LIVE BLOG: Tuesday's results and news from MLP Las Vegas

Image: Vulcan Pickleball - Discover More

Tyson McGuffin and Federico Staksrud competing for the Orlando Squeeze at MLP Las Vegas. — After going 2-0 on Monday, the Orlando Squeeze will look to keep it going against the New Jersey 5s on Tuesday. Major League Pickleball

LIVE BLOG: Tuesday's results and news from MLP Las Vegas

Pickleball.com Staff

Oct 15, 2024 11:20 AM ET

It's Day 2 of MLP Las Vegas, and we've got all the latest updates from the penultimate regular season event of 2024.

Check back here throughout the day, as this article will be modified as results come in from the ten matches taking place around the grounds. To see live scores, visit the MLP website.

You can watch the action for yourself on the Pickleballtv and the MLP YouTube, starting at 10 a.m. PDT.

5:05 p.m. PDT: New Jersey back on top after early loss

The New Jersey 5s take down the Columbus Sliders with a 3-1 win, dropping their only game in a tight mixed battle between the Sliders’ Parris Todd/Riley Newman and the 5s Mari Humberg/Zane Navratil 25-23.

“This was our last match, our last day of competition in this event, so ‘leave it all out there’ is what we talked about,” said Humberg after the match.

The Sliders have been lagging behind near the bottom of the standings for most of 2024, but made some significant moves going into this event. They traded their female players, Andrea Koop and Meghan Dizon, to acquire Callie Smith and Parris Todd and have Roscoe Bellamy subbing in for Jay Devilliers, who is out for the rest of the year due to surgery.

Anna Leigh Waters had a surprising mixed doubles loss earlier in the day to the Squeeze’s Federico Staksrud and Vivienne David, but took no prisoners with partner Will Howells in their battle against the Sliders’ Bellamy and Smith, crushing through a 25-11 victory.

“We were pretty tired going into this match,” said Howells. “The moral of the story here was, ‘be resilient and stay disciplined. Don't give up free points.’”

3:20 p.m. PDT: Shock looking unbeatable, down Ranchers 4-0

The St. Louis Shock sweep the table 4-0 in games against the Texas Ranchers with a very strong performance, demonstrating why they are leading the Premier League standings. The Ranchers were hurting for firepower, with Christian Alshon out due to injury. GM Ryan Dawidjan tapped Anderson Scarpa to sub in for Alshon for the entirety of the event.

The Shock’s Anna Bright and Kate Fahey started out down, but came roaring back to beat the Ranchers’ Etta Wright and Tina Pisnik 25-17. With a very similar scoreline, Gabe Tardio and Hayden Patriquin downed Scarpa and Quang Duong 25-16.

The Shock won the coin toss and chose to respond to the mixed doubles pairings, putting out Bright/Patriquin against the Ranchers’ team of Wright/Scarpa. Bright and Patriquin ran into some trouble at the end of their game when the Ranchers fought their way back and pulled ahead 23-22. Ultimately, however, the Shock finished the game 25-23.

In the final mixed doubles match-up, Fahey and Tardio took down Pisnik and Duong with a score of 25-20 for a clean regulation win, earning them all three available standings points.

“Always satisfying to get a 4-0 win," Bright said after the match. "Those are definitely hard to come by here at MLP. There's a lot of parity this season. I feel like any team can beat any team in any given match, so really happy we were able to stay locked in.”

While this is not an unexpected result with Alshon MIA, the Ranchers were unable to capture any points, which may end up hurting them when it comes to their final finish. Regular season standings will determine team seeds for the impending MLP playoffs.

2:15 p.m. PDT: Las Vegas logs big Dreambreaker win over Bay Area

Fittingly on their home turf, the Las Vegas Night Owls take down the Bay Area Breakers 3-2 in games. The two teams were locked at 13-13 in the Dreambreaker, until Castillo of the Night Owls helped them begin to pull away from Breakers' Jill Braverman. From there, the Breakers only picked up one more point before Blaine Hovenier closed out the match 25-14 for his team against Collin Shick.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Las Vegas Night Owls (@lv.nightowls)

This is a great win for the Night Owls as the two teams were locked neck and neck in Challenger League standings points going into the match-up.

1:30 p.m. PDT: Orlando stops New Jersey's winning streak at 7

The Orlando Squeeze remained perfect in Sin City with a 3-1 victory over the New Jersey 5s.

The 5s had won seven matches in a row coming into Tuesday’s bout, but the Central Florida squad featuring Federico Staksrud, Tyson McGuffin, Vivienne David, and Meghan Dizon left no doubt on Championship Court.

After teams split the opening gender doubles games, the Squeeze’s mixed doubles pairings shined to clinch the regulation victory for Orlando.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Orlando Squeeze (@orlandosqueeze)

Staksrud and David picked up a particularly impressive win over Anna Leigh Waters and Will Howells in the second mixed doubles game after McGuffin and Dizon took the first over Mari Humberg and Zane Navratil.

“[Anna Leigh] is a great player, and she had a few errors that she’s probably not gonna make every day, so we had to take advantage of those,” Staksrud said of the effort. “I thought we just played solid and won some hands battles when we needed to, which helped a lot.”

Now 3-0 in Las Vegas, Orlando currently sits in seventh place in the Premier level standings on a points-per-match basis. They are averaging 1.47 pts/match, not too far off from the New York Hustlers in sixth place with 1.67.

McGuffin believes in his team’s ability to close the gap down the stretch.

“I think we have all the key factors,” he mentioned. “We’re all getting better and putting in the time and effort, so why not us? Why not the Orlando Squeeze?”

Orlando won’t play again until they face the LA Mad Drops on Wednesday, while New Jersey will look to get back on track Tuesday afternoon against the Columbus Sliders.

11:45 a.m. PDT: Mixed doubles powers Black Bears to victory over Hard Eights

The California Black Bears opened their Las Vegas campaign with a 3-1 victory over the SoCal Hard Eights, thanks to wins in both mixed doubles games.

Lina Padegimaite—who joined California at the trade deadline—proved to be a welcome addition to her new squad; she won in women's doubles with Amanda Hendry and mixed doubles with Brandon French to close out the match and avoid a DreamBreaker.

Though the Black Bears have already been eliminated from playoff contention, they are off to a strong start in Las Vegas. They'll look to keep it going against the Bay Area Breakers later Tuesday afternoon.

11:30 a.m. PDT: Drive continue strong form with win over Carolina

The AZ Drive improved to 3-0 in Las Vegas with a regulation victory over the Carolina Pickleball Club to kick off Tuesday's action at Darling Tennis Center.

Two gender doubles wins helped the team featuring Andrei Daescu, Dylan Frazier, Lacy Schneemann, and the newly acquired Jessie Irvine gain an early advantage; from there, Daescu and Schneemann clinched the triumph in the first mixed doubles game against Kaitlyn Christian and Collin Johns.

This matchup was especially intriguing because AZ and Carolina executed a trade just a few weeks ago: the Drive sent Christian to Carolina in exchange for Jessie Irvine.

So far, that move has benefitted Arizona more than it has Carolina; the former has yet to lose in Las Vegas, while the latter has yet to win.