Recapping MLP Newport Beach: Dallas and Brooklyn Shake Things Up

Thedink Pickleball 6 hours ago 8 views

The top eight teams from the Major League Pickleball (MLP) regular season made their way to The Tennis and Pickleball Club at Newport Beach this weekend. The play was intense, dramatic, and supremely entertaining.

This weekend there were four matchups:

#1 New Jersey 5s vs. #7 Palm Beach Royals
#2 St. Louis Shock vs. #8 Texas Ranchers
#3 LA Mad Drops vs. #6 Dallas Flash
#4 Columbus Sliders vs. #5 Brooklyn Pickleball Team

Spoiler alert - two of the top four teams are moving on and two upsets occurred this weekend.

As a friendly reminder, this upcoming weekend there is a break in action. The semifinals will pick up on Friday, August 28th. This gives players time to recover from their play this weekend, and for the pundits, it gives us all a bit more time to talk about the matchups.

Let's get into the action.

The St. Louis Shock were the first team to punch a ticket to the semis

The Shock made quick work of their quarterfinal opponent, the Texas Ranchers. They won both matches 3-0.

Match #1:

Match #2:

The Shock played great this weekend from start to finish. Whomever has to play them in the semifinals will not be looking forward to the matchup.

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The New Jersey Fives beat Palm Beach to advance

First and foremost, I want to congratulate the Palm Beach Royals on a fantastic first season in MLP. They played above many people's expectations, and really played lights out in the playoffs.

Match #1:

Match #2:

New Jersey won in a nailbiter in the first match, 21-17 in the Dreambreaker. Will Howells was able to close that one out versus Casey Diamond. In the second match, the New Jersey men were able to turn the tide, and won 11-2, changing the momentum for the Fives.

The biggest questionmark for the Fives right now is Noe Khlif. He and Anna Leigh Waters lost both mixed matches against the Royals, which was the first time Anna Leigh has lost back to make games against the same opponent since last year's final against the Sliders with Will Howells. Does New Jersey keep things as is? Do they put Howells in mixed with ALW? Do they move Fed to play with ALW and Howells to play with Jorja? Time will tell.

The Dallas Flash were the first to pull off a quarterfinal upset over the LA Mad Drops

The Dallas Flash were 6 seeds heading into this, but didn't really feel like a 6 seed. They didn't earn a single standings point in MLP Austin and looked like the season was over. However, Dallas traded Tyra to Columbus for Danni-Elle Townsend and then picked up Alix Truong from the Flames.

Since then, Dallas has won two regular season events and took out the #11 seed Las Vegas Night Owls in dominating fashion.

Match #1:

Match #2:

Match #3:

The LA Mad Drops were able to win match #1, despite losing women's doubles. In the second match, the key was the second mixed match. Augie Ge and Danni Townsend were able to win this matchup, which caused a Dreambreaker. Dallas dominated the Dreambreaker, winning 21-11.

This one came down to the third match on Sunday afternoon. From a Dallas' perspective, things started off bad, losing women's 6-11, where they won the previous two games. However, JW Johnson and Augie Ge came out firing, winning men's 11-2 over Ben Johns and Max Freeman. JW and Brooke Buckner kept the pressure on and beat Ben and Jade Kawamoto. In the last game, Augie and Danni went up 9-0, but Catherine and Connor Garnett came roaring back to make it 7-9. It just wasn't enough, and Danni and Augie won 11-8.

The Brooklyn Pickleball Team Move on to the semis, eliminating the reigning champion Columbus Sliders

No one knew what to make of the Brooklyn Pickleball Team. Riley had a bone bruise on his knee less than a month ago and he was hobbling around. Rachel Rohrabacher had the video board fall on her foot/ankle and is still recovering.

They beat the undermanned SoCal Hard Eights last weekend in two, but took one to a Dreambreaker, and won 3-1 in the second match. Here are the results from this weekend against Columbus:

Match #1:

Match #2:

Match #3:

The key to match #1 was Brooklyn's Dreambreaker. They dominated from start to finish, despite the Sliders having two very good "singles specialists" in Crum and Castillo.

In the second match, it also came down to a Dreambreker on Sunday, and the Sliders chose to sit their singles specialists. Tyra and CJ played instead of Crum and Judit. With the new strategy, the Sliders won 21-18, and CJ Klinger sealed the deal against Chris Haworth for the win.

In the third and final match, Brooklyn won women's and men's doubles for the first time. Andrei and Parris were able to win 11-6. However, Jackie Kawamoto and Riley Newman took it home, winning 11-8.

We should hear who the two semifinal matchups are sometime Monday afternoon and I will update this article with that information.

Source: Thedink Pickleball

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