series runs dedicated pages for College Tournaments, College Roundnet, College Rankings, College Nationals Update, Hosting College Sectionals and official college results. Its College Southwest information says club tournament play begins in bracket format and squad seeding is determined by combined points based on final placements, a setup that rewards depth as much as top-end talent. The Tour Series also tracks college athletes individually, with a College 5 Team Squad page listing names such as Hunter Koth, Abby Lamontagne and Trey Thompson alongside class years.

The return to Irvine also fits the sport’s broader college arc. The Tour Series said it would not hold an event in 2020 because of coronavirus, then continued updating its rules in 2021, a reminder that the college side has had to rebuild and standardize as it expands. By 2023, college competition was visible enough to be promoted on ESPN, and the UCI tournament now sits inside that same pipeline. A third annual stop at UC Irvine does more than fill a summer date on the calendar; it gives college roundnet a repeat host in a region where continuity is starting to look like the real competitive edge.