Vivian Glozman and Dekel Bar competing for the D.C. Pickleball Team at MLP New York City.
Vivian Glozman and Dekel Bar picked up a clutch win to close out the match against Carolina. Major League Pickleball

D.C. Pickleball Team downs Carolina in regulation thanks to mixed doubles wins

The D.C. Pickleball Team is off to a winning start in New York City after a 3-1 victory over the Carolina Pickleball Club.

As expected, the teams split the gender doubles games, with Carolina winning men’s doubles and D.C. taking women’s doubles.

In the first mixed doubles match, D.C.’s Rachel Rohrabacher and James Ignatowich picked up a clutch 25-23 win over Carolina’s Jessie Irvine and Ben Johns after trailing 20-23 to get within one game of the regulation victory.

The second mixed doubles match pit D.C.’s Vivian Glozman and Dekel Bar against Brooke Buckner and Collin Johns.

It looked like a DreamBreaker—Carolina’s second of the day—was on tap when Buckner and Johns earned a 22-17 lead, but a furious rally from Glozman and Bar helped them come back and take it 28-26 to clinch the victory.

 

“We played a lot cleaner at the end, and Vivian was reaching in well and pulling attacks out of the air, which got us a few points,” Bar said of the effort. “We also did a good job of getting to the kitchen in every point late in the match because we felt like we had the advantage there.”

D.C. will look to take the momentum from Thursday’s triumph into their next match against the New York Hustlers on Friday.