In what turned out to be one of the most exciting weekends in MLP history, the Dallas Flash were able to win it all in Orlando. The USTA National Campus hosted the semi-finals and finals of both the MLP Premier Level and Challenger Level.
I partnered with Real Clear Stats to provide some extra insight in Match #3 of the finals to show how and why certain results happened.
Let’s get into the action!
Premier Level
Semi-final 1 - #5 Texas Ranchers v. #1 New Jersey 5s
Rosters:
- Texas: Christian Alshon, Etta Wright, Tina Pisnik, and Quang Duong
- New Jersey: Anna Leigh Waters, Zane Navratil, Mari Humberg, Will Howells
Results:
Match #1 (Friday evening)
- Women’s Doubles: NJ 27-25
- Men’s Doubles: NJ 25-19
- Mixed Doubles (Zane/Mari v Christian/Etta): NJ 25-20
Analysis: New Jersey was supposed to win women’s doubles and did, but it was much closer than it needed - I think this was due to some nerves. I thought men’s doubles would actually be closer, but Zane and Will are playing well. A sweep here put Texas on their heels going into match #2 on Saturday.
Match #2 (Saturday early afternoon)
- Women’s Doubles: NJ 25-15
- Men’s Doubles: NJ 25-23
- Mixed Doubles (Anna Leigh/Will v Quang/Tina): NJ 25-20
Analysis: New Jersey took this one in another sweep, winning the entire series. I thought it was going to be an uphill climb for the Ranchers to win this matchup, but I expected a bigger fight as well. When New Jersey won both men’s doubles games, it was nearly impossible for the Ranchers to come back from that.
New Jersey was on to the finals after sweeping Texas, 3-0 in both matches.
Matchup 2 - #3 Dallas Flash v. #2 St. Louis Shock
Rosters:
- Dallas: JW Johnson, Jorja Johnson, Hurricane Tyra Black, Augie Ge
- St. Louis: Anna Bright, Hayden Patriquin, Gabe Tardio, Kate Fahey
Results:
Match #1 (Friday evening)
- Women’s Doubles: Dallas 25-21
- Men’s Doubles: Dallas 25-23
- Mixed Doubles (Jorja/JW v Hayden/Anna): Dallas 27-25
Analysis: This was the most stunning result from Friday night. The St. Louis Shock were favored to pull this one out, but instead they were swept, 3-0. Even more concerning for St. Louis was the fact that Hayden hurt his right wrist and banged his head falling off to the side of the court chasing a ball. The head injury turned out to be nothing, but the wrist definitely caused issues in the remainder of the match and into Saturday.
Match #2 (Saturday afternoon)
- Women’s Doubles: St. Louis 25-11
- Men’s Doubles: Dallas 25-20
- Mixed Doubles: (Augie/Tyra v Gabe/Kate): Dallas 26-24
- Mixed Doubles (Jorja/JW v Hayden/Anna): Dallas 26-24
Analysis: The Shock came out HOT in women’s doubles and looked unstoppable. Anna Bright looked like she was on a mission. Then St. Louis fizzled. Hayden had K tape all over his wrist and forearm from the fall the night before, and looked to be about 80-85% of his normal self. The match really came down to the last points in both mixed doubles matches. Dallas was able to win in overtime pickleball, sealing the upset, and sending the St. Louis Shock packing much earlier than they expected.
Dallas was on to the finals after sweeping the Shock, 3-0 in Match 1, and beating them 3-1 in Match 2.
Third Place
Texas and St. Louis played in the bronze match on Sunday and the matchup went to a Dreambreaker. Etta Wright did not look herself in the last mixed doubles game, losing 25-11 with Christian Alshon. She withdrew herself from singles, and Pierina Imparato, an on-site alternate subbed in for her. This became a hotly contested topic because the Shock didn’t think the Ranchers should have been able to sub someone in so late. It turned out to be for nought, because the Shock dominated the Dreambreaker, 25-11, and won third place.
The Shock came into the weekend with high expectations of a win. All of their players were playing well headed into the weekend and they had momentum. They hit the freight train also knows as the Dallas Flash in the semis and got booted.
I loved the fight they showed in the third place match, and they earned themselves $20,000 for third place. The Shock should be extremely proud of the season they had - they earned the overall #2 seed, they dominated much of the competition, Kate got so much better throughout the year, AB was the second best player in MLP, and the guys proved that they are both closer to first round picks than they are to third round picks. The future for the Shock is VERY bright.
The Finals - #3 Dallas Flash vs. #1 New Jersey 5s
Match #1 (Sunday Morning)
- Women’s Doubles: NJ 27-25
- Men’s Doubles: Dallas 25-20
- Mixed Doubles (Jorja/JW v Zane/Mari): Dallas 28-26
- Mixed Doubles (Anna Leigh/Will v Augie/Tyra): NJ 25-17
- Dreambreaker: New Jersey 25-13
Analysis: This is exactly how the matchups lined up on paper. The New Jersey women beat Dallas, but barely again. There were definitely nerves in that matchup. The Dallas men brought it back to even, and then the #1 mixed teams won. Anna Leigh and Will started their mixed doubles game 11-0, and never took their feet off the gas.
The Dreambreaker is where the 5s took over. Early on, the Flash played VERY well, headed into the side switch at 11-9. That is when Zane and Anna Leigh took over. Zane went 4-0 against Augie and then Anna Leigh followed that up with another 4-0 against Jorja. Mari then went 2-2 with Tyra, so the score flipped from 9-11 in favor of the Flash, to 19-13 very quickly. Will Howells closed out the Dreambreaker by beating JW on two points. The 5s were taking a lot of momentum into Match #2.
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Match #2 (Sunday Afternoon)
- Women’s Doubles: NJ 25-22
- Men’s Doubles: Dallas 25-19
- Mixed Doubles (Jorja/JW v Zane/Mari): Dallas 25-17
- Mixed Doubles (Anna Leigh/Will v Augie/Tyra): NJ 25-23
- Dreambreaker: Dallas 21-15
Analysis: The script was nearly identical to Match #1. Even the scorelines were similar. The biggest change was Augie and Tyra definitely made Anna Leigh and Will sweat while winning 25-23. Either way, Match #2 headed to the Dreambreaker, where the 5s were feeling great.
Augie and Jorja flipped the script in the Dreambreaker. Augie went 7-1 against Zane, making up for his poor performance in the first Dreambreaker. Jorja went 6-2 against Anna Leigh Waters, which is a shocking scoreline. The 5s couldn’t make up for those two deficits, and lost pretty badly in Match #2 in a Dreambreaker - the first time that happened all year. This was a precursor for Match #3.
Match #3 (Sunday Evening)
- Men’s Doubles: NJ 25-23
- Women’s Doubles: Dallas 25-17
- Mixed Doubles (Jorja/JW v Zane/Mari): Dallas 28-26
- Mixed Doubles (Anna Leigh/Will v Augie/Tyra): Dallas 25-21
Analysis: As mentioned, a lot of firsts happened in this one. Since the 5s won the coin toss, they reacted in mixed doubles again. This meant Dallas were able to send out the men first. They haven’t lost to Will and Zane all year, so it’s an easy W to get the final match started, right? No. Will and Zane changed strategy for this one and it worked in a big way. They pulled out the win.
Real Clear Stats Analysis: Will Howells won 85% of his speedups and he had the highest Player Impact+ in the game. The extra patience both Will and Zane showed, really showed up in this stat. Another interesting stat was the fact that Dallas lost 29% of its speedup initiations, mostly because Zane won 38% of his counters. The last crazy stat of this game was JW Johnson winning exactly ZERO counters - he either lost the point when countering or it was reset. For someone known to be the best counterer (did I just make that term up?) in the world, that is crazy.
Going into women’s doubles, New Jersey had to be feeling amazing, just winning men’s as underdogs. Then Anna Leigh had her worst loss of the entire season, losing 25-17. It just looked like Mari and Anna Leigh couldn’t get any momentum going.
Real Clear Stats Analysis: Anna Leigh was the most aggressive player by far in the women’s doubles match, starting a firefight on average every 21.2 hits. She targeted Jorja a lot, but Jorja won 50% of her firefight counters. Additionally, Jorja and Tyra both won all of their firefight initiations. Humberg struggled greatly in two areas in this match: she made 8 unforced errors while the other three players made a combined total of 7. Additionally, Mari lost 75% of the firefights she initiated AND lost every single counter.
In mixed doubles, Zane and Mari nearly pulled off yet ANOTHER upset in this match, but Jorja and JW were too much.
That negative momentum Anna Leigh had coming off her women’s doubles loss carried over into mixed doubles. She seemed a little out of sorts, poaching things she shouldn’t, taking too much court, and then not enough. Also, Augie played out of his mind in mixed and New Jersey just couldn’t find answers.
Real Clear Stats Analysis: Augie had zero unforced errors in the last mixed game, was 12/12 on 3rd shots, and forced 9 errors from the 5s. He also won 70% of his speedups, and 67% of his firefight initiations.
Both teams got the matchups they thought they would. They both pulled off upsets and it all came down to Augie and Tyra executing a little bit better than Anna Leigh and Will. This was the first time all season that Anna Leigh lost two games in the same match. Prior to this last match, Anna Leigh had only lost three games all year long.
Dallas worked extremely hard and showed a ton of grit to win this championship. They had to beat the NY Hustlers in the quarters, the St. Louis Shock in the semis, and they had to beat the New Jersey 5s in an epic three match day on Sunday. They deserve all the accolades and the $80k prize.
Challenger Level
Semi-Final Matchup 1 - #4 Atlanta Bouncers v. #1 Chicago Slice
Rosters:
- Atlanta: Todd Fought, Susannah Barr, Emily Cederquist, and Anderson Scarpa
- Chicago: Jack Munro, Megan Fudge, Michelle Esquivel, and Wyatt Stone
Even with two substitutes, Chicago was able to dispatch Atlanta pretty easily. Without Jaume Martinez Vich (my Challenger Level MVP), Atlanta couldn’t quite pull it together this weekend.
Results:
- Match #1 - Chicago swept, 3-0
- Match #2 - Chicago won, 3-1
Chicago moves on to the finals
Semi-final Matchup 2 - #3 Miami Pickleball Club v. #2 SoCal Hard Eights
Rosters:
- Miami: Milan Rane, Eric Oncins, Noe Khlif, and Bobbi Oshiro
- SoCal: Irina Tereschenko, Erik Lange, Max Manthou, and Yana Newell
Results:
- Match #1 - Miami swept, 3-0 - none of the games were really close
- Match #2 - SoCal wins in a Dreambreaker, 22-20
- Match #3 - Miami won, 3-1
Analysis: This was a very competitive matchup and Miami was barely able to win. Three of the final four games of Match #3 were decided by two points, and two of them went into extra pickleball. Miami showed some guts beating the veteran SoCal Hard Eights and definitely earned their way into the finals.
Finals - #3 Miami Pickleball Club vs. #1 Chicago Slice
Match #1 (Sunday Morning)
- Men’s Doubles: Miami 25-21
- Women’s Doubles: Miami 25-16
- Mixed Doubles (Noe/Bobbi v Jack/Megan): Miami 25-21
This was a thorough sweep from Miami. They looked like they could do no wrongs throughout Match #1 on Sunday. The youngsters won gender doubles easily, and then Noe and Bobbi dispatched Chicago, beating Jack and Megan, one of the best mixed doubles partnerships in all of Challenger, 25-21.
Match #2 (Sunday Afternoon)
- Women’s Doubles: Chicago 26-24
- Men’s Doubles: Chicago 25-21
- Mixed Doubles (Noe/Bobbi v Jack/Megan): Chicago 25-21
Chicago, being able to choose everything, chose to switch it up and put the women out first. This ended up being the catalyst they needed for momentum. The women squeaked a close one out in extra time, and the men followed that up with a win. Then Jack and Megan got some revenge, beating Bobbi and Noe by the same scoreline they lost earlier in the day.
Match #3 (Sunday Evening)
- Women’s Doubles: Miami 25-10
- Men’s Doubles: Miami 28-26
- Mixed Doubles (Eric/Milly v Jack/Megan): Chicago 28-26
- Mixed Doubles (Noe/Bobbi v Wyatt/Michelle): Miami 25-11
The fact that Chicago had two subs was just too much to overcome in Match #3. With two very lopsided wins (25-10 in women’s and 25-11 in mixed), Miami was able to take the finals and win the $30,000.
Chicago earned second place and fought hard all weekend with two subs. SoCal ended up in third, beating Atlanta for the $10,000 prize for third place.
