
What to watch for on Sunday at the MLP Playoffs
The Major League Pickleball postseason continues Sunday with day 3 of the Toray MLP Playoffs, where six Premier level teams will close out their quarterfinal series at Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, CA.
Each quarterfinal (Premier) semifinal (Challenger) will be played as a best two-out-of-three-match series. Here is an overview of the weekend’s events so far:
- Challenger SF: No. 1 Las Vegas Night Owls def. No. 5 Bay Area Breakers 3-1, 3-0
- Challenger SF: No. 2 Nashville Chefs def. No. 3 California Black Bears 3-0, 3-1
- Las Vegas will play Nashville in the Challenger level final next week.
- Premier QF: No. 1 St. Louis Shock def. No. 8 Orlando Squeeze 3-0, 3-1
- Premier QF: No. 2 Dallas Flash v. No. 5 Columbus Sliders (Series tied 1-1)
- Premier QF: No. 3 New Jersey 5s v. No. 7 Texas Ranchers (NJ leads 1-0)
- Premier QF: No. 4 Brooklyn Pickleball Team v. No. 6 Los Angeles Mad Drops (LA leads 1-0)
The winners of each series will advance to next week’s DoorDash MLP Finals, powered by Toray, which will take place August 22-24 in New York City.
Now, let’s get into what to watch for:
- After a DreamBreaker victory for Columbus on Saturday, the Sliders and Flash are tied 1-1 going into the final match of their quarterfinal series. Both of their prior matches this weekend have gone to DreamBreakers, so we could very well see another one on Sunday. As the higher-seeded team, Dallas automatically had the chance to react to the Sliders’ mixed doubles and DreamBreaker lineups for the first two matches of the series. That privilege is decided by a coin toss for the third match; the coin toss went the Flash’s way, so fans are set to see the same lineups from the first two matches.
- Texas and Brooklyn enter Sunday with their backs against the wall. Both teams were swept on Saturday and now need two wins to advance to the semifinals. The Ranchers will look to rebound against the New Jersey 5s, while Brooklyn will look to turn the tide against the Los Angeles Mad Drops. Texas was up in two of the three games they lost on Saturday, while Brooklyn was unable to get anything going in any matchup. We’ll see which squad responds better on Sunday.
Action begins at 10am PT on Pickleballtv and ESPN2.
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