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Watch College Nationals 2023 on ESPN

College 5-Team Squad

The 5-Team Squad aims to support the growth of roundnet at the grassroots level. It's not enough to have the best individual team in the nation -- you have to have the drive, the depth, the team spirit.

Listen as College Roundnet Champion Mike White explains the 5-Team Squad (complete with SICK graphics)!

Teams 1 - 3

Open A, B, C

Any variation of male/female players

Team 4

Mixed

One male player and one female player

Team 5

Women's

Two female players

D1 Squad Limitations

  • Schools may bring up to 2 D1 Squads to compete in Fall or Spring Sectionals as long as they also bring at least 2 D2 Squads.
    • Schools may decide to stack one Squad or evenly spread out their athletes across the two Squads.
    • Schools must differentiate between their Squads when registering
      • e.g. Rochester A & Rochester B or Clemson Purple & Clemson White
  • A school may submit 1 D1 Squad without having to submit D2 Squads.
  • Schools may only bring 1 D1 Squad to College Nationals.

Non-Premier/Premier Player Placement

  • Players on Open Teams
    • #1 should be the best team, #2 the second best, etc. But that does not mean the top two players need to be on Team #1. Players 1 & 3 may play better together than 1 & 2.
  • Players on Mixed Teams
    • Male players that have competed in Pro Division from 2021-2024 should not be on the Mixed team. There are no requirements around the female players.

Alternates

Each squad is allowed to have up to two alternates that can be used to replace an injured player where the injury prevents the player from safely continuing.

      • During pool play, the alternate will take the spot of the injured player.
      • Adjustments to teams can be made between pool play and bracket play so that the teams are leveled correctly. Example: If a player on Team #1 is injured in pool play, the alternate will take that spot. But, before bracket play, a player on Team #2 can/should be moved to Team #1 so it remains the top skilled team on the squad. The alternate will then move down to Team #2 or #3.
      • The teams that start the bracket competition must remain the same throughout. Injuries after the start of bracket play will result in that team needing to forfeit.

Switching players and teams mid-event is prohibited and will result in disqualification.

Lineup Submission

All club presidents representing Squads at College Nationals will be prompted to submit their lineup(s) to tournaments@spikeball.com by Friday, May 16, 2025 at 11:59 PM Pacific.

The SCR Panel will be looking at lineups to ensure players and teams are in the correct order.

Stacking is prohibitied.

  • Open A must be better than Open B, which must be better than Open C
  • Of the six Open players, players ranked 1-3 must play on either Open Team A or Open Team B
    • An Open player ranked 1-3 overall may play Mixed (as long as they were not a participant of 2024 Open Pro)

Schools will be asked to rearrange their lineup if they are suspected of cheating.

No Hit Zone Usage

For Sectionals, all players on D1 Squads will play with the NHZ with some caveats.

1. All men's players must play with the NHZ
2. If the women's players from both teams agree, they do not have to use the NHZ during their match

Example A:
Pool Play: SIUE Mixed v UW Mixed
SIUE's woman is more advanced and would like to play with the NHZ.
UW's woman is newer to the game and is a bit intimidated by the NHZ and elects not to play with it.
Because the default is using the NHZ, both women must use the NHZ during the match.

Example B:
Pool Play: Baylor Women's v Texas Women's
Baylor decides they don't want to use the NHZ.
Texas agrees to not use it as well despite their women using the NHZ more often.
Both teams do not use the NHZ for their match.

At College Nationals, all players will use the No Hit Zone without exceptions.

What's Great About 5-Team?

Image of a young man playing Spikeball outdoors, captured mid-action as he swings his arms. He is wearing a white athletic jersey with blue accents and the word 'RICHMOND' on the front. He is also wearing a gray baseball cap.
Image of a young woman playing Spikeball, captured mid-action as she reaches out with her hand toward a yellow Spikeball. She is wearing a black and red Northeastern University jersey with a husky mascot logo on the front. Her hair is tied back in a ponytail, and she appears focused on the game.
Image of a young man smiling while wearing a black and orange sports jersey with the word 'BorderLine' across the front in bold white letters. The jersey also features a small logo for 'Spikers.' He is wearing a gray cap with the word 'Zion' embroidered on it.

Cole Model

Richmond

Class of 2023

Abby Lamontagne

Northeastern

Class of 2025

Trey Thompson

Montana State

Class of 2024

When I first got the news of the 5-team Squad, I felt like I had trained this Richmond club for years and now it was going to be reliant on people who had never really played before. It was always a male-dominated club. 

But I was wrong. I loved it. I thought it brought the campus together more just by having more girls and guys. The trips were more fun. It placed an emphasis on a more deep roundnet club and it truly felt like more of a team game! 

It made it really interesting on a lot of levels because it was a little more unpredictable, which made it more fun. I overall think it’s really big for women’s roundnet. 

Our guys are great and have always been super supportive of Malia and me. I never really treated us differently than anyone else. We were the only two women in our club our first year and have been able to expand the women’s program since. Our squad was very welcoming of the 5-team format when it was first introduced. Our executive board was also very adamant about getting Malia and me on the board for next year which we now are. 

We were able to see a lot of growth in our Section too! The 5-team format has also made us a lot closer with other women’s programs like RIT, Siena, and UConn. 

I obviously appreciate the 5-team format because I naturally feel like I have more of an impact within the program. 

We saw a lot of pros about 5-Team! It definitely pushed us to grow the Women’s Roundnet scene at Montana State.

We had to focus on training all the new players and since we are small, our coaching was spread thin trying to get everyone ready for College Nationals and Sectionals. This ultimately made our club better as we grew in numbers and skill.

On the competitive side, 5-Team made for more interesting matchups and strategies with our team arrangements, especially around our Mixed and Women’s teams. From a spectator standpoint, those matches were some of the most fun matches to watch. 

Overall, I was a big fan of this format and I hope it is used for future College Roundnet seasons!

Questions? Shoot us an email at tournaments@spikeball.com