Dallas Flash and Texas Ranchers Enjoy MLP's First Trip to Utah
This past weekend the first Major League Pickleball event occurred in the state of Utah at The Picklr in Kaysville. Additionally, it was the first MLP event played entirely indoors.
The MLP SLC hosted 10 Premier Level teams, each playing six matches, and four Challenger Level teams each playing each other once, for a total of three matches.
Premier Level
Challenger Level
Obviously, the Texas Ranchers, Dallas Flash, and SoCal Hard Eights had the best weekends in Utah, but let’s look at some of the storylines.
The season is coming into form – showing us who is in contention and who is not. With the matches completed in Salt Lake City, 47 percent of the MLP regular season has been played.
Prior to this tournament, I had placed teams into three tiers:
- Most likely to make the playoffs: Dallas Flash, Texas Ranchers, St. Louis Shock, New Jersey 5s, and D.C. Pickleball Team
- In the hunt for the 6th spot in the playoffs: NY Hustlers, Orlando Squeeze, and LA Mad Drops
- Not looking good: AZ Drive, Columbus Sliders, Carolina Pickleball Team, and Utah Black Diamonds
Did any of these teams change tiers after MLP Salt Lake City?
In my mind, there was only one change from this weekend:
- The Orlando Squeeze look like a great team. Everyone seems to care, they fight hard, they cheer for each other, etc... The Squeeze management does a great job taking care of the team, to my knowledge. When you watch them play, you think they are doing well.
The problem is, they aren’t winning. They have seven points in nine matches, for a 0.78 points per match (ppm) rate. This places them in 11th out of 12 in ppm standings. They still have 14 matches remaining, but it is going to be a large uphill climb to snag a playoff spot.
I am dropping them down to the "not looking good" category for now.
- The LA Mad Drops did a great job this past weekend, earning 10 points from their six matches. Blaine Hovenier stepped up big time and not surprisingly, having Catherine Parenteau back really did wonders for the team.
As of today, it seems to be a two-horse race between the LA Mad Drops and the NY Hustlers for the 6th and final playoff spot. The Hustlers have the edge right now at 1.80 ppm, with the Mad Drops at 1.56 ppm, but there is a lot of pickleball yet to be played.
Parris Todd is a BALLER and great teammate
We just talked about the Orlando Squeeze, but I want to highlight Parris for a second. First, Vivienne David had an "excused absence" from this event (still unsure what that was). So Orlando went out and signed Milan Rane on loan from Miami Pickleball Club for cash considerations ($10,000).
Obviously, Orlando started the tournament behind the eight ball a little bit. As I’m watching their first match, Federico Staksrud looks bad. His energy was super low, his skin tone looked pale – he looked like he was sick but toughing it out. Kudos to him – I am guessing he felt awful but didn’t want to let his teammates down.
The Squeeze played Thursday, Friday, and then had Saturday off before playing two matches on Sunday. Sunday morning it was announced Federico AND Tyson McGuffin weren’t playing due to sickness. Orlando was then forced to sub in two on-site subs, Spencer Smith and Roscoe Bellamy.
In their first match on Sunday, Parris and Milan beat Etta Wright and Tina Pisnik (arguably the best women’s doubles team in MLP), 25-16. The Squeeze ended up losing that match, but played Utah in the final match of the weekend.
Did Parris and/or the Squeeze mail it in? Nope. They fought hard to bring the match to a Dreambreaker, where they were somehow able to manage beating the Black Diamonds, 21-17.
Parris could have taken the easy way out and stopped caring or trying. Instead, she chose to be a leader and competitor and fight until the end. Yes, Orlando is in 11th in terms of points per match, but they still have a lot of pickleball to play and they haven’t had their full roster available for much of the season thus far. If they can all get healthy later on this year, I think they have a chance to make some noise.
The Connor Garnett trade for Jay Devilliers is good for everyone
Utah and Columbus both looked better this weekend. Columbus still maintained their 1 point-per-match record and Utah got its first victories.
Here is the real truth: Both teams are now just one good woman away from being contenders. The problem? There are 16-18 elite level women who are willing to play Major League Pickleball right now, depending on your definition of "elite." There are anywhere from five to eight women’s players in Premier Level who are just a big step down from that top level. As the sport continues to grow, this will eventually not be an issue.
Jay looked and played much better with Columbus. He went 7-5 in his doubles matches, pairing well with Meghan Dizon in mixed, going 4-2. Although they only went 3-3, Jay and Riley Newman also looked like a much improved men’s doubles team and have something to build on moving forward.
Connor and Alix Truong registered some wins, going 4-2 in mixed doubles. Three of those wins occurred when nothing was on the line, as Utah had already lost the overall match, but they are confidence boosters. Connor and Tyler Loong looked really good together and they lost three men’s matches by two points. They are right there – if they can figure out their end-game tactics a little more, they will win more matches.
There were some VERY WEIRD outcomes this weekend
I already mentioned one of them, but there were just some very strange outcomes. Here are some highlights of strange games:
- Milan Rane (a Challenger Level player filling in for Viv David) and Parris Todd beat Etta Wright and Tina Pisnik, 25-16. Pisnik and Wright are ranked as the 2nd- and 8th-best players in MLP this year, while Todd and Rane are 47th and 49th.
- Rane and Spencer Smith beat Connor Garnett and Alix Truong, 25-16. Two fill-in players beat a mixed doubles team that had literally just beat Gabe Tardio and Kate Fahey.
- The LA Mad Drops, sans Thomas Wilson, beat the Dallas Flash, 4-0, on day one. The Flash is the best team this year in points per match, but lost 4-0 to a team that had Blaine Hovenier on it.
- Meghan Dizon and Andrea Koop beat Kate Fahey and Anna Bright in women’s doubles, 25-21. Dizon and Koop first teamed up in Utah, but they went 1-5, with their only win coming against the Shock. Fahey/Bright are definitely a top-six women’s team in MLP, so this was a major upset.
- In Challenger Level, Allyce Jones and Jill Braverman lost twice in women’s doubles. They lost to Amanda Hendry/Susannah Barr, 19-25. They also lost 22-25 to Yana Newell/Irina Tereschenko. For two players who believe they deserve to be in the Premier Level, it was not a good start with the Bay Area Breakers.
- The LA Mad Drops beat the Columbus Sliders, 21-4, in a Dreambreaker. Talk about a shellacking! Sure, the Sliders are not built for Dreambreakers, but yikes – this was bad. The Mad Drops tied the Bay Area Breakers for the best Dreambreaker score ever at 21-4. The Bay Area Breakers beat the Miami Pickleball Club in MLP Atlanta by that scoreline earlier this year.
Ben and Collin Johns looked apathetic
I don’t want to beat this to death, but the look of "I really don’t want to be here" was prevalent throughout the weekend for the Johns brothers.
Carolina played their first match on Friday in SLC. I got excited because right before the match I saw Ben talking with Jessie Irvine and they were laughing, smiling, and having a good time. He was even joking a little with Collin too. That was the first and only time I saw a genuine smile on Ben’s face the entire tournament.
There were times Ben refused to make eye contact with Jessie. There were times he would scream at the ball. These things happen to everyone – everyone gets frustrated. However, when you are the best player in the world, the spotlight is brightly pointed at you.
Here are their stat lines from the weekend’s six matches:
Ben: 3/6 in men’s doubles, 3/6 in mixed doubles, 267 points for, 267 points against
Collin: 3/6 in men’s doubles, 1-6 in mixed doubles, 246 points for, 288 points against, -42 points
It’s good for MLP and Ben and Collin that Carolina is not playing MLP Kansas City. They now have a break from MLP until late September. Hopefully they can find some fun in pickleball between now and then.
Best Surprises
Blaine Hovenier - My hand is raised way up high in the air - MY BAD. After the Mid-Season Tournament, where Hovenier went 0-4 in doubles and 0-8 in a Dreambreaker, let’s just say I was skeptical. That’s putting it nicely.
Boy, was I wrong. Blaine went 6-6 in Salt Lake City, playing with Catherine and Hunter. His points stats were 265 for, 276 against for a total of -11. He also went 10-6 in Dreambreaker points against Riley and Collin.
Hovenier definitely has the potential for MLP. I don’t know if he’s quite ready for that crazy jump like Quang Duong, but I would be shocked if he doesn’t get permanently picked up by a Challenger team in the next Waiver Wire period (10 days from now). Hovenier has some of the best sideline and teammate energy in all of MLP, and he wasn’t even on the team permanently.
Alix Truong - Alix had not won a match coming into MLP Salt Lake City. She played much better in Utah, going 6-6, with a -23 point differential. Sure, some of those wins came when nothing was really on the line, but you could visibly see Truong’s confidence level soar in Utah. Hopefully she is able to carry that into MLP Kansas City this weekend.
Will Howells/Zane Navratil - This men’s doubles team has the worst record in MLP. They went 2-4 in Salt Lake City. However, their two wins were over Tyson McGuffin/Federico Staksrud and Ben and Collin Johns.
Also, check out Zane’s Nasty Nelson against Hayden Patriquin - pretty funny stuff.
For sure, Federico was not at his best. However, those two wins could potentially help Will and Zane continue to develop chemistry going into the second half of the MLP season.
Worst Surprises
Allyce Jones/Jill Braverman/DJ Young – All three feel slighted by not playing in Premier right now. However, this was their combined record this weekend: 7 wins, 11 losses and a combined point total of -28. Hopefully it was just the first time playing together and they will build chemistry, but Utah was not a good start for the new look Breakers.
Dylan Frazier/Andrei Daescu - On paper, this is the best men’s doubles team. They were the only team to go male-male in the draft. With that being said, you just can’t go 2-4 in men’s doubles and expect to win very many matches. We knew going into the season the women’s team would struggle a little, but the thought was the men’s team could carry that load. That has not been the case and Dylan and Andrei need to figure it out quickly.
The Las Vegas Night Owls - After firing their GM while being in first place, the Night Owls only scored three points in three matches this weekend. Kaitlyn Kerr definitely brought the energy to the Night Owls. We will see if the team is able to get past this unfortunate stretch.
Rafa Hewett - Another player who felt snubbed by not being picked in Premier Level who is underperforming in Challenger. Rafa went 2-4 with a -4 point differential. For someone who should be dominating Challenger Level, it simply is not happening. In the regular season Hewett is 7-13 overall with a -24 point differential, and is ranked as the 33rd best Challenger Level player.
