Hayden Patiquin and Gabe Tardio competing for the St. Louis Shock at Marathon MLP St. Louis.
Hayden Patriquin and Gabe Tardio competing for the St. Louis Shock at Marathon MLP St. Louis. Major League Pickleball

3 things to watch for on Friday MLP St. Louis

Marathon MLP St. Louis continues on Friday with eight matches across Championship Court and Grandstand Court at Chaifetz Arena.

Here is the order of play:

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

  • The St. Louis Shock (14-1, 46pts) will face the Columbus Sliders (15-5, 45pts) in what projects to be the best match of the day—and potentially, the entire event. St. Louis swept Columbus the last time they played at MLP Columbus, but the Sliders were without CJ Klinger for that matchup and seem to have gelled much more as a team since then. This will be a massive opportunity for the Sliders to pick up a signature win as their regular season nears its end in St. Louis.

 

  • The Dallas Flash (14-0, 46pts), the only remaining undefeated team in MLP, will take the court for the first time since their Mid-Season Tournament triumph when they take on the Brooklyn Pickleball Team (15-5, 47pts). Dallas won this matchup 3-1 at MLP Phoenix, though their three game wins came by 11-9, 12-10, and 12-10 score lines. Brooklyn—fresh of a 3-1 victory over the Chicago Slice—will look to turn the tide on Friday with AJ Koller continuing to fill in for an injured Dekel Bar.

 

  • The Challenger level will give us a highly anticipated rematch between the Las Vegas Night Owls (13-3, 44pts) and Nashville Chefs (12-4, 37pts). These squads played an epic final at the Mid-Season Tournament, with Brooke Buckner clinching a 22-20 DreamBreaker win for the Night Owls in one of the best matches of the event. One thing to note for this particular matchup is that Las Vegas has changed up its mixed doubles pairings: Buckner/Pablo Tellez are now playing together, while Zoey Wang/James Delgado are also partnering up. We’ll see what kind of effect this has when these teams face off in the final match of the day on Grandstand Court.

 

Grandstand Court action begins at 11:00am CT, while Championship Court matches will start at 11:30am CT on Pickleballtv.