5s and Flash Earn 10 Points in the Austin Heat - MLP Austin Recap

MLP Austin was held in Austin, Texas, this past Memorial Day Weekend. Action started Friday, May 23and ended Monday, May 26, at the Austin Pickle Ranch.

This was the first event the six Challenger Level teams attended, with only five Premier Level teams in attendance. Both levels had teams play all the other teams once. There were 10 total Premier Level matches, and 15 Challenger Level matches.

Let’s break down the Premier Level action first.

The five teams and standings prior to, and after, MLP Austin

The Biggest Winners

Dallas Flash

Technically, the Flash lost the #1 overall ranking in this event, but no team was going to be able to maintain the pace of three points per match over the course of a season. Dropping two points against this level of competition was fantastic.

The Flash were undefeated in Austin, beating Miami and Orlando in regulation, while beating New Jersey and Texas in Dreambreakers. The craziest stat line I took away from this weekend was Augie and JW going 1-3. The only win they had was against the Miami men.

Tyra and Augie were the weak link last year in terms of win percentage, but they are off to a fantastic start this year, going 6-2. This ties them for the seventh best mixed doubles in Premier Level, out of 32 teams. This great record in mixed doubles means that Dallas can afford a few of the unexpected losses in men’s doubles.

New Jersey 5s

The 5s were in fifth place headed into the event, with question marks in both the men’s doubles team and the mixed doubles lineup of Meghan Dizon and Zane Navratil.

Will Howells and Zane went 4-0, beating very good teams in Eric Oncins/Christian Alshon, Jay Devilliers/Noe Khlif, Augie Ge/JW Johnson, and Dylan Frazier/Federico Staksrud. They beat those four teams by a combined score of 45-27. A very impressive outing for the duo, who had gone 3-3 in MLP Orlando. Howells and Navratil are now 7-3, together, which puts them in fourth place as a men’s doubles duo.

Meghan Dizon and Zane Navratil are still only 2-8, but one of those wins was against Eric Oncins and Tina Pisnik, in the third game of the last match of MLP Austin. The 5s secured the regulation win with the 11-8 victory. This duo is showing signs of life, but still needs to average a few more wins in upcoming events for the team to stay in the conversation of pushing the top two teams.

I didn’t mention Anna Leigh Waters yet. She went 6-2, losing a game each in women’s doubles and men’s doubles. Waters was the fifth ranked player in the Austin event, and she is currently ranked as the seventh-best player, in terms of 2025 overall rankings.

This was a tough test for the 5s, and they proved they were up to the task, taking 10 points out of a possible 12, tying the Flash on the weekend, despite losing in a Dreambreaker to them.

The 5s have now beat everyone they have played, except the Flash and the Shock, with both losses coming in a Dreambreaker.

Texas Ranchers

The Ranchers are probably feeling like they left points on the board in Austin, their hometown. They beat Orlando and Miami in regulation, but lost to the 5s in regulation, and lost to the Flash in a Dreambreaker.

The 5s loss probably hurt the most. There was a lot of hype going into that one, but the men’s doubles team took an unexpected loss, and then Zane and Meghan beat Eric and Tina. The Ranchers were hoping for at least one point from this one, and coming away with nothing probably stung.

While they wanted more points, I would argue the Ranchers did what they were supposed to do. They beat the teams they should, and even took a point from the Shock. Also, they stayed in the fourth position in the standings. So overall, I would call this weekend a success.

Combined with the fact that the Ranchers hosted a phenomenal MLP event, had the hometown crowd cheering and engaged the entire weekend, I would say the organization as a whole had a phenomenal weekend.

The Rest of the Pack

Orlando Squeeze

Orlando had an easier schedule than most, prior to MLP Austin. They faced off against three of the top four teams, and lost. They did handle their business, beating the Miami Pickleball Club in regulation, like they were supposed to do.

This team looks engaged, and despite losing their first three matches, came back on Monday and got the Miami win.

Orlando is a good team, and they will make the playoffs with the current roster construction. However, they are not going to push the top three teams come playoff time, with the current roster. I would not rule out a roster change for the Squeeze, but I don't see that as very likely.

Miami Pickleball Club

Miami had some very bad luck in terms of scheduling in 2025. They drafted Mya Bui based on her potential and ability to continue to get better throughout the year.

Unfortunately, Miami played in all three events thus far, and has played 15 matches, or 60% of their season.

Miami lost all four matches they played in MLP Austin, dropping them to ninth place overall, in terms of the standings. That is barely making the playoffs (top 10 make the playoffs in Premier).

To be clear, Miami was the underdog going into every one of the matches they played, so this was not unexpected. However, especially in the last match against Orlando, I saw some energy and effort issues creep in. This can happen when a team is stressed, feel like they can’t win, and players get frustrated.

Like Orlando, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some roster changes with Miami, but I don’t know who might be available that would make the roster better.

Challenger Level

Standings after the first Challenger Level event

Top 3 teams

Las Vegas Night Owls

The Las Vegas Night Owls are the team to beat in Challenger. The team consists of Pablo Tellez, James Delgado, Brooke Buckner, and Zoey Wang. All four of these players are better than some Premier Level backups. Even if a team gets to a Dreambreaker against the Night Owls, no team is going to come close to beating them. Unless rosters change a ton, I think the Night Owls finish in first place and win everything in Challenger this year.

This was my first time seeing James Delgado play live, and the kid has something. He is by far the least experienced player of the group, but he played well. He has great deception with his twoey off the bounce and caught a lot of players off guard with it. While I wouldn’t label him as a fiery player, he is definitely intense and does some quiet celebrations to pump himself up. I really like his upside.

Nashville Chefs

The Chefs started off poorly, losing in two Dreambreakers. However, they then won their next three matches, putting them in second place. Marshall Brown played lights out and seemed to be a team energizer throughout the weekend. He finished as the third-best Challenger Level player on the weekend.

Michelle Esquivel and Anderson Scarpa helped the Chefs beat D.C. in a Dreambreaker. Esquivel went 7-4 against Mari Humberg, and Scarpa went 8-3 against Daniel De La Rosa.

For a team that looked kind of down in the dumps early on, they played well down the stretch to earn a second-place ranking.

D.C Pickleball Team

If you look at this from a positive perspective, D.C. won at least a point in every single match they played. If you look at it from a negative perspective, D.C. lost in three Dreambreakers.

Not only did they lose the three Dreambreakers, but D.C. lost by a combined score of 43-64. That is an average scoreline of 14-21. This is not a good Dreambreaker team at all.

Back to the brighter side of things. This team is built on gender doubles, where they went 8-2 overall as a team, with each team just losing one game. All four players finished the event in the top 10 in terms of ranking.

• De La Rosa – 4
• Koop – 5
• Auvergne – 6
• Humberg – 9

I don’t think D.C. needs to switch anything up, and just focus in on continuing to win gender doubles, and maybe squeak out a few more mixed doubles games so they don't play many Dreambreakers.

Teams that need changes

The bottom three teams in Challenger were hard to watch at times. All three need some roster changes in my opinion.

Bay Area Breakers

The Breakers got a win in regulation and a Dreambreaker win, but lost three more in regulation. Two bright spots for the Breakers:

• Eric Roddy’s leadership, communication, and overall positive energy
• Alix Truong’s wanting to win so badly above anything else

DJ Young was very volatile this weekend – playing some of the best pickleball in all Challenger Level, and then seemingly checking out during the next game. Funaro went 3-7 overall, and finished ranked as the 22^nd player out of 24 in Challenger this weekend.

California Black Bears

The Bears started off losing to Florida, which ended up being their only win on the weekend. The Bears bounced back a little bit, getting a regulation win over the Breakers and a Dreambreaker win over the Chefs.

Rafa Hewett finished the event as the last ranked player, only winning one game of his 10. Hewett and Benitez never really found their groove, only winning one of their five games together.

Lina Padegimaite finished ranked eighth overall, the best ranking of any Black Bear player. I think her and Sleeth are a very good women’s team in Challenger, which went 3-5, and could push the top two women's teams moving forward.

I was most impressed with Sleeth’s improvement. She has become a defensive and resetting machine. A year ago, I would not have said that. She recently moved to the Boca Raton area to get better practice reps and it shows.   

Florida Smash

Like I said previously, the Smash won their first one, and then didn’t earn a point in their last four matches.

Cason Campbell stood out to me as having improved his doubles game significantly since the last time I saw him. I think him and Travis have some stuff to figure out, but should win more than two out of five in their next outing.

The women were just not good in Austin. Frantova and Ansboury went 0-5, losing by a combined score of 27-55, which is an average scoreline of 5.4-11.

Quick Turnaround

MLP is playing back-to-back-to-back weekends right now. With MLP Austin ending Monday, there is only a two-day break before MLP Phoenix starts on Thursday. As always, tune into The Dink newsletter for all the action. I will be posting my MLP Phoenix event preview on Wednesday morning.