Round 1 of Playoffs in the Books - Final Four Teams Set in MLP

This weekend, the first round of the Major League Pickleball (MLP) playoffs took place in San Diego, California, at the Barnes Tennis Center.

The Premier Level saw all 10 playoff contenders converge to fight it out for one of the four spots in the semifinals in MLP New York next weekend.

In Challenger, all six teams played, with only two earning the right to play in the finals in New York.

Let’s get into the action.

Top Storylines

The Columbus Sliders upset the Dallas Flash to earn a berth into the semifinals

In what was a perplexing move, the Dallas Flash, the #2 overall seed, chose to play the Columbus Sliders in the quarterfinals. The Flash had the choice of playing the Texas Ranchers, Columbus Sliders, or the LA Mad Drops.

Many pundits mentioned this as a strategic error, including Zane Navratil:

Dallas Flash versus Columbus Sliders was the best MLP series of all time, but the fact that they even played was the worst strategic blunder of all time.

While at the event, I was able to personally talk to Mark Molthan, the owner of the Dallas Flash. He confirmed the rumors that the players decided they wanted to play the Sliders. Many people thought they should have chosen to play the Texas Ranchers.

However, once they finished their first match, I thought it may have been a good decision, and here is why:

The Sliders were never going to beat the Flash in regulation, so the best they could hope for was a Dreambreaker win. In the first match they played on Friday night, the Dallas Flash didn’t play their best in doubles, but still won the DreamBreaker. Tyra and Jorja went 12-5 against Parris and Lea in the DreamBreaker to seal the deal, winning 21-18. I thought to myself, “If Dallas didn’t play great, but still found a way to win, their next one should be much easier.”

I was wrong. Columbus came out on Saturday night and once again beat JW Johnson in both of his doubles games. Through two matches, JW Johnson was 0-4 in his doubles games. This time, though, the tables turned for Columbus in the DreamBreaker. Lea Jansen carried the team, going 8-0 in her DreamBreaker points against Tyra, leading Columbus to a 21-14 Dreambreaker win.

All the marbles were on the line in the third and final match on Sunday - win or go home. The Sliders got off to a HOT start, winning both gender doubles games, 11-4. It looked somewhat over for the Dallas Flash, because Columbus had grabbed all the momentum. Instead, Dallas fought back in both mixed games, winning 11-3, and 11-8. JW Johnson earned his first doubles victory of the weekend in the last mixed game against Andrei and Parris. And it seemed as though the momentum had shifted back to Dallas.

In the third and deciding DreamBreaker, Andrei Daescu went 8-4 against JW Johnson, including a 4-0 of him in the second round. Having lost to Augie 1-3, 1-3 in his first two rounds, CJ Klinger stepped up to the plate at 18-18, and rattled off three points in a row, to clinch the match and series win.

This was a huge win for the Columbus Sliders, and threw a huge wrench in the playoff picture, as the Flash were heavy favorites in this one.

The LA Mad Drops kicked things into overdrive, sending Brooklyn home

On the other hand, The LA Mad Drops handled the Brooklyn Pickleball Team with ease, in their quarterfinal matchup.

Brooklyn was very unlucky throughout the regular season, in terms of health. Specifically, at one point all three of their men (Riley Newman, Dekel Bar, and Pat Smith) were all out with illness and/or injury.

This bad luck carried over to the playoffs, where despite earning the four seed, they were forced to play the newly rejuvenated LA Mad Drops in the quarterfinals of the playoffs, against Ben Johns.

The first match was all LA - in fact, it was so lopsided, that LA won 3-0, by a combined score of 33-10 on Saturday.

Sunday was much more competitive, with Rachel and Jackie taking out Catherine and Jade, 11-8 in women’s. LA went on to win the next three games, 11-4, 11-5, 11-7, securing their spot in the semis.

The New Jersey 5s sent the Texas Ranchers packing, while also receiving a double bird

In what came as a surprise to the 5s, they played the Texas Ranchers in the quarterfinals. I think the majority of people thought the Flash were going to pick the Ranchers, and then the 5s were going to play the Sliders. 

Instead, the 5s beat the Ranchers 3-0 on Saturday, and followed that up with a DreamBreaker win on Sunday, 21-13.

There were two noteworthy storylines outside the match scores in this matchup.

First, the GM of the Texas Ranchers, Ryan Dawidjan, was not seen with the team during matches. He was sitting behind the team and didn't seem involved in the coaching and/or strategy of the team. I am unsure exactly what happened here, but I will continue to monitor the situation for any storylines.

The second thing that happened, was Christian Alshon losing his mind in the second match against the 5s. Leigh Waters is the coach of the 5s, and also coaches Alshon on the PPA Tour, when he is not playing against Anna Leigh Waters.

Alshon just sent the double bird towards the 5s bench and continued arguing with Leigh Waters after the mens game and before his mixed game.

I was watching live from approximately 20 feet away, and I have no idea what Leigh Waters did to rile Alshon up, but he became unhinged in the men's doubles game of the second match on Sunday. At 7-6, they lost the point, and Oncins quickly called a timeout and as he was walking to the bench, Alshon flipped off the entire 5s bench with both middle fingers, while walking to his towel.

He was immediately given a blue card, which is like a technical warning on the PPA Tour. Credit to Alshon though, because he regrouped himself after the men's doubles loss, and beat Anna Leigh and Howells, 11-6, alongside Kaitlyn Christian.

The Ranchers forced the DreamBreaker, but couldn't find an answer for Anna Leigh Waters. She carried the 5s in the DreamBreaker, beating Kaitlyn Christian 7-1, on their way to the 21-13 win.

The 5s are going to into the semifinals as the second-best seed from the regular season still alive. 

The St. Louis Shock took care of business as the #1 seed, knocking off the Orlando Squeeze

Speaking of the best teams from the regular season, the St. Louis Shock beat the Orlando Squeeze to punch their ticket to the semifinals in NYC in two matches.

They beat the Squeeze 3-0 on Friday, and 3-1 on Saturday. The Squeeze were without Dylan Frazier, who injured his right leg in the PPA Bristol Open last weekend. He was on-site cheering on his team and helping them get ready, but definitely wasn’t moving like his normal self.

The Shock looked precise with their execution, going 7-1 in games. The only loss came on Saturday, when Anna Bright and Kate Fahey lost 8-11 to Lacy Schneemann and Milly Rane. Watching that game live, I thought that was the best both Schneemann and Rane have played together and overall in the last six months or so.

The Shock didn’t panic, and just battled back, winning men’s 11-8, and then mixed, 11-9, 11-4.

I had the Shock as the favorites to win the whole thing heading into the playoffs, and nothing from San Diego has changed my mind.

The two best teams from Challenger all year long earned their right to fight for the championship

The Las Vegas Night Owls and the Nashville Chefs were the best and second-best team in Challenger from wire to wire this year, respectively. 

Las Vegas was able to knock out the Bay Area Breakers 3-1, 3-0 on Saturday. The Chefs knocked out the California Black Bears 3-0, 3-1 on Saturday as well.

The most surprising thing from Challenger Level was the fact that the Chefs won 3-0 and 3-1 over California. Just a couple of weeks ago, California went 5-0 in MLP Salt Lake City, and beat the Chefs 4-0. The Chefs definitely changed some strategies and stuck with the game plan, and put on a show to earn a spot in the Challenger finals this weekend.

In talking to some of the Las Vegas players - they really want the win. They feel they are the best team in Challenger and since there is only one team moving up to Premier Level for next year, they want it to be them. Although Challenger Level doesn’t get a ton of attention, this finals matchup should be a highly entertaining affair.

The St. Louis Shock are required to tell the league which team (of the LA Mad Drops and the Columbus Sliders) they are choosing to play in the semis, by noon ET Monday. The 5s will play whoever the Shock does not pick.

Stay tuned for a full semifinal and final preview on Wednesday, and as always, subscribe to The Dink newsletter for all the breaking news in pickleball.