With the completion of the 2023 3Wall Ball Outdoor Championships in Las Vegas two weekends ago, the year-long Outdoor Cup Series have completed. Here’s a recap of the winners and the narrative of how the results changed over the course of the season.
The LPL Financial Women’s Cup and the Kwm Gutterman Men’s Cup both awarded cash prizes and other benefits to the top 2 finishers across the three outdoor majors this year (Beach Bash, Outdoor Nationals, and 3WB).
Congratulations to the prize-winning finishers;
LPL Financial Women’s Cup Final winners:
1. Hollie Scott
2. Monserrat Mejia
KWM Gutterman Men’s Cup Final winners:
1. Daniel De La Rosa
2. Rocky Carson
Links to the final standings are here online:
– Ladies; https://docs.google.com/…/1LFzkzQQZU0mNLQ…/
– Men: https://docs.google.com/…/1uNa…/
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Lets delve into the top 10 for each cup, talk about how each finished.
Ladies:
1. Hollie Scott
2. Montserrat Mejia
3. Carla Munoz
4. Kelani Lawrence
5. Alexandra Herrera
6. Janel Tisinger-Ledkins
7. Michelle Key
8. Erika Manilla
10. Aimee Roehler
Scott took the title wire to wire in 2023, winning two titles at Beach Bash (Women’s Doubles and Mixed) along with making the singles final. From there she took another title at Outdoor Nationals, plus two more in Vegas, and won the cup with a commanding lead. 2nd place finisher Mejia missed Beach Bash but took her LPRT #1 talents to outdoor starting in Huntington Beach, where she took the singles title in her first ever outdoor appearance. She followed that up with a singles/doubles double in Vegas to just squeak past 3rd place Munoz for the money position. Carla just missed out on 2nd place for the second year in a row, taking the one-wall Pro doubles in Vegas and the Women’s pro doubles title in California. The only other touring pro to compete in all three majors was 4th place finisher Lawrence, who took the Beach Bash doubles title with Scott and had several other finals in the three wall competitions the rest of the way.
Future Hall of Famer Tisinger-Ledkins missed Beach Bash but took a title in Outdoor Nationals and came in 5th. LPRT #5 Herrera came in 6th, despite missing Outdoor Nationals. She took the Women’s doubles title in Vegas with Mejia and had two other finals along the way. Last year’s winner Key struggled with injuries and missed the first two events, but played well in Vegas and made both Mixed finals with partner Kane Waselenchuk to finish in 7th place. LPRT #6 Manilla made a slew of semi finals but never advanced any deeper, finishing in 8th place. Current LPRT #3 Laime took the one-wall pro title in Vegas, but struggled in the doubles events other wise in Vegas as compared to last year to finish in 9th place. Rounding out the top 10 was USA Racquetball Hall of Famer Roehler, who was a finalist in Florida in March in doubles and had a slew of results in Vegas to finish in 10th place.
Other notable finishers include:
– Teen-ager Victoria Rodriguez , who finished 12th and who competed in all three competitions and took a Paddleball title in Vegas.
– new mom Erica Williams bowed out of pro events in Vegas but played all three majors this year to finish 14th.
– Veronica Sotomayor was in 2nd place after Beach Bash, where she took a title and a final. However she could not travel to either of the subsequent majors to compete for the crown.
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Now lets talk about how the Men finished. Here’s the final top 10 standings:
1. Daniel De La Rosa
2. Rocky Carson
3. Rick “Soda Man” Koll
4. Eduardo Portillo
5. Benny Goldenberg
6. Robert Sostre “Ice Man”
7. Alejandro Landa
8. Greg Solis
9. Alvaro Beltran
10. Kane Waselenchuk
Like his partner Scott, De La Rosa (DLR) went wire-to-wire for this title, winning 7 of the 8 titles he competed in this year. The sole blemish on his outdoor major resume this year was in the Men’s Pro Doubles final in Huntington Beach, where he and Landa lost to @Josh Tucker and newlywed Brandon Davis in the final. Daniel now holds 29 major Outdoor titles to go along with his likely 3rd straight International Racquetball Tour pro title this year. He’s already on the short list for best outdoor player of all time; is he also on the short list for best indoor/outdoor combo player of all time? A player firmly in these same outdoor GOAT conversations is certainly Carson, who finished 2nd in this cup series competition on the back of his excellent CPRT results all year. He won CPRT in Florida with Sudsy Monchik , lost in the semis in California with regular partner @Jesus Ustarroz , and went to the final with Ustarroz in Vegas.
Long-time 3WB sponsor Soda Man came in 3rd in the cup competition this year, powered by a great CPRT win with Beltran over Carson/Ustarroz in Vegas. Portillo, who finished 2nd in last year’s cup, had to miss Outdoor Nationals this year but still took the 1-wall pro doubles final in Vegas to finish 4th. Portillo’s winning doubles partner in Vegas Goldenberg also made the final in Florida and finished 5th in the standings in the end despite focusing primarily on 1-wall competitions.
Benny’s beach bash finalist partner and WOR Hall of Famer Sostre finished right behind Benny in 6th; he and William Rolon were 1-wall pro doubles finalists in Vegas. Landa teamed up with DLR and was able to net enough points playing with the top player to finish 7th nearly on his pro doubles results in two events. Hall of Famer Greg Solis came in 8th; he took the Outdoor Nationals CPRT title with Josh Tucker and made the Vegas 3-wall singles final, losing to Alan Natera . The legendary Alvaro Beltran came in 9th in the Cup standings, taking CPRT in Vegas while missing Beach Bash while recovering from his dislocated elbow suffered last year. Finally, coming in 10th is none other than the 13-time IRT champ Waselenchuk, who has discovered one-wall and is loving it apparently, and powered his team to both Pro Mixed doubles finals in Vegas.
Other notable men:
– Brandon Davis’ wedding took out a ton of top Southern California talent from 3WB, and cost a number of the attendees (including Davis himself) at a higher spot in the standings.
– Josh Tucker stood in 2nd place after two Doubles titles in July; he finished 11th overall by only playing one of the Outdoor majors this year.
– Micah Rich and Jason Geis both sat in the top 10 after Outdoor Nationals, but fell to 16th and 20th overall by missing Vegas.
– Javier Mar was 2nd overall after a great Beach Bash, but fell to 22nd.
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That’s it for the Outdoor Cup Series.
next up? The 2023 Pan Am Games! We’ll do a knockout round preview once the round robins are done.