Monday marked the first day of MLP Las Vegas. It was also the first day of MLP competition since the trade deadline, where several teams made notable moves.

One of those moves involved the AZ Drive and Carolina Pickleball Club.

AZ sent Kaitlyn Christian to Carolina in exchange for Jessie Irvine.

In my article breaking down each trade, I explained how I thought both teams would benefit: Carolina would improve in singles with Christian, while the Drive would get a strong right-side presence in Irvine.

AZ’s first two matches in Las Vegas seem to support the latter half of that prediction.

Irvine went 3-1 and helped the Drive—also featuring Andrei Daescu, Dylan Frazier, and Lacy Schneemann—earn regulation victories over the LA Mad Drops and Dallas Flash.

Their win against a short-handed Mad Drops squad didn’t come as much of a surprise, but a 3-1 victory over Dallas—currently in third place in the Premier level standings—is a more notable result.

Irvine and Schneemann kicked off that effort with an impressive 25-16 thrashing of Jorja Johnson and Hurricane Tyra Black, their second win together after also beating the Mad Drops’ Catherine Parenteau and Jade Kawamoto.

That’s a very strong start, especially considering that these are the first matches Irvine has played with her new team.

“We didn’t really even have that much time to practice because we all just played the Vegas PPA, so this is literally our first time playing matches together,” she shared. “We did so well today, and I’m happy for everybody.”

With two wins on Monday, Arizona is now in 8^th place in the standings on a points-per-match basis as its playoff push continues.

Irvine is looking to leave her mark on the court, no matter who she plays for.

“It doesn’t matter what team I’m on—I just want to play good pickleball,” she said.

Her next chance to keep doing that will come against her old team on Tuesday morning, when the Drive take on the Carolina Pickleball Club in the first match on Championship Court.