Mississippi State University’s Club Pickleball team has earned a bid to the 2026 Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating, or DUPR, Collegiate Nationals following a first-place win during this month’s regional tournament at the University of Alabama.
MSU’s squad—Jaxson Flores, Lily Holliday, Ethan Mitchell and Allie Denson—went undefeated through pool play, defeating the UA team and those from the University of North Alabama and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
A matchup against Auburn University brought some excitement to the courts. MSU swept the men’s and women’s doubles matches while falling to the Tigers in both mixed doubles matches. This tie forced a singles dreambreaker, or tiebreaker, where the Bulldogs clinched the win.
The Bulldogs defeated the host Crimson Tide 3-1 in the semifinals to earn a spot in the championship match against Florida State University. Due to inclement weather, both finalists MSU and FSU were awarded national tournament bids. DUPR will announce the tournament’s details at a later date.
Flores, a senior kinesiology major and the club’s president, was pleased with the team’s performance.
“The team really came together this weekend. We were on the court competing for approximately 10 hours, which is five times longer than we usually practice and train for,” he said. “It took a lot of grit to continue performing at our highest level as the day grew longer, but we were able to do it with the support of each other and our other Mississippi State players there to support and play as well.”
Sean Kucharski, competitive sports coordinator for MSU University Recreation, said, “The commitment from this team practicing four to five times a week is starting to show in their tournament results. Seeing them beat a powerhouse like Alabama is something Graduate Assistant Martin Hood and I are very pleased with. The team benefits greatly from the support of the university, including the new pickleball courts and funding for hotels. Student Affairs as a whole has made these opportunities possible for the pickleball team and other club sports. We’re beginning to see more and more success from our club teams, and pickleball is one of my teams leading the way.”
The national tournament will be hosted in the spring by DUPR, the global rating system for professional and amateur pickleball. To learn more about club sports at MSU, visit www.urec.msstate.edu.