Dallas knock out Los Angeles, Brooklyn end Columbus’ title defence, and New Jersey and St. Louis complete the MLP semifinal field from Newport Beach.
The short answer: Dallas Flash beat No. 3 seed Los Angeles 2-1 in their MLP quarterfinal series in Newport Beach after the Mad Drops chose them as opponents. Brooklyn ended defending champion Columbus’ season, New Jersey swept Palm Beach 2-0 and St. Louis beat the Texas Ranchers 3-0 twice. New Jersey, as top remaining seed, chooses its semifinal opponent.
The MLP playoff field is down to four. St. Louis barely broke stride, New Jersey survived an uncomfortable weekend, Dallas punished Los Angeles for choosing them, and Brooklyn ended the Columbus Sliders’ title defence. Newport Beach delivered the results. It also left the remaining contenders with some awkward questions about what a championship roster actually looks like.
Key takeaways
- Dallas Flash eliminated No. 3 seed Los Angeles after the Mad Drops selected them as their quarterfinal opponent.
- Brooklyn ended defending champion Columbus’ season, while New Jersey and St. Louis completed the semifinal field.
- Mid-season trades, partnership fit and the ability to adjust across a three-match series are becoming as important as individual star power in MLP.
Los Angeles had a choice.
That is worth remembering now.
The MLP playoff format in Newport Beach rewards the highest seeds with something more useful than home court. They get to choose who they want to play. After Dallas Flash arrived in the postseason as one of the league’s hottest teams and came through the opening playoff round as the No. 6 seed, the third-seeded Mad Drops looked across the available opponents and picked them.
By Sunday afternoon, Dallas were heading to New York and Los Angeles were heading home.
There are selections that age badly. This one managed it in less than 48 hours.
Dallas won a superb three-match quarterfinal series 2-1, completing the job after JW Johnson and Augie Ge dismantled Ben Johns and Max Freeman 11-2 in men’s doubles and Johnson returned alongside Brooke Buckner to beat Johns and Jade Kawamoto in mixed.
Then came Ge and Danni-Elle Townsend.
They raced 9-0 ahead of Catherine Parenteau and Connor Garnett in the final game, watched the lead shrink alarmingly as Los Angeles dragged it back to 9-7, and finally closed the match 11-8.
Dallas were through, but they were not the only lower seed leaving Newport Beach with somebody else’s semifinal place.
Brooklyn Pickleball Team eliminated defending champion Columbus Sliders in another three-match series, winning the decider 3-1 after Columbus had twice been dragged into DreamBreakers earlier in the weekend.
By the time the quarterfinals were finished, half of the top four seeds had gone.
New Jersey 5s, St. Louis Shock, Dallas Flash and Brooklyn will play for the championship in New York.
How they got there could hardly have been more different.
St. louis did not hang around
While everyone else was producing complications, St. Louis Shock produced six games of very uncomplicated pickleball.
They beat the Texas Ranchers 3-0.
Then they did it again.
Across the two matches, St. Louis won 66 points and Texas won 20.
That is not a competitive series so much as a removal.
The first match went 11-3, 11-2, 11-4. The second was 11-2, 11-4, 11-5. No DreamBreaker, no deciding third match and none of the Sunday anxiety experienced elsewhere in the bracket.
For a team that has spent the last two seasons being very good without ultimately becoming champions, it was probably the ideal quarterfinal.
Anna Bright and Kate Fahey gave St. Louis the women’s foundation it has relied upon throughout the season, and the rest of the roster never allowed Texas enough room to turn the tie into something uncomfortable.
New Jersey advanced. Palm Beach gave them something to think about
The scoreboard says New Jersey swept Palm Beach 2-0.
It does not say how close the Royals came to making the No. 1 seed considerably more nervous.
The first match went to a DreamBreaker before New Jersey escaped 21-17, with Will Howells closing against Casey Diamond. The 5s then won the second match 3-1 to avoid a deciding third contest.
Job done, except for one rather conspicuous detail.
Anna Leigh Waters and Noe Khlif lost both of their mixed doubles games to Dekel Bar and Tina Pisnik, 11-4 and 11-9.
Waters and Khlif entered the playoffs having gone 29-3 together during the regular season. They had been the best mixed pairing in the league by winning percentage. Losing once can be filed under playoff variance. Losing the same match-up twice in one quarterfinal is harder to ignore.
Dallas stopped being a no. 6 seed a while ago
Los Angeles can be forgiven for looking at the bracket and seeing a sixth seed.
The problem was that Dallas had stopped playing like one.
Their season changed during the summer.
At MLP Austin they failed to collect a single standings point and looked a long way from a championship team. Then came the roster changes. Tyra Black went to Columbus in the deal that brought Danni-Elle Townsend to Dallas, while Alix Truong arrived from Phoenix.
Since then, Dallas have become a different proposition.
They won two regular-season events. They dispatched Las Vegas in the opening playoff round. After Newport Beach, they have won 15 of their last 16 matches.
Los Angeles still took the opening match of the quarterfinal series, 3-1.
Dallas responded by forcing the second into a DreamBreaker. Ge and Townsend won the second mixed game 11-5 to get them there, then the Flash tore through the breaker 21-11.
So Sunday began at 1-1.
The deciding match began badly for Dallas when Buckner and Truong, who had won women’s doubles in each of the first two meetings, lost 11-6.
Then Johnson and Ge walked onto court against Johns and Freeman and beat them 11-2.
It was a useful victory, and it changed the temperature of the series.
Johnson followed it by partnering Buckner against Johns and Kawamoto. Dallas raced 6-0 ahead and won 11-6. That left Ge and Townsend needing one more game.
Their 9-0 lead nearly disappeared.
It did not.
Dallas had beaten the team that selected them.
Columbus built the roster everyone was supposed to fear
On paper, it was difficult to dislike what Columbus had done.
The Sliders added Tyra Black before the trade deadline to a roster already containing Parris Todd, Andrei Daescu and CJ Klinger. All four had been inside the top 10 of the previous PPA Tour gender-doubles rankings.
Four elite players. Proven winners. No obvious weak link.
It looked like a championship roster because championship rosters are supposed to look like that.
Brooklyn beat it.
The first match offered an early warning. Columbus forced a DreamBreaker but lost it heavily, 21-10.
The second reached another, and this time Columbus changed the personnel. Alex Crum and Judit Castillo, both dangerous singles players, had featured in the first breaker. For the second, Columbus went with Black and Klinger instead.
The adjustment worked. The Sliders won 21-18, Klinger closing the match against Chris Haworth, and the series went to a third contest.
There would be no DreamBreaker this time.
Brooklyn made sure of it.
Rachel Rohrabacher and Jackie Kawamoto won women’s doubles 11-5. Dylan Frazier and Riley Newman followed with another 11-5 in the men’s.
Columbus stayed alive when Daescu and Todd took the first mixed game 11-6.
Then Newman returned alongside Kawamoto and won 11-8.
The defending champions were gone.
And now New Jersey gets to choose
There is no obvious favourite coming out of Newport Beach.
St. Louis probably played the best pickleball, although Texas gave the Shock little reason to reveal much about themselves.
New Jersey remains the No. 1 seed and has the deepest collection of options, but Palm Beach found a match-up that worked against the most successful mixed pairing of the regular season.
Dallas arrives in New York having won 15 of its last 16 matches.
Brooklyn has finally reached the point in the season when enough of its best roster appears healthy at the same time, and the defending champions have just discovered what that looks like.
The semifinal bracket now contains one final piece of MLP mischief.
As the highest remaining seed, New Jersey gets to choose its opponent. The 5s can take Dallas or Brooklyn. St. Louis gets whoever remains.
Frequently asked questions
New Jersey 5s, St. Louis Shock, Dallas Flash and Brooklyn.
Brooklyn eliminated the Columbus Sliders.
New Jersey, as the highest remaining seed.
Further reading
- MLP Wants Emotion. Dallas Showed the Difficulty of Controlling It
- New Jersey Answer the Biggest Question Ahead of the MLP Playoffs
- Dallas Flash Traded Their Way Back Into the MLP Title Race
- Columbus Make Major Tyra Black Trade Gamble
- Latest pickleball news from around the world
- Tournament coverage and results
- Rankings and player profiles
- Regional pickleball coverage
Chris Beaumont
Founder and Editor-in-ChiefChris Beaumont is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of World Pickleball Magazine, published by World Pickleball Media Ltd. He follows the global game closely, reporting on news, developments, stories and tournaments from all five continents. He also hosts the World Pickleball…
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