Major League Pickleball Week 9 Power Rankings: Dallas Flash go back-to-back
It didn’t take long for the Dallas Flash to back up their MLP San Diego win.
One week later — this time in Chicago — the Flash continued their late-season run by claiming another event title and 25 more standings points with a Dreambreaker win over Brooklyn on Sunday, putting the Flash firmly in the discussion as serious playoff contenders.
The win at MLP Chicago moves Dallas up to No. 4 in the points standings, but more importantly it showed that the San Diego result wasn’t a fluke.
The Flash went undefeated in Chicago, extending their winning streak to 11 matches with wins over several top teams (Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Columbus) during the two-week stretch.
“I believed in these guys, and it’s been a team effort,” Dallas Flash General Manager Mark Molthan said after Sunday’s win. “They’ve all worked so hard, come together and we’ve really bonded. Chemistry does it.”
Sunday’s win over Brooklyn in a Dreambreaker was especially impressive given that Brooklyn has two of the Top 5 men’s singles players in the world — Chris Haworth and Christian Alshon — on their roster. JW Johnson outscored Haworth 7-1 in singles on Sunday, while Augie Ge earned a 4-4 split with Alshon.
Here’s a look at where things stand across the league after Week 9:
Playoff picture comes into focus
With only one more regular season event remaining before the playoffs, we now have a decent idea of what the playoff picture looks like. The Top 12 teams in the standings will make the postseason.
7 teams have clinched a playoff spot: St. Louis, New Jersey, Dallas, Columbus, Los Angeles, Brooklyn and Texas.
3 teams are most likely in: Palm Beach (44 points), Atlanta (36 points) and SoCal (34 points).
5 teams fighting for 2 spots: California (30 points), Chicago (27 points), Las Vegas (26 points), Orlando (25 points) and Miami (20 points).
Pretty much eliminated: Carolina and Phoenix — both would need to win the last event of the season to have a chance, and they haven’t come close to doing that in any of their first four events.
Mathematically eliminated: Bay Area, Florida and Utah.
Major League Pickleball Chicago Results
Major League Pickleball Week 9 Standings
The Kitchen’s Major League Pickleball Week 9 Power Rankings
1. St. Louis Shock ↔️
Record: 24-2
Roster: Hayden Patriquin, Gabe Tardio, Hunter Johnson, Anna Bright, Kate Fahey, Angie Walker.
The Shock had the week off.
The last time we saw them they were winning the Mid-Season Tournament and extending their winning streak to 15 matches. St. Louis has also beaten most of the main contenders over the past several weeks: New Jersey, Los Angeles (3 times), Columbus, Palm Beach (twice) and Texas (twice).
They haven’t played Brooklyn or Dallas yet this season, but their most recent win over New Jersey in the Mid-Season Tournament final makes the Shock the favorites coming down the stretch.
St. Louis could play New Jersey one more time in the regular season if both make the final of MLP Orlando this week, which is the last event before the playoffs.
2. New Jersey 5s ↔️
Record: 22-4
Roster: Will Howells, Noe Khlif, Federico Staksrud, Anna Leigh Waters, Jorja Johnson, Milan Rane.
They made a huge trade at the July 20 deadline to get Federico Staksrud and Milan Rane. New Jersey General Manager Ryan Harwood declined to say what the 5s lineup will look like moving forward, but conventional wisdom would lead me to believe that Staksrud will play both men’s doubles and mixed doubles.
Howells/Khlif are 14-12 in men’s doubles, which has been New Jersey’s weakest part of the lineup to this point in the season. In mixed doubles, Khlif/Waters are 23-3 and Howells/Johnson are 15-6.
If I had to guess, I think we’ll see Staksrud/Howells in men’s doubles and Staksrud/Johnson in mixed doubles. Khlif/Waters have been very solid throughout the season (they are the No. 2 mixed team in the league based on winning percentage), so I think they’ll stick with that duo given that it’s so late in the season.
Getting Rane is an underrated piece of the trade as well. She will likely take Johnson’s spot in the Dreambreaker lineup, and the addition of Rane and Staksrud makes New Jersey one of the best singles teams in the league.
3. Dallas Flash ↔️
Roster: JW Johnson, Augie Ge, Ivan Jakovljevic, Danni-Elle Townsend, Alix Truong, Brooke Buckner.
Record: 22-10
There are three lineups in particular that have carried the Flash during their 11-match winning streak:
JW Johnson/Augie Ge: 9-2 in men’s doubles in those matches
JW Johnson/Brooke Buckner: 9-2 in mixed
Augie Ge/Danni-Elle Townsend: 9-2 in mixed (16-3 overall since Townsend was traded to the Flash)
They’ve also won four Dreambreakers over the past two events, which is a great sign heading into the playoffs.
4. Columbus Sliders ↔️
Record: 25-8
Roster: Andrei Daescu, CJ Klinger, Alexander Crum, Parris Todd, Tyra Black, Judit Castillo.
The Sliders have completed all of their regular-season events. They were pretty consistent throughout the year, finishing third or better in 4-of-5 of those events and finishing third at the Mid-Season Tournament. But the fact that they weren’t able to win any of their events makes it hard to feel super confident in their chances of defending their title.
They have arguably the most talented roster in the league — they are the only team with four players in the Top 10 in the PPA Tour gender doubles rankings — but so far they haven’t quite put it all together.
That said, this is essentially the same position Columbus was in heading into the postseason last year, then they found another gear in the playoffs and won the title.
5. Los Angeles Mad Drops ↔️
Record: 21-6
Roster: Ben Johns, Max Freeman, Connor Garnett, Catherine Parenteau, Jade Kawamoto, Samantha Parker.
Los Angeles was another team that made a big move at the trade deadline, picking up Garnett.
I think Johns/Freeman will stick together in men’s doubles (they are 21-6 and have the third-best men’s doubles winning percentage in the league), while Garnett will likely pair with Parenteau in mixed doubles.
The Mad Drops are in the same group as New Jersey at MLP Orlando this coming week, so we’ll get to see the new lineup in action before the playoffs. It’s a chance for LA to show that they are still serious contenders — after winning their first event of the season and looking very strong, the Mad Drops have regressed slightly throughout the season and are now 5th in the points standings. Are they getting worse or just conserving energy for a playoff run?
6. Brooklyn Pickleball Team ↔️
Record: 18-7
Roster: Christian Alshon, Riley Newman, Chris Haworth, Jackie Kawamoto, Rachel Rohrabacher, Hannah Blatt.
Even though they didn’t get the event win this week in Chicago, it was still a pretty good showing for Brooklyn given that the roster isn’t fully healthy.
Rohrabacher still hasn’t played a full match (she’s been playing only mixed doubles) since the video board incident at MLP New York. Newman, meanwhile, had a scooter accident in New York a few weeks ago and has been banged up — he played mostly gender doubles this week, but did play both men’s and mixed in Sunday’s final vs. the Flash.
7. Palm Beach Royals 📈
Record: 14-12
Roster: Dekel Bar, Tyson McGuffin, Casey Diamond, Tina Pisnik, Sofia Sewing, Tamaryn Emmrich.
They had the week off, but I’m moving them up a spot this week because Texas had a couple suspect losses in Chicago. While the Royals have had a pretty solid debut season (this is their first year in the league), I don’t see them as a team that can make the semifinals in the playoffs.
Pisnik/Sewing have been one of the best women’s doubles teams in the league (they are 22-4), but Bar/McGuffin have struggled in men’s doubles (they are 7-9).
8. Texas Ranchers 📉
Record: 19-14
Roster: Eric Oncins, Nico Acevedo, Rafa Hewett, Lea Jansen, Kaitlyn Christian, Layne Sleeth.
The Ranchers had pretty much already secured a playoff spot coming into this week, so their matches in Chicago weren’t very consequential. Even so, their losses to California and Miami (two teams that might not make the playoffs) did not make me think they’re poised to make a big postseason run.
9. California Black Bears 📈
Record: 11-13
Roster: Pablo Tellez, Dylan Frazier, Martin Emmrich, Sahra Dennehy, Zoey Weil, Jalina Ingram, Luka Mack (IR).
The Black Bears still need one more good event in Orlando to secure a spot in the playoffs, but I like what I saw at MLP Chicago. Their only loss this week was to Brooklyn, and they are now 7-2 in their last 9 matches.
10. Atlanta Bouncers 📉
Record: 15-18
Roster: Jay Devilliers, Jaume Martinez Vich, Donald Young, Jessie Irvine, Kaitlyn Christian, Keilly Ulery.
The Bouncers went 3-3 this week but had a loss to the Chicago Slice on Thursday — a team they are supposed to beat on paper.
Their regular season is done and they are pretty much guaranteed to make the playoffs with 36 standings points (No. 9 in standings), now it’s just a matter of what seed they will have.
California (30 points), Chicago (27), Las Vegas (26) and Orlando (25) are all playing this week at MLP Orlando, so those teams still have an opportunity to earn more points. It’s unlikely that all four of those teams will pass Atlanta, but one or two of them certainly could.
11. SoCal Hard Eights 📉
Record: 14-17
Roster: Armaan Bhatia, Will MacKinnon, Rafael Lenhard, Meghan Dizon, Cailyn Campbell, Naomi Nguyen.
The Hard Eights finished their regular season with a clunker, going 1-4 in Chicago and walking away with just 1 standings point (they now have 34 total and are No. 10 in the standings). Like Atlanta, they will now wait and see if that will be enough to make the playoffs.
12. Chicago Slice 📈
Record: 10-15
Roster: John Lucian Goins, Zane Navratil, AJ Koller, Elsie Hendershot, Jamie Wei, Emma Nelson.
I had kind of written Chicago off for this season after they made multiple trades to get Goins (18 years old), Hendershot (13) and Nelson (15). They are very clearly building for the future, but could still sneak into the playoffs this year. They went 3-3 at their home event in Chicago and are a decent result in Orlando away from securing one of the final postseason spots.
13. Las Vegas Night Owls 📉
Record: 9-16
Roster: Roscoe Bellamy, Clayton Powell, Braden Jacobson, Callie Smith, Chao Yi Wang, Liz Truluck.
The Night Owls have now gone back-to-back events earning just 4 standings points. They are currently outside the playoff bubble, but only trail the Slice by 1 point. Both teams play in Orlando and are in opposite groups. Could we get a head-to-head matchup on Sunday to decide who gets the last spot?
14. Orlando Squeeze 📉
Record: 13-11
Roster: Greg Dow, Jack Sock, Yates Johnson, Lacy Schneemann, Lina Padegimaite, Alex Walker.
The Squeeze have a better record than the five teams I have in front of them, but are in a worse position in the points standings because of a very poor Week 5 showing in St. Petersburg.
And now they need to have a great week at their home event this week in Orlando in order to make the playoffs — and do it without Federico Staksrud, who they traded to New Jersey last week.
15. Miami Pickleball Club 📈
Record: 9-15
Roster: Anouar Braham, James Delgado, Anderson Scarpa, Estee Widdershoven, Isabella Dunlap, Rika Fujiwara.
They played well this week and got a crucial win over Atlanta on Sunday to earn 10 standings points and keep their playoff hopes alive. They still have to leap frog several teams in front of them in order to make the playoffs, but they’re not dead yet.
16. Phoenix Flames 📈
Record: 4-18
Roster: Jonathan Truong, Wyatt Stone, Camden Chaffin, Albie Huang, Alexa Schull, Daria Walczak.
The Flames only move up one spot this week because the Utah Black Diamonds were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. Phoenix is also pretty much toast at this point — they need to win their last regular season event at MLP Orlando to have a chance, and even that might not be enough.
17. Carolina Hogs ↔️
Record: 2-18
Roster: DJ Young, Brandon French, Michael Loyd, Nicole Conard, Aiko Yoshitomi, Abbigal Hatton.
The Hogs are in the same situation as Phoenix — they need to win MLP Orlando to make the postseason.
Eliminated from playoff contention
Bay Area Breakers
Florida Smash
Utah Black Diamonds
