Daniel de la Rosa hits a backhand.
Daniel de la Rosa competing for the Brooklyn Aces at MLP Atlanta. Major League Pickleball

Las Vegas, Brooklyn set Challenger final clash behind DreamBreaker triumphs

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The Las Vegas Night Owls and Brooklyn Aces will face off for the Challenger title at the MLP Mid-Season Tournament after securing semifinal victories Friday afternoon.

Both teams got the job done in highly dramatic DreamBreakers.

The Night Owls—featuring Zoey Wang, Judit Castillo, Mohaned Alhouni, and Anderson Scarpa—were the only undefeated team coming into Grand Rapids, thanks in large part to their prowess in the singles-based DreamBreakers.

That prowess was on fill display Friday afternoon against the Atlanta Bouncers.

Wang earned wins in women’s doubles and mixed doubles (alongside Alhouni) to send the match to a deciding contest. 

One key dynamic of the DreamBreaker was Atlanta’s decision to send Genie Erokhina out in the No. 2 slot instead of Todd Fought.

This made it so that Erokhina played against Scarpa, while Fought took on Castillo—one of the top women’s singles players in pickleball.

Scarpa scored nine out of eleven possible points in his rotations against Erokhina—including the match’s final three points—to help lead Las Vegas to a 21-18 victory and advance to the finals.

Castillo, who herself went a respectable 3-5 in her rotations against Fought, knew that her team would take full advantage of the lineup switch.

“When that change happens, I know that one of my guys is going to be playing one of their girls, so that just gave me a lot of confidence in my own game,” she said.

 

The top seeds remained undefeated with the win and will face Brooklyn on Sunday with $30,000 up for grabs.

The Aces—featuring Pablo Tellez, Lina Padegimaite, Daniel de la Rosa, and Layne Sleeth—made the final with a DreamBreaker victory of their own against the California Black Bears.

California’s Brandon French saved a match point against Padegimaite to tie the score at 20-20, but De la Rosa scored two in a row against Michelle Esquivel to seal the win for Brooklyn.

 

This is Tellez’s first event with the Aces since joining the team in a trade with the Texas Ranchers, and the Columbian is making an immediate impact.

He is 4-0 through two matches, and his team now sits one win away from a title in Beer City.

The championship match will take place on Sunday at 11am ET on PickleballTV.