Everybody is asking the same question after the No. 5-seed Columbus Sliders pulled off a big upset over the No. 2-seed Dallas Flash on Sunday in San Diego to advance to the Major League Pickleball Finals in New York City next weekend: What was Dallas thinking?

The Flash, as one of the top 3 seeds, had their choice of who to play in the quarterfinals -- a unique twist that brings an added layer of strategy into play for the MLP postseason. St. Louis (the No. 1 seed) had already taken No. 8 seed Orlando off the board, so the decision came down to No. 7 Texas (15-10), No. 6 Los Angeles (18-7) or No. 5 Columbus (18-7).

Los Angeles is a much better team than their record shows since they made a trade late in the season for Ben Johns, and Columbus was one of just three teams to beat Dallas in the regular season. So most pundits and fans (including me) assumed they would pick Texas. It didn't seem like a difficult decision -- the Ranchers had the worst record of the three, the Flash were 2-0 against them in the regular season, and Texas had also struggled just to get past a mediocre Miami team in the first round (they won 21-19 in a Dreambreaker).

Instead, Dallas chose to play Columbus, which seemed like a questionable decision at the time and now looks like a completely unnecessary own goal after the Sliders beat them in back-to-back Dreambreakers on Saturday and Sunday to take the best-of-three series.

In an interview Friday afternoon, Dallas owner Mark Molthan said they had a team meeting and voted on who to play. Ultimately Columbus was the choice. He seemed genuinely happy with that decision and confident in his team's chances at the time.

But my question is this: Why wasn't that decision left up to the coach, Julie Johnson, or some combination of Johnson and other non-players within the organization? Unfortunately attempts to reach Johnson on Sunday evening were unsuccessful.

Read next: Results from the first two rounds of the Major League Pickleball playoffs

It seems to me that the players potentially had their judgement clouded by the loss on July 19 to Columbus. Were Jorja Johnson, JW Johnson, Tyra Black and Augie Ge too eager to prove that they were the better than the Sliders, instead of taking the obvious and (on paper) easier path with a matchup against Texas?

Perhaps they also considered that last season in the playoffs they beat the New York Hustlers, which featured Lea Jansen and CJ Klinger -- two players on this year's Columbus Sliders roster. Maybe they thought to themselves, 'We've already beaten these players in the playoffs and we will do it again.'

In any case, I think the result -- and the widespread criticism even before the result was decided -- shows that maybe leaving it up to the players isn't the best bet. They probably believed that they could have beaten Los Angeles, too, but that doesn't make Los Angeles the right choice. Texas was a slam dunk -- which was made even more clear when the New Jersey 5s swept them in two matches this weekend.

Choosing to play Columbus was just one of many strategic errors

The first two matches of the series were almost identical -- Dallas won women's doubles in both, Columbus won men's doubles, Black/Ge beat Klinger/Jansen and Andrei Daescu/Parris Todd beat Johnson/Johnson. The Flash won the first Dreambreaker 21-18, and the Sliders won the second 21-14.

Columbus clearly gained some confidence heading into Sunday's third and deciding match, and came out with great energy to start women's doubles. Johnson/Black had beaten Jansen/Todd 11-2, 11-2 in the first two games of the series primarily with Black playing the left and Johnson playing the right. That's also how they lined up most of the time throughout the season, and they were 26-6 together on the year. But they flipped that strategy Sunday when Columbus got out to an early lead, putting Black on the right. The Sliders ultimately won that game 11-4, completely flipping the match dynamics and momentum from the previous two days.

Announcers Dave Fleming and pro player AJ Koller also questioned the decision on the broadcast, and while they flipped back later in the game, they seemed way less committed to a game plan than they had been the prior two days.

Even still, the Flash were able to force a third consecutive Dreambreaker, but their season unraveled for good with two more questionable decisions in singles. After a missed return at 6-4 by Jorja Johnson, Dallas tried to challenge that Parris Todd's serve was out. But because Johnson attempted to play the ball instead of immediately calling the serve out, the refs appeared to rule that she couldn't go back and challenge to see if the serve was in or out. After a lengthy discussion between Johnson, other members of the Flash and the refs, they proceeded with video review, but were apparently only looking to see if the return was out -- which it was, by about a foot. 

If Dallas was told they couldn't challenge the line call on the serve, they shouldn't have challenged at all. That lost challenge cost them dearly because they challenged another line call at 10-8 after JW Johnson hit a ball long. The call was confirmed, but because it was Dallas' second lost challenge of the game, that meant Columbus was given a free point.

The Sliders went on to win the Dreambreaker 21-18 to advance to the Premier Level semifinals.

The Sliders -- and Andrei Daescu specifically -- deserve a ton of credit

The MVP of this series was without a doubt Daescu. He was 5-1 in his doubles games and also played great in each of the Dreambreakers. In Sunday's deciding Dreambreaker, he won 8 of the 12 points he played against JW Johnson.

But it was more than just his play that was impressive this weekend. Rumors have been swirling about off-court drama within Columbus' team for a couple weeks -- which led some to think that might have been the reason Dallas chose to play them. I don't know the specifics of what might have been going on behind the scenes with Columbus' players, but Daescu has always taken a businesslike approach to his preparation and play on the court.

From my view, he refused to let whatever drama was happening with this team get in the way of winning. He's clearly a great leader, an elite competitor and was able to keep everybody pushing in the same direction. Without that steady veteran presence, it's easy to imagine a world in which Columbus could have wilted under pressure this weekend.

The other three players -- Jansen, Todd and Klinger -- all stepped up at crucial points throughout the series.

In Saturday's Dreambreaker win, Jansen went 8-0 against Black to give Columbus a huge advantage.

On Sunday, it was Klinger who came up big in singles, scoring the last three points against Ge.

And Todd played great in mixed with Daescu as they took down the Johnsons in the first two matches. That's no small feat, as Jorja and JW were the best mixed doubles duo in MLP this season with a 27-2 record coming into the playoffs. They also are the clear-cut No. 2 mixed doubles team on the PPA Tour behind Ben Johns/Anna Leigh Waters.

Premier Level semifinalists set, but matchups still unknown

The following teams will play in New York City next weekend for a chance at the 2025 MLP title: St. Louis (1 seed), New Jersey (2 seed), Columbus (3 seed), Los Angeles (4 seed).

Buy tickets: MLP Finals in New York City

St. Louis will have their choice of who they play between Columbus or Los Angeles, but we won't know who they pick until later this week. Most would probably guess they'll choose to play Columbus -- but it wouldn't be the first time in these here playoffs a team surprised us with their decision.