The Major League Pickleball season continues Friday at MLP Austin presented by Waterdrop, where 11 teams will be in action across four days at Austin Pickle Ranch.  

The first three days feature Group Play before the top 4 teams from each group advance to the Standing Point matches on Super Sunday. 

Here are the groups for this week’s event:   

Group A: California Black Bears, Carolina Hogs, Columbus Sliders, Miami Pickleball Club, SoCal Hard Eights  

Group B: Atlanta Bouncers, Bay Area Breakers, Dallas Flash, Florida Smash, New Jersey 5s, Texas Ranchers 

Here is the order of play: 

Now, let’s get into what to watch for. 

• Donald Young is into the starting lineup for the Atlanta Bouncers after Jay Devilliers suffered a neck injury in Thursday’s DreamBreaker victory over the Texas Ranchers. Young will play men’s doubles alongside Jaume Martinez Vich and mixed doubles alongside Keilly Ulery (filling in for an injured Kaitlyn Christian) as Atlanta takes on the Bay Area Breakers and New Jersey 5s on Friday.

• The SoCal Hard Eights will play their first matches of the event on Friday as they take on the Miami Pickleball Club and the Columbus Sliders. The Hard Eights went 1-4 last week at MLP St. Louis, where they won their season-opening match against the Phoenix Flames before dropping their last four. They will look to have a better performance in Austin with what should be a more manageable Group Play schedule.

• Friday’s action will end with the Lone Star Showdown featuring the Dallas Flash taking on the Texas Ranchers. Both teams should be extra motivated after dropping their opening matches on Thursday; Dallas fell to the Florida Smash, and Texas lost to the Atlanta Bouncers. The Flash will be without Tyra Black for this event, so they will move forward with Albie Huang and Brooke Buckner as their two starting females as Nico Acevedo looks for his first victory as a member of the Ranchers. 

Action from the Texas capital begins at 8:30am CT on Pickleballtv.