NEW for 2022! SCPA Ladder League

When and Where?  

Sign your team up by June 1 and then play at least one match per week, June 5 through July 9 (five weeks), at times and places agreeable to both teams.  Winners report match results by Saturday for the weekly standings update.  The top four teams conduct a playoff July 10-16.  

What’s the Set Up?

You pay nothing.  League administrator Josh Underwood will create the ladders based on teams’ declared skill levels (2.0 to 5.0) and, within a skill level, any rough sense of teams’ relative strengths. (This is just because we have to start somewhere.  The matches will soon determine rankings!)  

Any Division with more than 10 teams will be divided roughly into a higher-skill bracket and a lesser-skill bracket, e.g., Women’s Doubles—Advanced 3.5 & Above and Women’s Doubles—3.5 & Below.  (The split will likely be within 3.5 because it seems about half of all pickleball players consider themselves 3.5.  Please just roll with it!)  

Josh will issue a name/cell/email list for each Division to all players in that division, so that teams may communicate directly about challenges and scheduling.  

What Happens Each Week? 

Teams must play at least one match/week by challenging teams above them on the ladder or accepting challenges from teams below.  

     Rules for the Challenger:  Challenge any team within three slots of your current ranking, except that you can’t play the same team two matches in a row.  (Just play a different team and then challenge the first team again.). Schedule the match at a time and place agreeable to all participants.  

     Rules for the Team Challenged:  Within three days, issue one of three acceptable responses:  (a) “We accept, and here are times we could play in the next 7 days;” (b) “We decline because we’ve already got 1+ matches this week and don’t want to play more;” or (c) “We forfeit because we can’t/don’t want to play this week.”  Please go sparing on (c), as the purpose is to play competitive matches, not to hide out from challengers!  Not responding within three days = forfeit.  

Matches are played on any local court lined for pickleball, although not during regular SCPA drop-in.   Matches are best two out of three games to 11, win by 2, with server/side selection initiated by chance (e.g., coin flip).  Follow USAP rules.  Rained-out matches can be rescheduled at a mutually agreeable time.  No-show for a scheduled match is a forfeit.  For the match to count, the winning team must report results by Saturday, 5 PM using the form on this page.   

Scoring:  When the challengers win, they take the defending team’s rung and the defenders descend a slot.  When the defenders win, no one moves rungs.  When a team forfeits or fails to play any matches in a week, that team moves down a rung and their opponent’s position on the ladder does not change.  

What if a Team Can No Longer Play?

Any team that may no longer play in the league due to injury, travel, etc. may resign at any time.  A team that fails to play any matches within a 2-week period will be moved to the bottom rung of the ladder.