CASR Columns contributor

It’s been over three semesters since the Spikeball Roundnet Association’s Pacific Northwest and SouthWest Sections competed in some of the final college roundnet competitions prior to the COVID-19 fallout.

Enter the College Roundnet Western Series.

The geographic regions of the PNW and Southwest combined forces under the leadership of the PDX (Portland) Roundnet and California Roundnet (California Association for the Sport of Roundnet) governing bodies creating their own Tour Series for the 2021-2022 academic school-year.

While the format has yet to be finalized, expectations for old faces and excitement for new ones is rising as the series nears.

A panel of CASR/PDX leaders and college team captains voted on a recent poll to gauge expectations for the participating schools and their individual teams.

The Methods: How we ran the poll

The panel of voters included the following CASR/PDX Leaders and college team captains:

Zach Duffy (Oregon)
Warren Foote (Cal Poly SLO)
Will Foote (UCLA)
Josh Fragiacomo (CASR)
Jake Howhannesian (Chico State)
Tucker Judkins (Southern California)
Aiden Mackey (Grand Canyon)
Ryan Oswalt (UC Santa Barbara)
Archie Powell (Santa Barbara City College)
Andrew Stevens (Northern Arizona)

An (horribly wrong) tier list is shown above. Source: kapwing.com.

Voters were asked to rank all provided A Teams, B Teams, and C Teams relative to the other teams in their level (e.g. rank an A Team relative to all other A Teams). The philosophy of using a tier-based rankings system is simple. Hypothetically, teams in a given tier should beat (or lose to) other teams in the same tier about 50% of the time. Likewise, higher tiers should beat lower tiers an (hypothetically) even larger percentage of the time.

For example, if Chico State A and Pepperdine A could hypothetically beat each other 50% of the time and are the best A teams, then a voter should give those team both “S” Tier votes.

The responses were then compiled and votes were assigned the following point values based on the tier-level:

Points were assigned to each vote based on the tier. Note: if a voter didn’t know a certain team well enough to place them in a tier, the average of the total points the team received from the known responses was multiplied by the number of “UNKNOWN” votes.

The Results

In total, six teams qualified for the rankings and four teams were left unranked. If a team failed to get three known votes (i.e. seven “UNKNOWN” votes), they were not listed in this rendition of the Power Rankings.

This threshold was set to prevent the weight of captain’s votes for their own teams having too much weight, and the thought that too many unknown teams could provide so much trivial information that it became confusing.

From the ten teams involved in the rankings, three tiers became clear based on the voting: The Cracked, The Contenders, and The C-uestion Marks.

The Cracked (GCU, Cal Poly SLO, UCLA)

Grand Canyon (Trevor King/Aiden Mackey, 68.75 points) led the way in the C-team rankings with Cal Poly SLO (Josh Cain/Grant Holland, 67.22 points) following behind to represent the only teams that earned an S-tier ranking on average (70 points is all S-tier votes). UCLA (Saúl Cervantes/Aric Cutuli, 63.25) managed an “S-minus”-tier average.

Aiden Mackey serves at the Utah Roundnet Association’s SoCal Classic in Costa Mesa on June 26, 2021.

GCU Trevor King/Aiden Mackey (68.75, S)

The ‘Lopes hope to leave behind their fourth-place finishes at both of the SRA’s SouthWest Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 Sectionals thanks to the talent they have retained since the 2019-2020 season.

While many schools that competed in 2019-2020 have had many members of their roster graduate, Grand Canyon has all of their core intact, including the likes of King and Mackey.

Mackey, the current GCU team captain is a solid Contender-level (the level he competes in SRA Open Competitions) player on the SRA scene and has consistently traveled to SRA competitions, Open and College alike.

Cal Poly Slo Josh Cain/Grant Holland (67.22, S)

The Mustangs, meanwhile, will look to defend their run atop the SouthWest podium on the backs of their own talented third team. While their depth is not as strong as it was in early 2020 (when Sam Buckman, Zack Dunkelberger, James Shimabukuro and Cade Zorio, all competed on the Cal Poly C Team at some point), it is nonetheless still stronger than many other schools that will compete this fall.

Like the ‘Lopes, Cal Poly’s C Team features a returner in Grant Holland but also an up-and-coming freshman in Josh Cain. Question marks surround Holland’s abilities given that he hasn’t played consistently on the competitive scene at least in comparison to his projected partner, Cain.

Raised in the Sacramento-area, Cain’s skillset has grown almost as rapidly as the rest of the roundnet scene in Sacramento. Cain features a strong step-out cut and jam in his serving arsenal and has a strong overall game aided by his natural athleticism.

Cain and Holland will be expected to help SLO continue the reign of success it has shown it deserves on the SouthWest stage. If they keep drinking whatever’s in the water that makes SLO a factory which churns out stellar roundnet players, Cain and Holland will hopefully continue to lift what makes Cal Poly so good: their floor.

Cervantes (three from left) finishes atop the Advanced podium at the CASR El Grande in San Luis Obispo on June 19, 2021.

UCLA Saúl Cervantes/Aric Cutuli (63.25, S-)

For UCLA, Saúl Cervantes and Aric Cutuli have big shoes to fill on a Squad that has perennially lived in Cal Poly SLO’s shadow.

Cervantes and Cutuli are both well known on the UCLA squad, but still have more to prove on the college scene as their S- ranking shows. Both are juniors at UCLA and have been playing since 2019-2020.

Cutuli was featured on UCLA’s C Team in the Fall 2019 SouthWest Sectional and graduated to the Bruins’ B Team in the Spring of 2020. He features athleticism on defense and hard hitting on offense.

Like Cutuli, Cervantes also is very athletic. However, around Los Angeles, Cervantes is better known for his consistent hip-level serves and ability to avoid double-faulting often – if at all. Cervantes showcased his skills in the Advanced division at the CASR El Grande in SLO, finishing first with Samuel Alsup of UCLA’s B Team.

Cutuli, meanwhile, hasn’t played with the UCLA team since the pandemic began as he stayed home for the 2020-2021 school-year. However, sources say that he has been an active participant at the Golden Gate Roundnet League pickup sessions in recent times.

If both Cutuli and Cervantes will need to continue to take steps forward in terms of consistency, the sky’s the limit for the duo and their Squad, alike. UCLA can only hope that this “sky-reached” scenario is one that lifts them higher than second in the SouthWest.

The Contenders (Oregon, Nevada, Washington)

All three teams in the next tier have more in common than just attending schools whose commonly accepted name (on the athletics scene) is the state in which they reside. Of Oregon (Landon Sheeran/Erik Faeustle, 58.67 points), Nevada (Pio Clavecilla/Kaden Hagenbuch, 57.2 points), and Washington (Trevor Slaughter/Ryan Wheelock, 55 points) most are new faces looking to prove themselves in this mixed PNW/Southwest collaborative competition.

Each team earned an A-tier average to secure the final ranked spots in the C-Team rankings.

Oregon Erik Faeustle/Landon Sheeran (58.67, A)

According to Oregon captain Zach Duffy, Erik Faeustle and Landon Sheeran are both returning members of the Ducks’ club.

“Both (Fauestle and Sheeran) are both mid-Contender players,” Duffy said. “They are very good off-net (hitters) and defensive teams, but need to work on serving to become better.”

In upcoming days, serving will be a recurring motif that separates the S’s from the A’s and A’s from the B’s. Like many of the other teams in this tier, Faeustle and Sheeran will need to practice serves diligently in order to take the next step in their progression.

Nonetheless, Faeustle and Sheeran – who started playing during the pandemic – “have made massive improvements going from Intermediate level at the start of the year last year to mid-Contender at the start of the year this year,” Duffy said.

Ken Pflaum, a member of Oregon’s B Team, and Faeustle are playing in the SRA California Tour Stop on September 18th where both Ducks will have a chance to back up their rankings.

Nevada Pio Clavecilla/Kaden Hagenbuch (57.2, A)

While Kaden Hagenbuch is a returning junior, his probable partner in Pio Clavecilla is entering his first College Series season.

Hopes are high for both according to Nevada captain Jack Stinson.

“(Clavecilla) played in a bunch of Cali tournaments this summer and during COVID and improved extremely quickly,” said Stinson. “(Hagenbuch) took a brief hiatus from Spikeball during COVID but is returning better than before.”

Unlike the other teams in this tier, Clavecilla and Hagenbuch are known on their campuses for their serving said Stinson.

“(Clavecilla’s) best attribute is his insanely low serves and Hagenbunch’s) serves are deadly from both sides,” said Stinson.

If they can clean up the other portions of their game while staying solid from the service line, Clavecilla and Hagenbunch can quickly rise the rankings, taking the Wolf Pack with them.

Washington Trevor Slaughter/Ryan Wheelock (55, A)

According to Washington captain Ryan Slaughter, Trevor Slaughter and Ryan Wheelock aren’t guaranteed to even comprise the Huskies’ C Team.

“(T. Slaughter and Wheelock) are fillers to see who our third team will be for our squad,” said Slaughter. “[However, they are'] all high-contender players.”

Clearly Slaughter and Wheelock have a lot to prove to make Washington’s C Team let alone make a name for themselves in the CRWS. As such, the two are borderline members of the following (and final) tier.

The C-uestion Marks (Chico State, Gonzaga, Northern Arizona, Southern California)

This final tier is comprised of players who feature many “filler” players like Slaughter and Wheelock for Washington. As such, many panelists were unsure where to rank the teams. Because of the fact that Chico State’s Ryan Garrigan and Patrick Warren, Gonzaga’s Mason Manca and Ryan Barrett, Northern Arizona’s Robbie Lee and Zach Joson, and Southern California’s Adrien Sprecher and Max Huang, all failed to garner three known votes, they remain unranked in this rendition of the CRWS Power Rankings.

Despite the question marks surrounding the players and teams in this tier, many captains like Andrew Stevens of Northern Arizona and Jake Howhannesian of Chico State are optimistic with what they’ve seen from their potential C Teams.

"Lee is mid-contender level and has a solid cut serve and an inconsistent left,” said Stevens. “Joson has a cut and a jam but is developing it more and more every day.”

Lee has attended 2 tournaments and Zach has yet to dip his feet in the competitive waters, so like others, these two have a lot to prove.

Even still, Stevens says both are progressing rapidly as Norther Arizona looks to have their own breakout on the college scene in 2021.

“Both have improved massively,” said Stevens. “They are the two quickest improvers behind Braeden (Miller) on the second team.”

Chico State’s resurgence onto the roundnet scene is being led by Howhannesian on the college front but by a familiar face on the SRA roundnet scene, Skyler Boles, behind the scenes. Howhannesian says the Wildcats are being coached by Boles and his bevy of roundnet accolades weekly and that Garrigan and Warren are learning quickly from the OG himself.

“Garrigan is low-contender and new to college spike,” said Howhannesian. “Warren is high-advanced and progressing super fast.”

With the rapidly approaching CRWS openers on October 23rd in Oregon and November 6th in Cal Poly – both SRA Sanctioned events – the progress that many of these captains claim will have a chance to be come to fruition.

If their hopes turn out to be well-placed, perhaps these question marks can make a statement about the state of college roundnet in the West for years to come.

The B-Team Rankings will be posted tomorrow (9/3) followed by A-Team rankings (9/4) and Overall-Squad rankings (9/5).

You can contact Foote with questions or comments on Instagram @will.foote.