March 07, 2024 | SPORTS | By Olivia Xerras
This past Saturday, March 2, marked the culmination of another historic Second Saturday pickleball series.
An event that is put on the calendar weeks in advance for many competitors, the Second Saturday Series pickleball edition had an amazing turnout. 72 students came out to play, splitting their time on the two viable indoor gyms. Teams rotated on and off this courts, allowing each team to play each other at least once.
One power duo, Sean Dunbar ‘24 and Ella Lippelman ‘25 spoke to their excitement for their second, Second Saturday Series debut on the pickleball courts.
“We’ve been ‘prepping’ for this all year,” said Lippelman as Dunbar follows up with, “This is our Super Bowl right here, there is no bigger day in sports.”
When asked about why they’ve spent so much time preparing for this day, Dunbar explains he does not want to repeat what happened previously in the Second Saturday Series in the fall.
“It was our debut on the pickleball court, we got smacked, [that is] not going to happen this time.”
The excitement in the air was high as each pairing brought their A-game to the court throughout each round-robin game series scored to 21. If questions arose from lack of knowledge or rules of the game, Mea Allex ’26 was perfectly placed on the sidelines to accommodate players, hear their frustrations, explain the game, offer friendly support and even curate the vibe of the games by playing music through the gym speakers.
Allex says, “I am technically a supervisor of this event, just to make sure it goes smoothly, I’ve played with my grandma a ton so I’m here for rules clarification [and] I’m also on aux duty right now.”
Andie Berman ’24 explains during the event that when asked about her expectations for the day, she and her pickleball partner, Bridget Hanley ’24, couldn’t get enough of the fun and competition.
Hanley says as a response to their level of preparation for the event, “We were listening to the ‘Rocky’ soundtrack all night getting prepared, and we plan to do so in the game before the championship.”
Berman adds, “We were actually just saying we want to do this every weekend.” Talk then shifted to the potential for an IM pickleball league and more pickleball tournaments for the campus to partake in, it became obvious that there is a lot of love for the sport. Reported in 2023, Sports & Fitness Industry Association’s (SFIA), Topline Participation Report announced that pickleball is America’s fastest-growing sport for the third year in a row (out of 124 tracked sports) and leads to the plausible conclusion that there is much room for the sport to grow on campus. Following the publishing of this article, there is much desire to unveil more pickleball-related events for students on campus this semester.
The tournament culminated with a championship bracket in the later afternoon, where the best teams from the pool play rounds competed head-to-head for the ultimate prize of two CC branded Camelbak water bottles. An infamous photograph will be displayed on the formerly all-IM team winning wall where now, the wall encompasses both IM winning teams and Second Saturday winning teams or pairs.
Winning pair, ‘Dill Pickles’ (Dylan Stapley ‘27 & Zeke Lubin ‘27) beat Nick Bishop ‘24 and Jimmy Andrews ’25, closing the tournament with a high note and a new photograph for the wall.
As for myself and my extremely talented partner, Denise Geronimo ‘24, we ended with a 0-6 record in pool play but do plan to return to any CC endorsed pickleball event in the future before graduation if the moment does arise.