The Dallas Flash came into Grand Rapids, Michigan, this week with unfinished business.

They may have won the Major League Pickleball Championship in 2024, but they finished fourth at the Mid-Season Tournament last year.

Not this time.

The Flash continued their dominant and undefeated 2025 season in Grand Rapids, winning all four of their matches in regulation and claiming the Mid-Season Tournament title with a 3-1 win on Sunday over the St. Louis Shock.

It was the first meeting of the season between the consensus top 2 teams, and it didn't disappoint, coming down to the wire in the second mixed matchup.

Sunday's scoreline - Dallas def. St. Louis 3-1
Tyra Black/Jorja Johnson def. Anna Bright/Kate Fahey 11-3
Hayden Patriquin/Gabe Tardio def. JW Johnson/Augie Ge 11-4
Johnson/Johnson def. Bright/Patriquin 11-5
Black/Ge def. Fahey/Tardio 12-10

"This is huge for us," Ge said after the win. "Last year, we were still very much on our journey and maturing and developing as a team. Now this year to win this, it shows that we're still building and growing. It's just awesome."

Jorja Johnson was again a bright spot for Dallas, as she has been all season, winning both of her games easily in the final match of the weekend. Johnson and Black were particularly impressive in the women's matchup against Bright and Fahey, as they rattled off 11 straight points to win 11-3 after getting down 0-3 early.

That seemed to set the tone for the whole match.

Dallas GM Mark Molthan credited his team's preparation leading into the Mid-Season Tournament. He said after Sunday's final that the whole team had spent time with coach Julie Johnson (JW and Jorja's mom) to get ready for the week -- he called it "Camp Julie."

"They put in the work," he said. "They take it serious. Everyone is professional. They all have a role, they all do it and they all showed up and we won. That's what we do."

Dallas also showed great versatility throughout the week. Against Orlando in the quarterfinals, they dropped men's doubles but still won in regulation (the same as Sunday). Against Columbus in the semifinals, they lost women's doubles, but the men bailed them out with a win against the Sliders' tough men's team of Andrei Daescu and CJ Klinger.

The common theme: They were extremely tough in mixed doubles, going 7-0 and winning nearly 70% of points in those games.

Dallas walks away with 6 standings points and $50,000 in prize money for the win, while St. Louis earned 4 standings points and $25,000.

It was the second loss of the season for St. Louis, but it won't be long before they get another crack at the No. 1 team.

The Shock are the host team for MLP St. Louis, which starts on Thursday of this week. The Flash and Shock will play again on Saturday night in what is expected to be another electric matchup.

St. Louis has been promoting the event for months and it is being held at Chaifetz Arena, which has seating for up to 10,000 people. We'll have more on MLP St. Louis later this week.

New Jersey takes bronze

The New Jersey 5s made it through the consolation bracket after losing in the semifinals Saturday to St. Louis, ultimately beating the Texas Ranchers 3-1 in the bronze medal match to earn 2 standings points and $12,500 in prize money.

It was an interesting week for the 5s, who started the week using their normal lineup with Meghan Dizon as their No. 2 women's player, then switched to Mari Humberg for Saturday's semifinal match against the Shock.

Humberg, who was on last year's New Jersey team that finished runner-up to Dallas and was re-acquired by the 5s last month, went 0-2 in her 2025 debut with the team.

New Jersey then switched back to Dizon for the two matches on Sunday, and she went 1-1 in both wins for the team.

It will be interesting to see if the 5s continue to experiment with both players at the No. 2 women's spot going forward.

I spoke to New Jersey GM Ryan Harwood after Sunday's bronze medal match, and he declined to comment on the lineup changes this weekend or what the team was looking to do going forward. But he did say the team was taking positives from the week.

"I'm proud of them for showing resilience and getting those points because those points are going to be important down the stretch to stay in the mix for a top 3 seed," he said. "But at the same time, we are a very competitive team, so anytime we lose we're gonna be disappointed, because we think we are good enough to beat anyone on any given day."

Harwood said despite a second 3-1 loss to St. Louis this season, he felt they were closer this time around to getting over the hump. Here's how both meetings have played out:

April 27 vs. St. Louis (with Meghan Dizon starting)
Women's doubles -- L, 8-11
Men's doubles -- L, 7-11
Mixed No. 1 (Waters/Howells vs. Fahey/Patriquin) -- W, 11-3
Mixed No. 2 (Dizon/Navratil vs. Bright/Tardio) -- L, 4-11

It's worth noting that the first meeting was the infamous match where Anna Leigh Waters and Hayden Patriquin had their dust-up on the sidelines -- and everything was a little chaotic after that. This week's matchup went similarly from a win-loss standpoint, but was slightly closer.

July 12 vs. St. Louis (with Mari Humberg starting)
Women's doubles -- L, 10-12
Men's doubles -- L, 7-11
Mixed No. 1 (Waters/Howells vs. Fahey/Tardio) -- W, 11-3
Mixed No. 2 (Humberg/Navratil vs. Bright/Patriquin) -- L, 8-11

Despite the same result, Harwood said he felt like if the 5s could have gotten a win in women's doubles (they had two game points up 10-8), it changes the whole trajectory of the match.

"I think we made them sweat a lot more this time, so I think we're inching closer to getting that W," he said.

In the end, there's a couple ways you could look at New Jersey's week. There were 16 teams in the field and they finished third. That's pretty good. On the other hand, they clearly still have some work to do to get past either of the top 2 teams.

Harwood said his team's prior experience in the playoffs and in big matches on the PPA Tour could be a difference-maker in a postseason meeting.

"We're confident we can get over that hump," he said. "It's not going to be easy, but we're confident we can do it, especially come playoff time. I think that we've clearly demonstrated that we're a team that thrives under pressure and likes big moments and matches. We don't really fold. So we're gonna be a tough out, even if we don't get that No. 1 seed like we did last year. We're gonna be a tough out for either of those top seeds."

Las Vegas wins Challenger Level title

The Las Vegas Night Owls topped the Nashville Chefs -- The Kitchen's MLP team -- in the Challenger Level final, which was one of the most entertaining matches of the weekend.

Las Vegas' Pablo Tellez came up huge in the Dreambreaker, winning 4 straight points toward the end of the match, and Brooke Buckner closed it out with some great points of her own to give the Night Owls a 22-20 win.

Las Vegas earned $7,000 for the win, while Nashville walks away with $3,500. The D.C. Pickleball Team earned bronze at the Challenger Level.

Other notes from the Major League Pickleball Mid-Season Tournament

-The Texas Ranchers debuted a new lineup this week in their first matches since trading Etta Tuionetoa for Kaitlyn Christian. Christian was 5-3 on the week (4-2 in women's and 1-1 in mixed with Christian Alshon). I think Texas would have to feel pretty good about that in the first go-around. The Ranchers proved they are still a dangerous team and the addition of Christian certainly makes them a better Dreambreaker team, but much like any team outside of Dallas or St. Louis, they are going to need to make a fairly significant jump to challenge either of the top 2.

-The Los Angeles Mad Drops took the biggest hit of all this weekend, losing one of their top players in Quang Duong for the remainder of the season -- and forever, perhaps? Duong was booted from the league Saturday morning after continuing to ignore warnings from the United Pickleball Association about participating in unsanctioned events in Vietnam. You can find our take on the whole fiasco here. It's unclear at this point what LA's next steps are. They already have been without Thomas Wilson (IR) and bench player Wes Burrows hasn't played in any of the team's matches this season -- they've been using on-site subs in instances where they don't have all 4 starters.

-The Major League Pickleball trade deadline is Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET. There have been rumors that the Phoenix Flames' Jessie Irvine is being shopped after her and Genie Bouchard got into an argument a few weeks ago at MLP San Clemente, but the Flames haven't made a move as of Sunday night. They went 0-2 this week without Jack Sock or Bouchard (both were playing a tennis tournament in Rhode Island this week).