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

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Hurricane Tyra Black and Augie Ge competing for the Dallas Flash at MLP Las Vegas. — The Dallas Flash will play their final regular season matches against the St. Louis Shock and Orlando Squeeze on Wednesday. Major League Pickleball

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

Will Daughton

Oct 16, 2024 10:20 AM ET

It's the third and final day of MLP Las Vegas, and I'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.

5:25 p.m. PDT: Dallas finishes regular season with victory over Orlando

The Dallas Flash ended their regular season on a positive note with a 3-1 victory over the Orlando Squeeze.

The win was powered by the mixed doubles pairings of Jorja/JW Johnson and Hurricane Tyra Black/Augie Ge, who each triumphed comfortably in their games.

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With the win, Dallas finishes the regular season with an impressive average of 2.00pts/match, which currently puts them in third place in the standings on a points-per-match basis.

Barring a complete collapse by the league-leading New Jersey 5s next week at MLP Miami, Dallas will almost certainly maintain that position going into the playoffs. The only other team that can leapfrog the Flash is the D.C. Pickleball Team, who would have to win all six of their remaining matches in regulation.

Orlando still has an outside shot at making the playoffs despite suffering two losses on Wednesday, but they would need to go 6-0 in south Florida.

3:30 p.m. PDT: AZ sweeps Utah, improves to 4-0 in Vegas

The AZ Drive—featuring Andrei Daescu, Dylan Frazier, Lacy Schneemann, and Jessie Irvine—continued their stellar play with a 4-0 sweep of the Utah Black Diamonds on Wednesday afternoon.

With the win, AZ remains undefeated in Las Vegas as they make a late push for the playoffs.

The Drive are playing their first matches since August, and Schneemann says that break, combined with the acquisition of Irvine, has been key to the team's recent success.

"We have a new teammate in Jessie who is helping us in all areas and bringing energy, intensity, and a level of consistency that we needed," she explained. "We had a little bit of a break from MLP matches, so our team was able to take a breather from some losses that hurt and come out here and play with nothing to lose."

That 'nothing to lose' attitude is certainly paying off; Arizona is now up to seventh place in the standings with an average of 1.41pts/match.

They will look to inch closer to the Texas Ranchers, who are in sixth place at 1.65, when they take on the St. Louis Shock in this week's final match on Wednesday evening.

1:45 p.m. PDT: Shock win heavyweght bout against Flash

In a battle featuring two of the best teams in Major League Pickleball, the St. Louis Shock earned an impressive 3-1 victory over the Dallas Flash.

St. Louis got off to a strong start, thanks to wins in both gender doubles games by the pairings of Anna Bright/Kate Fahey and Hayden Patriquin/Gabe Tardio.

That proved to be crucial going into mixed doubles because it allowed the Shock to 'stack' their lineup; they sent out Fahey/Tardio against Dallas' top team in Jorja/JW Johnson, which allowed Bright/Patriquin to face Hurricane Tyra Black/Augie Ge—a talented, yet objectively weaker team.

Bright/Patriquin won their bout with Black/Ge to clinch the regulation victory.

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This is a big win for St. Louis. They have now guaranteed that they will finish above Dallas in the standings, which puts them in prime position to earn a first-round bye in the playoffs.

The final results are, of course, still dependent on how other teams perform next week in Miami.

Both teams will close out their regular seasons later Wednesday afternoon in Las Vegas. The Flash will face the Orlando Squeeze, while the Shock will take on the AZ Drive in the final match on Championship Court.

12:00 p.m. PDT: Mad Drops down red-hot Squeeze in regulation

The LA Mad Drops picked up their second consecutive regulation victory in Las Vegas with a win over the Orlando Squeeze.

The Squeeze had won three in a row coming into the contest, but that was no issue for the team featuring Hunter Johnson, AJ Koller (filling in for Thomas Wilson), Catherine Parenteau, and Jade Kawamoto.

Parenteau and Kawamoto kicked things off by taking down Orlando's Vivienne David and Meghan Dizon in women's doubles before mixed doubles wins from Kawamoto/Johnson and Parenteau/Koller powered LA to the finish line.

Both LA and Orlando are still fighting to make the playoffs, and both will be in action next week in south Florida. The Mad Drops will finish their time in Sin City against the Columbus Sliders, while the Squeeze will face the Dallas Flash later Wednesday afternoon.

11:35 p.m. PDT: Sliders earn first win over short-handed Ranchers

The Columbus Sliders kicked off Wednesday’s action from Darling Tennis Center by getting their first win of the event.

The team featuring Riley Newman, Parris Todd, Callie Smith, and Roscoe Bellamy did so with a 3-1 victory over the Texas Ranchers, a squad that was missing two of its usual players in Christian Alshon (replaced by Anderson Scarpa) and Etta Wright (replaced by Lindsey Newman).

The difference-maker for Columbus was mixed doubles, as the pairings of Smith/Bellamy and Todd/Newman each won their games to close out the win in regulation.

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The Sliders have been eliminated from playoff contention, but they will look to carry this momentum into their season-ending contest against the LA Mad Drops later Wednesday afternoon.

This was the Ranchers' final regular season match, and the loss brings them down to 1.65 pts/match.

That mark is good for sixth place in the standings (and a playoff spot, if the season ended today), but teams like the Orlando Squeeze and AZ Drive—who both play next week at MLP Miami—are closing in rapidly.

7:45 a.m. PDT: Wednesday's Order of Play released

Here is the Order of Play for Wednesday's matches. There will be five matches on both Championship Court and Grandstand Court, making for a full day of action.