Liz Truluck Enjoying a Successful Trip Down Under in Major League Pickleball Australia
Editor's Note: Liz Truluck, currently ranked 37th in Women's Doubles, 32nd in Mixed Doubles and 18th in Women's Singles on the PPA Tour, is documenting her trip Down Under for The Dink playing for the Fast Fours in MLP Australia.
Coming back to you from the lovely Gold Coast, Australia. It’s been a crazy past two days with a ton of pickleball and results to share.
In the first round of MLP Australia, my Fast Fours (George Wall, Lucas Pascoe, Jamie Wei and myself) took on the Western Vipers and fell just short in the first two gendered doubles matches, 22-20.
We started off strong in both matches, but the Vipers (Shelby Bates, Emilia Schmidt, Andy Horridge, and Ryan Henry) stayed fighting and took the win in both games.
George Wall and Jamie Wei secured the first mixed match, 21-19, but Lucas and I struggled to keep it rolling for the second mixed. It was a tough match overall, but the Vipers came out firing and played very well all around.
There were some incredible games on the first day and the teams that secured their first round wins were the Brisbane Breakers, South East Asia Surge, Sydney Smash, Gold Coast Glory – all with a 3-1 wins. The most electrifying match of the first round was from the Asia Aces (Jamie Haas, Neilson Chen, Venise Chan, and Phuc Huynh) taking the W with a Dreambreaker, 21-12, against the Northern Crocs. Their energy was great all around and they played lights out to secure that win.
It was a late night for a lot of players after MLPA, but the PPA gendered doubles event was taking place at 7:30am the following day, so I, along with the other players tried to get as much recovery and rest in.
Jamie Wei and I teamed up and had a great day out on court taking gold in Women’s Doubles with four wins over very talented, tough teams. In the second round, Jamie and I came up against our roomie for this tourney – Pei Chuan Kao and her partner and Aussie star Danni-Elle Townsend. This match lasted over an hour, with Kao and Townsend taking the first game, 12-10. Jamie and I battled back and took the second and third game to move us on into the semis. It was a hard fought battle and hats off to Pei and Danni for a great game 😄.
In the next round, we came up against some familiar faces in Jamie Haas and Michelle Esquivel in the semis. They too played well, but halfway through the second game they had to retire due to injury/illness. With a couple good wins under our belts, Jamie and I went out feeling ready to go in the finals against Katy Hart and Roos Van Reek.
The Dink Media Team
After securing the first game and being up 7-1, we began feeling more pressure from the other side of the court. Hart and Van Reek never failed to give up and came back to win the second game. Going into the third, Jamie and I had a clear game plan and wanted to execute that. We continued telling ourselves to breathe in between points and smile and enjoy the moment. Jamie came up clutch and played very well in the big moments and got us the win. It was such an awesome feeling after grinding all day to land ourselves with a gold medal.
The Dink Media Team
We had a couple hours of rest but then had to be back and ready to go for the MLPA second round later in the evening. The Fast Fours were taking on the Southern Stars, and we knew we needed a definitive win to even have a chance of moving on to the next round.
For MLPA, after two rounds of play the teams are ranked (1-12) based on wins and winning percentage, so the overall scores impact your seeding. The top two teams are automatically placed into the semifinals, held on Sunday. The remaining four teams (ranked 3-6) battle it out in the quarterfinals later in the day to get a spot in the semis. Considering the Fast Fours first-round loss, we needed an almost perfect 4-0 win to put ourselves in a better position. We did just that.
Erik Tice
Jamie and I came out slow in women’s, with the Stars leading the entire way up until the end. We kept fighting and played smart in the final points to take Women’s, 22-20. George and Lucas played so smart and executed at a high level to secure the Men’s win, and with a 2-0 lead, we had to take both mixed to stay on our run.
We all played great in mixed and ended with a 4-0 result.
After the results and seeding, the Surge and Glory took the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, giving them a slot into the semis.
The Smash took on the Vipers and the Breakers took on the Fours for the remaining two spots. The Fours secured a 3-1 win and the Vipers took the win in a Dreambreaker in a long, hard battle.
Tomorrow is the semis and final rounds of the MLPA Gold Coast, starting at 3pm. The Fast Fours will take on the Gold Coast Glory and will be streamed live on PPA Tour Australia YouTube.
