
3 things to watch for on Thursday at MLP Salt Lake City
The Major League Pickleball regular season ends this week at The Picklr MLP Salt Lake City, where seven Premier level teams and all six Challenger level squads will be in action across four days at The Picklr Kaysville.
This is the final regular season event before the postseason begins at the Toray MLP Playoffs San Diego in mid-August.
Here is the order of play for the eight matches scheduled for Thursday:
Now, let’s get into what to watch for.
- The Texas Ranchers (11-9, 36pts) can overtake the Los Angeles Mad Drops (18-7, 49pts) for a top 6 seed by earning 14 out of a possible 15 points in their five matches this weekend, but that will be an even tougher task with Christian Alshon out of the lineup. Wyatt Stone will take his place and play men’s doubles with Eric Oncins and mixed doubles with Kaitlyn Christian, as the Ranchers gear up to face the Chicago Slice and Utah Black Diamonds on Thursday.
- Several players will be making their debuts for new teams on Thursday. To start, Milan Rane will play her first match for the Orlando Squeeze (12-8, 34pts), who will face the Atlanta Bouncers (4-16, 14pts). She joins the team after being traded from the Miami Pickleball Club. Speaking of Miami, Tammy Emmrich will make her debut for the South Florida squad against the Chicago Slice.
- That aforementioned Miami-Chicago match has huge playoff implications. Miami (7-13, 19pts) currently occupies the tenth and final playoff spot, but Chicago (5-15, 18pts) is not far behind in 12th place. This will be the Slice’s second match of the day after opening up the event against Texas, so they will be looking to overtake Miami for the final qualifying position spot with a victory.
Grandstand Court action begins at 11am MDT, while Championship Court matches will start at noon MDT on Pickleballtv.
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