Noel Gaytan is living a dream right now, playing in a pickleball tournament with her daughter and winning a gold medal.
Noel and daughter Cierra Gaytan-Leach captured the top skill level division Friday at the Kenny Loggins Pickleball in the Danger Zone Tournament, defeating the local team of Courtney Cox and Shannon Minne, 15-7, at the Santa Barbara Municipal Courts.
Behind the terrific defensive play of Noel, the mother-daughter combination from Corona del Mar built a big lead and completed an unbeaten run through the 4.5+ category on the opening day of the three-day competition.
“She was nails in the back,” said Cierra of her mom’s defense play. “The ball was a little bit heavier, so we thought: ‘Let’s just try to set each other up from the back and then we’ll try to go for the put aways at the net.’ That was kind of the game plan.”
Noel said she prides herself on being a strong defender.
“I do. That’s what my job is: to set (Cierra) up. I try to keep one more ball over for her so that she can get her hands on it. I train against a wall a lot and that really helps.”
Cox and Minne hammered away in the fast-hands battles but Noel stood her ground and kept the ball in play.
“Mom is the unsung hero right there,” said Minne. “She is incredible. They play really well together, so smart. And the mom has nerves of steel. She can take it all day and just stay right in the match. She kept getting unattackable shots to us so that we pop it up and her daughter puts it away.”
Noel, a senior pro player, praised Cox and Minne.
“They were a good team. We had some good points but I felt like our defense was really good and Cierra’s ability to put away the ball, and mine when I had the opportunity, made the difference. Cierra is a major threat to have on your side. I’m very grateful to play with her.”
Cierra, 34, was a big-time tennis standout as a youth, winning four U.S. National Open events and an Easter Bowl doubles title. She was ranked as high as No. 7 nationally in doubles and among the top-10 in singles as a junior. She got a scholarship to play at Texas in Austin and was a Big 12 champion at No. 4 singles as a sophomore. She finished her college career at Missouri and earned second-team All-SEC honors.
Cierra got started in pickleball after her mom, a former State Community College tennis champion at Orange Coast College, picked up the game.
“I told her all about it and said, ‘Cierra, this game was made for you, it has your name on it.’”
Cierra resisted at first. “I thought it was just for old people and I said no. Then I tried it and I got hooked.”
She played on the pro tour and defeated some of the big names in the game in doubles, players like Anna Bright and Paris Todd. She played in the team-format Major League Pickleball with the SoCal Hard Eights in the fall of 2023 after giving birth to her son.
“I played on the pro tour and it was really fun and now I get to do this with my mom,” said Cierra. “Last year, we lost in the finals in a tough battle and this year we brought it home.”
All four players in the final were moms. Minne has four kids and Cox has one.
Minne, a former champion in the top division, said it was honor to play the Gaytans in the final.
“(Cierra) is one of the highest rated players I’ve played against. She was incredible. The way she poached, her power, the read on the court was the next level. Both Courtney and I played against her last year and we really wanted to earn our way to the gold-silver match to get another chance to play with her again. To be on the court with her is an honor.”
Despite falling short, Cox, a former collegiate volleyball player at Michigan State and Lee University in Tennessee, said they had good time playing in the final.
“They’re so fun to play against because they are so good,” she said of the Gaytans. “We don’t get to play against people like that very often. Just the purity of (Cierra’s) shots, we tried to go behind her a couple of times. A lot of times when people play them, they go after the mom every time, so (Cierra) will come in and poach. So we tried to go behind her and got her a couple times. But they’re just good all-around players.”
San Diego’s Megan Allers and Liz Trawler took the bronze medal.
Medals in 10 women’s divisions were awarded on Friday.
The tournament continues Saturday with mixed doubles action and the Celebrity Exhibition Matches with Loggins, actors Stephen Baldwin and Jason Hervey (“Wonder Years”), country music singer Shane Mcannally, comedian Craig Shoemaker and Mexican singer-songwriter Omar Ruiz. The pro players include Matt Manassee (Pickleball TV broadcaster who is known as the Pickleball Coach of the Stars), Scott Crandall, Cierra Gaytan-Leach and local pro Dominik Stefanov.
