Ben Johns and Hunter Johnson competing for the Los Angeles Mad Drops at the Advil Targeted Relief MLP Dallas.
Ben Johns and Hunter Johnson competing for the Los Angeles Mad Drops at the Advil Targeted Relief MLP Dallas. Major League Pickleball

Los Angeles closes out regular season with DreamBreaker win over Dallas

Just a day after being on the losing end of one of the best matches in Major League Pickleball history, the Los Angeles Mad Drops (18-7, 49pts) rebounded with a DreamBreaker victory over the Dallas Flash (22-3, 71pts).

Ben Johns, who joined the squad last week after a landmark trade with the Carolina Hogs, picked up wins with Hunter Johnson in men’s doubles and Catherine Parenteau in mixed doubles to give the Mad Drops a 2-1 advantage going into the second mixed doubles game.

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It looked like Jade Kawamoto/Hunter Johnson would close out the regulation victory when they got up 10-5, but the Flash’s Tyra Black/Augie Ge saved two match points and came all the way back to force a DreamBreaker.

Dallas jumped out to a 6-0 lead in that singles contest, but Los Angeles—who has three top ten-ranked singles players in Johnson, Johns, and Parenteau—rallied to prevail by a 21-18 score line.

 

“I think Hunter and I are getting more comfortable as well as Catherine and me, so I’m super happy with those matches and was happy with the performances in the other ones from my teammates,” Johns said afterwards. “Hunter and Jade almost had it in that fourth match, and then in the DreamBreaker, we were down a little bit, but we muscled through and buckled down and got it done.”

In terms of playoff positioning, this result means more for the Flash than it does for the Mad Drops. Dallas needed to win to have a shot at overtaking the St. Louis Shock for the top seed heading into the postseason, and Los Angeles will finish no better than 6th and no worse than 8th place.

The Mad Drops’ final positioning will depend on how the Texas Ranchers (11-9, 36pts) and Orlando Squeeze (12-8, 34pts) perform at next week’s MLP Salt Lake City, the final event of the regular season.