Major League Pickleball 2026 Week 5 Power Rankings
The Columbus Sliders were the talk of Major League Pickleball heading into this week’s event in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Last weekend they made a blockbuster trade to acquire Tyra Black, giving them four starters (Parris Todd, Tyra Black, Andrei Daescu and CJ Klinger) who are all Top 10 doubles players on the PPA Tour — a claim no other team can make.
But the teams at the top of the league standings who were competing this week — St. Louis and Los Angeles — dismissed all the hype and continued their consistent play, with the Shock and Mad Drops winning their respective groups and meeting for the third time this season in Sunday’s MLP St. Petersburg final (they had split the previous two meetings).
Ultimately it was St. Louis taking the rubber match — and the 25 standings points up for grabs this week — with a 3-0 win over Los Angeles. It’s the second time in a row that the Shock have swept the Mad Drops, and they’ve now taken over first place in the league standings.
“I’m just so proud of our players, and happy to be peaking now with two Super Sunday wins in a row,” St. Louis General Manager Ross Chaifetz said after the win. “We’re looking forward to what comes next for us at the Mid-Season Tournament.”
While St. Louis was claiming another event title, the new-look Sliders settled for a disappointing 5th place finish after losses in Group Play to Palm Beach and St. Louis. They ended on a high note, though, with a 3-0 sweep over the Chicago Slice on Sunday.
“We’ve had different women’s players for every event at this point, so it’s a lot for our men’s players to adjust to,” Columbus’ Todd said Sunday. “I feel like these matches in the beginning of the season are really just about (preparing) for the playoffs. We’re trying different things out and really seeing what’s going to make a difference for the playoffs, so this is all just testing for us.”
Here’s a closer look at where things stand across the league after Week 5:
Major League Pickleball St. Petersburg Results
Major League Pickleball Week 5 Standings
Major League Pickleball Week 5 Power Rankings
1. New Jersey 5s ↔️
Record: 15-2
Roster: Will Howells, Noe Khlif, Martin Emmrich, Anna Leigh Waters, Jorja Johnson, Lina Padegimaite.
Following the Columbus trade — and even before the Columbus trade — there was a lot of chatter that the 5s would be next to make a move, and a possible Noe Khlif-for-JW Johnson (Dallas Flash) deal was floated by multiple pundits. But as of Sunday those rumors had quieted down.
In any case, I’m not convinced that the 5s need to make a trade in order to win the title this year. They are currently riding a 12-match winning streak and have won the last two events they’ve played in.
And that’s with their men’s doubles team of Khlif and Howells underperforming compared to last year’s results. In 2025 they were 13-8 (62%) after Khlif was traded to the 5s late in the season. So far in 2026 they are 9-8 (53%). The fact that New Jersey is still 15-2 without their men’s doubles duo playing their best is an encouraging sign in my book. It means there’s still room for this team to improve, and that’s not what you want to hear if you’re the rest of the league.
The 5s have also played St. Louis twice. The first time they lost in a Dreambreaker, but they rebounded with a win in regulation the second time around. For that reason, I’m still giving the slight edge to New Jersey.
2. St. Louis Shock ↔️
Record: 20-2
Roster: Hayden Patriquin, Gabe Tardio, John Lucian Goins, Anna Bright, Kate Fahey, Elsie Hendershot.
St. Louis put up arguably the most impressive week of any team to this point in the season at MLP St. Pete. The Shock went 5-0 in a very tough group that included Columbus, Palm Beach, Orlando and Texas — all likely playoff teams. They capped it off with a convincing sweep over a very good LA team on Sunday.
We’ll see them next at the Mid-Season Tournament in early July, which every team will be participating in. If the Shock win that event, they will go into the home stretch of the season as the clear favorites.
3. Los Angeles Mad Drops ↔️
Record: 15-2
Roster: Ben Johns, Max Freeman, Gabriel Joseph, Catherine Parenteau, Jade Kawamoto, Samantha Parker.
After a stellar start to the season and a win in their first event, they have settled for second in both of their past two events. Each time they’ve been swept by St. Louis in the final, so there now seems to be a decent gap between LA and the Top 2 teams, despite the standings being very close.
4. Brooklyn Pickleball Team 📈
Record: 9-2
Roster: Christian Alshon, Riley Newman, Chris Haworth, Jackie Kawamoto, Rachel Rohrabacher, Hannah Blatt.
Their only two losses this season have been to the Mad Drops, so it’s hard to fault them for anything at this point. I’ll be interested to see what happens when they play New Jersey, St. Louis or Columbus later in the season. Both New Jersey and Brooklyn are playing this coming week in New York City, but they are in opposite pools — so if they both win their group we’ll get a very interesting Super Sunday matchup to decide the event winner.
5. Columbus Sliders 📉
Record: 16-6
Roster: Andrei Daescu, CJ Klinger, Alexander Crum, Parris Todd, Tyra Black, Judit Castillo.
I truly don’t know what I’m supposed to do with Columbus this week. On paper, they have assembled arguably the best roster in the league — with all four starters ranked in the Top 10 in gender doubles on the PPA Tour. But it turns out they don’t play the matches on paper.
The Sliders were upset by Palm Beach in Group Play on Friday, then were beaten handily by St. Louis on Saturday in a match that ultimately decided who won the group.
There are still plenty of reasons for the Sliders to be optimistic, though.
- This was Black’s first event back after missing time due to an illness.
- This was the first time Black/Klinger have played together in MLP (they’ve played once before in a 2025 PPA Tour event in Australia). They went 3-2 this week, and I would expect them to continue to improve with more time on court together.
- This is essentially the same position Columbus was in at the mid-way point of the 2025 regular season. But they were able to find a new gear in the playoffs and went on to win the title last year. I don’t think anybody would be surprised this time around if they are able to make a similar run down the stretch and be one of the last teams standing.
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6. Palm Beach Royals 📈
Record: 9-7
Roster: Dekel Bar, Tyson McGuffin, Grayson Goldin, Tina Pisnik, Sofia Sewing, Tamaryn Emmrich.
The Royals made a big statement this week, finishing second in a very tough group that included St. Louis, Columbus, Texas, Orlando and Miami — four of those teams were in the Top 7 in the league standings coming into the week.
The strong performance was led by Palm Beach’s women’s duo of Pisnik and Sewing. They were a perfect 6-0 on the week with convincing wins over St. Louis’ Anna Bright/Kate Fahey (11-2) and Brooklyn’s Jackie Kawamoto/Rachel Rohrabacher (11-3).
But the Royals were also involved in some controversy earlier in the week. All three of their men’s players — Bar, McGuffin and Goldin — dealt with injuries or illnesses at some point in the week, according to the league. In a surprise move, the Royals were able to use Casey Diamond as an on-site alternate after Diamond signed a UPA contract mid-week. He is the regular mixed doubles partner of Sewing on the APP Tour, so it was certainly a favorable outcome for the Royals, given the circumstances.
7. Dallas Flash 📈
Roster: JW Johnson, Augie Ge, Ivan Jakovljevic, Danni-Elle Townsend, Alix Truong, Brooke Buckner.
Record: 4-6
The Flash had the week off, but the next time we see them they will likely be debuting an all-new women’s doubles lineup. Following the Tyra Black-for-Danni Elle Townsend trade they made last weekend, Dallas traded Albie Huang + cash to the Phoenix Flames in exchange for Alix Truong.
Townsend and Truong played the first event of the season together for the Columbus Sliders and went 4-1 — and looked very solid in doing so. The trades leave Dallas in the conversation as a solid playoff team, but they have an uphill battle to climb from a seeding standpoint. The Flash are currently 14th in the standings after walking away from MLP Austin with zero points (Black, their best women’s player at the time, didn’t play in that event due to an illness).
The Flash play this coming week at MLP New York, so we don’t have to wait long to find out where the new roster fits.
8. Texas Ranchers 📉
Record: 9-9
Roster: Eric Oncins, Nico Acevedo, Matthew Barlow, Lea Jansen, Layne Sleeth, Marcela Aguila Ampon.
The Ranchers had a disappointing week at MLP St. Pete, going 2-4 and earning just 4 standings points. I’m not putting a lot of stock into their loss to Utah on Sunday, though, because they were without Sleeth and Acevedo didn’t play mixed doubles because of an injury.
The loss to Palm Beach early in the week was concerning, though. The Ranchers and Royals were in a similar spot heading into the week — No. 5 and No. 6 in the standings, respectively — but Palm Beach earned a convincing 3-1 win in their Group Play match and went on to claim 12 standings points, while Texas walked away from St. Pete with only 4 standings points.
9. Orlando Squeeze 📉
Record: 8-7
Roster: Federico Staksrud, Jack Sock, Yates Johnson, Lacy Schneemann, Milan Rane, Alex Walker.
It seems like every week there’s one playoff contender that ends up leaving town with 1 point or zero points. Last week it was Dallas, and this week it was Orlando. The Squeeze went 2-3 and finished fifth out of six teams in their group.
The result puts Orlando in a very tough spot in the points standings. With 60% of their season in the books, they have just 19 standings points and are sitting in 8th in the overall standings. I still think they will make the playoffs, but it could get dicey down the stretch because of what happened this week.
10. Las Vegas Night Owls ↔️
Record: 5-6
Roster: Blaine Hovenier, Roscoe Bellamy, Braden Jacobson, Callie Smith, Chao Yi Wang, Liz Truluck.
They walked away from their last event with 8 standings points and now have 18 total after two events, which puts them firmly in the playoff hunt. They might be the perfect benchmark team at No. 10 — they are 0-5 against teams ahead of them in our rankings, and 5-1 against teams below them.
11. Chicago Slice 📈
Record: 5-6
Roster: Hunter Johnson, Zane Navratil, Tom Protzek, Mari Humberg, Jamie Wei, Jalina Ingram.
The Slice had a very tough slate of matches this week, with losses to Los Angeles, Brooklyn and Columbus. But they took care of business against the lower-tier teams they faced, with wins over Utah and Florida. The 8 standings points they earned this week are enough to keep them on the playoff bubble.
12. Utah Black Diamonds 📉
Record: 6-11
Roster: Connor Garnett, Tama Shimabukuro, Tyler Loong, Allyce Jones, Etta Tuionetoa, Victoria DiMuzio.
Their only wins this week were against a Florida team that’s 17th in the standings and a Texas team that was missing two starters in their match on Sunday. The head-to-head loss against Chicago on Thursday was enough for me to bump the Black Diamonds down one spot this week.
13. Atlanta Bouncers 📉
Record: 5-11
Roster: Jay Devilliers, Jaume Martinez Vich, Donald Young, Jessie Irvine, Kaitlyn Christian, Keilly Ulery.
The Bouncers had the week off, but move down a spot this week with Chicago making a decent jump in our rankings. They’re still in the playoff hunt, but will need to post solid results from here on out to secure a spot.
14. SoCal Hard Eights ↔️
Record: 4-6
Roster: Armaan Bhatia, Will MacKinnon, Rafael Lenhard, Meghan Dizon, Cailyn Campbell, Naomi Nguyen.
The Hard Eights had the week off and have only played in two events to this point, so there’s still a lot of time for them to make a big move one way or the other.
15. Phoenix Flames ↔️
Record: 1-8
Roster: Jonathan Truong, Wyatt Stone, Camden Chaffin, Albie Huang, Alexa Schull, Daria Walczak.
The Flames have had a very hard schedule to start the season. Their only win is against Las Vegas — in a Dreambreaker — but all of their losses have been to potential playoff teams: Dallas, Orlando, New Jersey, Columbus, SoCal, Los Angeles, Utah and Brooklyn.
Phoenix has a break until the Mid-Season Tournament in early July.
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16. Miami Pickleball Club ↔️
Record: 4-11
Roster: Dylan Frazier, Yuta Funemizu, Clayton Powell, Isabella Dunlap, Estee Widdershoven, Rika Fujiwara.
They went 0-5 this week, but it’s not as bad as it looks — all of those losses were to teams I have in the Top 10 in my rankings (Palm Beach, Orlando, Columbus, Texas and St. Louis). That’s a very tough pool, and as a result they walk away from an event with zero points for the second time this season.
17. California Black Bears ↔️
Record: 3-7
Roster: James Delgado, Anouar Braham, Joey Wild, Sahra Dennehy, Kiora Kunimoto, Emma Nelson, Luka Mack (IR).
They had the week off, but the last time we saw the Black Bears they suffered a regulation loss to Miami, which is why I have them one spot behind MPC.
18. Bay Area Breakers ↔️
Record: 3-12
Roster: Len Yang, Pablo Tellez, Luc Pham, Genie Erokhina, Mya Bui, Ella Yeh.
They snuck out of their last event at MLP Austin with 8 standings points, but didn’t do a lot of heavy lifting to earn them, with their only wins coming over Florida and an Atlanta team that was dealing with multiple injuries/illnesses.
19. Florida Smash ↔️
Record: 3-8
Roster: Travis Rettenmaier, Cason Campbell, Christopher Couch, Martina Frantova, Paula Rives, Zoey Weil.
They walked away from their home event with zero standings points after going 0-4 in Group Play. They were already facing an uphill battle to make the playoffs, and this week leaves them with very little chance.
20. Carolina Hogs ↔️
Record: 1-12
Roster: DJ Young, Brandon French, Michael Loyd, Nicole Conard, Aiko Yoshitomi, Abbigal Hatton.
The went 0-4 at their last event at MLP Austin and have now lost 10 matches in a row.
