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
At Fall Sectionals, you must have three teams minimum to compete in D1 Squads. These teams will fill Open A, B, and C.
If you bring three teams, but are facing a Squad with five teams, you will forfeit Mixed and Women's.
To win a confrontation, a Squad must win the majority of the matches. In the case where a three team Squad faces a five team Squad, the three team Squad must win all of their matches.
At Spring Sectionals and College Nationals, all D1 Squads must have all five teams to compete.
Each school may only submit one D1 Squad per event.
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.
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.
Switching players and teams mid-event is prohibited and will result in disqualification.
All club presidents representing Squads at College Nationals will be prompted to submit their lineup(s) to tournaments@spikeball.com by Friday, May 10, 2024 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. (Example: Placing the first or second best player on Open C.) Schools will be asked to rearrange their lineup if they are suspected of stacking.
What's Great About 5-Team?
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
