UC Irvine Roundnet Club pushes toward college Nationals with structured training

UC Irvine’s Roundnet Club was running like a program with postseason expectations, not a pickup group. Under president Hunter Koth, the club mapped out spring 2026 practices for Mondays and Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m. at the ARC Fields, with sessions scheduled from March 30 through June 5 and no practice on May 25.

That structure matters because UCI has made its competitive intent explicit. The club lists the Spikeball College Roundnet Series as its league and the Spikeball Tour Series as its national pathway, with its sights set on reaching Nationals and joining the elite tier of the sport. It also describes itself as gender-inclusive and open to driven players of all skill levels, a combination that gives the roster a wide entry point while still pointing every serious player toward the same goal: play better, travel farther, and contend with the best college teams in the country.

The scale around UCI shows why that approach is increasingly standard. The college roundnet ecosystem now spans 10 U.S. sections and international competition, with more than 1,100 players, more than 125 clubs, and 21 U.S. events. Spikeball says the point of the college system is to generate more local competition, create access to tournaments, and support clubs that recruit, practice, and compete against other colleges. UCI fits squarely inside that model, and its place in UC Irvine Club Sports, where Roundnet is one of 39 club sports, gives the program the backing of a larger university athletics structure.

The Nationals picture is getting sharper, too. The 2025 College Nationals were scheduled for May 24-25 at Grand Park Sports Campus in Westfield, Indiana, while spring sectionals stretched across regions including the Pacific Northwest, Southwest, South Central, Atlantic Coast, Great Lakes, Northeast, Central and East Bay. That calendar shows the path UCI is trying to follow: consistent spring reps, sectional competition, then a shot at the national stage.

The sport’s college framework has also become more sophisticated. The 2023 season introduced five-team squads for Division I programs, along with women’s roundnet at spring sectionals and College Nationals. Add in the official college results archive, which tracks championship records back to at least 2017, and the picture is clear: UC Irvine is not building in a vacuum. It is training inside a maturing national pipeline, and the ARC Fields schedule was another sign that the club expects to compete like one of the sport’s next-tier programs.