Major League Pickleball (MLP), presented by DoorDash, finished off its 9-week regular season slate with a scintillating event in Orlando, a great venue with packed houses and national TV on Sunday. The league finished its regular season slate, and the playoff positioning was filled with drama, amazing matches, and great drama.
Premier League Group Stage Match Recap
Day 1 Observations:
Brooklyn and Phoenix kicked off the weekend, and Brooklyn is continuing their "load management" strategy. Rohrabacher is not playing at all on Friday, and Newman is only playing men’s doubles. Nonetheless, their captain Alshon led the way with two dominant doubles wins to lead Brooklyn to a 3-1 opener.
We got our first look at LA’s new lineup with Garnett; Freeman will continue with Ben in Men’s, but Connor replaces Freeman in Mixed with Parenteau. Will this be the game changer? In their first test, they passed with flying colors, as Garnett/Parenteau won 11-1 on the way to a 4-0 sweep over Chicago.
We also got our first look at how NJ is deploying their newly acquired players: Staksrud replaces Khlif in Men's Doubles, and replaces Howells in Mixed with Jorja Johnson. Interesting. Howells and Fed struggled in their first game together, getting stretched to 11-8 by Carolina's DJ Young/Wyatt Stone, but NJ otherwise dominated the bottom dwelling Hogs for the sweep.
Chicago’s Hendershot and Wei shocked Palm Beach’s Pisnik & Sewing, who were 22-4 together entering this event, to set the tone. Wei and Goins teamed up to win Mixed-2 to send the match to a DB, where they had match point on their paddles before falling 22-20. This was one that got away from Chicago, and could have nearly sewn up a playoff spot. More drama was to come with Chicago.
Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/toddboss/2026/08/03/new-jersey-beats-st-louis-in-a-battle-of-heavyweights-for-the-major-league-pickleball-regular-season-title-in-orlando/