A winning pair: Charlottesville’s new pickleball facility and UVA’s national champion club

“Although we have some really good players (in Charlottesville), they don’t have a lot of people to play against (to match their level),” Shearer said. “So, these kids bring the level up. It helps satisfy our higher players’ appetite.”

Pickleball, often described as a combination of badminton, pingpong and tennis, remains the fastest-growing sport in the United States. At UVA this year, 700 undergraduate and graduate students tried out for various team levels, including the 24-member tournament team that competes nationally.

Club co-president Arden Levin, a fourth-year student and tournament team member, said Cville Smash – the first facility of its kind in Charlottesville – gives UVA a distinct advantage over its peers.

“In the past, I’d sometimes be jealous of other schools’ facilities,” Levin said. “But now, I’m like, ‘Yeah, we probably have one of the best.’ I definitely think it’ll help make us better as a team.”

The Snyder Tennis Courts remain the club’s home base, but Cville Smash offers a new luxury a few miles from Grounds. Last winter, Levin said, “When we had three snow days, we missed so many practices. We really could have used the indoor facility then.”

Ngo and Arden Levin, a fourth-year UVA student and co-president of the University’s club pickleball team, volley at Cville Smash. Both say having access to an indoor facility gives the team a distinct advantage over their peers. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

Levin said he’s unaware of any other college pickleball clubs with an official arrangement with an indoor facility.

“Something we like to say is UVA pickleball sets the standard for collegiate pickleball,” third-year student Vivianne Ngo, the club’s director of sponsorships, said. “And this only adds to that.”

Shearer and her business partner, Lauren Carbo, have high aspirations for Cville Smash, and they’re leaning on a variety of Wahoos to help it thrive. Recent Darden School of Business graduates Ellie Jamison and Grace Collins, who founded their Play Henry pickleball paddle company while on North Grounds, are the providers of Cville Smash’s in-house paddles.

“Just being at UVA, I knew Darden’s reputation and how a lot of Darden projects produced really big businesses,” Shearer said. “So, we met with them early in the process. They wanted to help us. And they did a great job with the paddles.”

Shearer has dealt with UVA students most of her adult life. Whether they’re varsity athletes, club pickleball players or recent alumni, they’re “high-level kids,” she said. “They speak well, they’re motivated, and they learn quickly.”

It all makes for a solid partnership for Cville Smash, which, as Shearer said, aims to “be the best” and “have the best” in its building.