After traveling across the country to Indianapolis, the Coachella Valley Scorpions ended the regular season as they began it, by winning the weekend. The Scorpions ended the weekend with a 3-1 record tied with the Seattle Tsunami, the Columbus Hotshots, and the OKC Punishers.
But Coachella was determined to be the winner by the NPL’s tie-breaking game differential, due to their dominating wins over OKC (9-3) and Indy (10-2).
Saturday AM
With the team’s partnerships clearly defined and practiced ahead of the competition, the Scorpions played strongly out of the gate Saturday morning at the newly opened 3rd Shot Pickleball facility with 15 courts. The team won 5 of the six gender matches and repeated the same results in the mixed competitions giving them a dominating 10-2 win. Of the 12 matches, 9 of them 2-0 sweeps.
Saturday PM
Against the Denver Iconics in the afternoon team battle, the Scorpions couldn’t replicate their quick morning start and fell behind 1-5. But the Scorpions came to life and won all 6 of the remaining matches to gain a 7-5 win and a 2-0 record for the day. Drew Slacum and Keith Jain led the way with perfect 4-0 records for the day.
The NPL assigned 7 teams to the Indianapolis site causing them to use a unique 3-way simultaneous team battle on each day of the weekend. Sunday was the Scorpions chance to participate in this format which was slightly chaotic but manageable. It often led to some confusion on who you were playing and what the overall score was.
The Scorpions were playing against Seattle and Oklahoma City, two teams who were also vying for a top 4 seed in the playoffs and a first-round bye. The teams battled evenly throughout the gender matches with the Scorpions tied with Seattle at 3 a piece and leading OKC 4-2. The Scorpions surged ahead against OKC in the mixed matches with a 5-1 record to secure a 9-3 win.
Against Seattle the Scorpions won their first three mixed matches to sit at 6 wins, needing only one more win in their final 3 matches. It wasn’t to be as Seattle held on to win all 3 of the matches in tightly contested games. It was 6 all, and the tie-breaking formula went Seattle’s way giving them a 7-6 win. This resulted in the 4-way tie, with Coachella Valley gaining the top spot and the winner’s $5,000 check.
Sunday was filled with many outstanding performances and plays. Marcin Rozpedski, Sabrina Guillebeaux and Kara Williams led the Scorpions with perfect 4-0 records.
The NPL recently announced their plans to expand their offerings next season with a 40’s division, a 60’s division and a “next-up” division. The Scorpions hosted a “next up” team and a 60’s team led by 2024 Scorpion alum Piet Aldrich, who was a former #1 ranked doubles tennis player from South Africa. Both teams performed well throughout the weekend, enjoying their initial NPL experience.
Next up for the Scorpions will be the season-ending championships to be held Friday through Sunday October 19, at SideOut Tsunami, home of the Seattle franchise. The Scorpions are expected to receive the #2 seed into the tournament and will have a first-round bye on Friday morning. They will begin play Friday afternoon. The finals will be televised on Selkirk TV and the NPL’s YouTube channel.
Local Scorpion-run Pickleball Camps will be held at Desert Princess CC on October 10/11 and November 7/8. Sign-ups are available at scorpionpickleballcamps.com.