Major League Pickleball 2026 Week 7 Power Rankings
The St. Louis Shock have been the most dominant team in Major League Pickleball for the past several weeks. They haven’t lost since May 31 and have been sweeping teams more often than not as of late, but were still No. 2 in the points standings heading into the Mid-Season Tournament this week.
With all 20 teams in the field in Grand Rapids, Michigan, it was an opportunity for the Shock (and a couple other teams) to definitively say they they are the best team in the league right now.
St. Louis left no doubt, winning the title Sunday with a 3-0 sweep over the New Jersey 5s, earning 10 standings points and jumping into a tie with New Jersey at No. 1 in the regular-season standings (both teams now sit at 93 points, 28 points clear of third place).
St. Louis’ Anna Bright/Kate Fahey handed New Jersey’s Anna Leigh Waters/Jorja Johnson their first loss of the season (11-6) in women’s doubles to grab control of the match from the start, and the Shock never looked back. Hayden Patriquin/Gabe Tardio cruised in men’s doubles over Will Howells/Noe Khlif (11-3), and Bright/Patriquin took down Waters/Khlif (11-8) to seal it.
“This is our third year together as a group, and we have not yet been able to hold up this trophy here in Grand Rapids,” Bright said after the win, which gave the Shock their first-ever Mid-Season Tournament title. “So I’m really excited that we get to do that this year, and it was a great match against the 5s. We will likely see them again this year, but this is a really big win and gives us a lot of momentum going into the postseason.”
St. Louis and New Jersey have now played three times this season, with St. Louis holding a 2-1 advantage in the head-to-head series.
May 25: St. Louis wins in a Dreambreaker (21-15).
May 31: New Jersey wins 3-0.
July 12: St. Louis wins 3-0.
Major League Pickleball Week 7 Standings
Major League Pickleball Week 7 Power Rankings
1. St. Louis Shock 📈
Record: 24-2
Roster: Hayden Patriquin, Gabe Tardio, Hunter Johnson, Anna Bright, Kate Fahey, Angie Walker.
The Shock are riding a 15-match winning streak and have beaten most of the main contenders during that stretch: New Jersey, Los Angeles (3 times), Columbus, Palm Beach (twice), Orlando (twice) and Texas (twice).
The only team in my Top 5 that they haven’t played yet is Brooklyn.
Sunday’s win over New Jersey makes the Shock the favorites coming down the stretch, but it’s still fairly close in my opinion. The two teams could meet one more time in the regular season if both make the final of MLP Orlando, which is the last event before the playoffs.
2. New Jersey 5s 📉
Record: 22-4
Roster: Will Howells, Noe Khlif, Martin Emmrich, Anna Leigh Waters, Jorja Johnson, Lina Padegimaite.
This team is built on the strength of its women, so when the women don’t win (like what happened Sunday), it puts them in a really tough spot. And the Shock might have showed the rest of the league the blueprint for beating Waters/Johnson — they did it by hitting almost every single ball to Johnson, who didn’t have her best game in Sunday’s final.
I’m not ready to hit the panic button on this team, though. I still think they can win the title this year, but I have to bump them down this week because St. Louis has been the stronger team over the past several weeks.
3. Columbus Sliders 📈
Record: 20-7
Roster: Andrei Daescu, CJ Klinger, Alexander Crum, Parris Todd, Tyra Black, Judit Castillo.
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 (nobody else can say that) and solid singles players coming off the bench.
But they haven’t quite played to that potential yet.
The first time we saw their current lineup at MLP St. Pete, the Sliders were upset by Palm Beach and beaten handily by St. Louis in Group Play.
They were a little better this week, though, with their only loss coming to New Jersey in Saturday’s semifinals. They were beaten 3-1, but all of the games were fairly close, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they continue to close the gap as we head into the playoffs. They also rebounded with a solid 3-1 win over Los Angeles on Sunday, which earned the Sliders a third-place finish in Grand Rapids and 4 standings points.
4. Los Angeles Mad Drops 📉
Record: 18-4
Roster: Ben Johns, Max Freeman, Gabriel Joseph, Catherine Parenteau, Jade Kawamoto, Samantha Parker.
In the past month they’ve been swept twice by St. Louis and were beaten 3-1 by the Shock on Saturday in the Mid-Season Tournament semifinals.
They also lost to Columbus in the third-place match on Sunday, so they’ve been stumbling a bit lately.
5. Brooklyn Pickleball Team 📉
Record: 15-5
Roster: Christian Alshon, Riley Newman, Chris Haworth, Jackie Kawamoto, Rachel Rohrabacher, Hannah Blatt.
Three of their starters were out this week (Alshon, Newman and Rohrabacher), so it’s hard to judge them too harshly for going 1-2 in Grand Rapids.
They will be back in action at the end of the month at MLP Chicago, and it sounds like everybody could be back by then.
If they can get everybody healthy, I still think they will be a very dangerous team in the playoffs.
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6. Texas Ranchers ↔️
Record: 16-12
Roster: Eric Oncins, Nico Acevedo, Rafa Hewett, Lea Jansen, Kaitlyn Christian, Layne Sleeth.
It was a pretty good week for Texas. They took care of business against the teams they’re supposed to beat — SoCal, Phoenix and Palm Beach — but had losses to St. Louis and Columbus.
It’s hard to see them making a serious run in the playoffs based on what we’ve seen so far. I’m putting them firmly in the “Good but not great” category.
7. Dallas Flash ↔️
Roster: JW Johnson, Augie Ge, Ivan Jakovljevic, Danni-Elle Townsend, Alix Truong, Brooke Buckner.
Record: 11-10
They went 3-2 in Grand Rapids with wins over Atlanta, SoCal and Las Vegas, who could all end up as playoff teams, but lost to New Jersey and Los Angeles.
After a turbulent few weeks that involved multiple trades, I think they’ve ended up with a pretty solid team. I view them very similarly to the Ranchers at this point.
8. Palm Beach Royals ↔️
Record: 14-12
Roster: Dekel Bar, Tyson McGuffin, Casey Diamond, Grayson Goldin (IR), Tina Pisnik, Sofia Sewing, Tamaryn Emmrich.
Pisnik/Sewing continue to be one of the best women’s doubles teams in the league (they are now 22-4), but Bar/McGuffin have struggled in men’s doubles (they were 1-3 this week and are now 7-9 overall).
They ended up finishing 7th/8th in Grand Rapids, but are still in a good spot in terms of playoff seeding — they will likely be the No. 6 or No. 7 seed.
9. Orlando Squeeze ↔️
Record: 9-9
Roster: Federico Staksrud, Jack Sock, Yates Johnson, Lacy Schneemann, Milan Rane, Alex Walker.
They were without Jack Sock this week and went 1-2, with their only win coming over Team Europe, who was one of the “guest” teams in the field at the Mid-Season Tournament.
With 60% of their regular season in the books, they have just 19 standings points and are sitting in 11th in the overall standings. I still think they will make the playoffs, but it could get dicey down the stretch because of their recent results.
10. SoCal Hard Eights ↔️
Record: 10-10
Roster: Armaan Bhatia, Will MacKinnon, Rafael Lenhard, Meghan Dizon, Cailyn Campbell, Naomi Nguyen.
They went 3-2 at the Mid-Season Tournament, but that record is a little deceiving — their wins were over Team Canada, Carolina and Florida … I wouldn’t consider any of those to be a quality win.
When they faced other teams in the playoff picture — Texas and Dallas — they lost in regulation. They will probably make the playoffs, but it’s hard to get excited about their chances to make a serious run once they get there.
11. Atlanta Bouncers 📈
Record: 9-13
Roster: Jay Devilliers, Jaume Martinez Vich, Donald Young, Jessie Irvine, Kaitlyn Christian, Keilly Ulery.
The Bouncers are trending in the right direction, going 4-2 and finishing 7th/8th at the Mid-Season Tournament. But unfortunately for them, they didn’t earn any standings points this week. They’re still in the playoff hunt, but will need to post solid results from here on out to secure a spot in the postseason.
12. Phoenix Flames 📈
Record: 3-10
Roster: Jonathan Truong, Wyatt Stone, Camden Chaffin, Albie Huang, Alexa Schull, Daria Walczak.
It might be crazy to have a 3-10 team this high, but hear me out: They had an extremely tough schedule to start the season, with almost all of their losses coming to teams that I have in my Top 10.
This week they finally played some of the lower-tier teams, and they played well. They went 2-2 with wins over Las Vegas and Miami and losses to Atlanta and Texas (both in Dreambreakers).
And they’ve only played two regular-season events, so there’s still a lot of time for them to earn points and rise in the standings — although it’s a steep uphill battle to make the playoffs because they got off to such a slow start.
13. Las Vegas Night Owls 📉
Record: 7-12
Roster: Roscoe Bellamy, Clayton Powell, Braden Jacobson, Callie Smith, Chao Yi Wang, Liz Truluck.
They were 1-2 this week, with their only win coming over Team Australia. They are still in good shape to make the playoffs, but it’s been a few weeks since they’ve played particularly well — they are 3-7 in their last 10 matches.
14. Utah Black Diamonds 📉
Record: 9-13
Roster: Connor Garnett, Tama Shimabukuro, Tyler Loong, Allyce Jones, Etta Tuionetoa, Victoria DiMuzio.
They did go 3-2 this week, but that record is a little bit (or a lot) misleading. Their wins were over the College All Stars (not a real team), Bay Area (bad team) and Brooklyn (who was playing without three starters).
The Black Diamonds are currently on the inside of the playoff bubble, but I’d be worried about Atlanta making a late run for the No. 12 spot. They will play each other twice down the stretch.
15. Chicago Slice 📉
Record: 7-12
Roster: John Lucian Goins, Zane Navratil, Tom Protzek, Elsie Hendershot, Jamie Wei, Jalina Ingram.
Chicago appears to be building for the future, making a trade recently to pick up Goins (18 years old) and Hendershot (13).
In the short term, their hopes of making the playoffs this season have taken a hit. In the long term, this could be an interesting team.
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16. Miami Pickleball Club ↔️
Record: 6-13
Roster: Dylan Frazier, Yuta Funemizu, Luc Pham, Isabella Dunlap, Estee Widdershoven, Rika Fujiwara.
Their playoff hopes are fading, but they’re not dead yet.
17. California Black Bears ↔️
Record: 3-7
Roster: Pablo Tellez, Anouar Braham, Joey Wild, Sahra Dennehy, Mya Bui, Emma Nelson, Luka Mack (IR).
They made a trade last week to get Pablo Tellez, which improved their roster on paper, but he only played in one match in Grand Rapids (a 3-0 loss to Miami). This is another team that is clinging to playoff hopes, but is going to need to play great in each of their next three events.
18. Florida Smash ↔️
Record: 8-17
Roster: Connor Mogle, Cason Campbell, Christopher Couch, Martina Frantova, Paula Rives, Zoey Weil.
They are outside the playoff bubble with only one event remaining on their schedule. They’ve been more competitive than many people thought they would be, but it likely won’t be enough to make the postseason.
19. Bay Area Breakers ↔️
Record: 4-18
Roster: Len Yang, James Delgado, Blaine Hovenier, Genie Erokhina, Kiora Kunimoto, Ella Yeh.
They went 0-2 this week with losses to Florida and Utah. With four events (80% of their regular season) completed, I think it’s safe to say this team isn’t making the playoffs.
20. Carolina Hogs ↔️
Record: 2-18
Roster: DJ Young, Brandon French, Michael Loyd, Nicole Conard, Aiko Yoshitomi, Abbigal Hatton.
They are not yet mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, but I feel comfortable writing them off.
