New Jersey Beats St. Louis In A Battle Of Heavyweights For The Major League Pickleball Regular Season Title In Orlando

Premier League Group Stage Match Recap

Day 1 Observations

• Brooklyn and Phoenix kicked off the weekend, and Brooklyn is continuing their “load management” strategy. Rohrabacher is not playing at all on Friday, and Newman is only playing men’s doubles. Nonetheless, their captain Alshon led the way with two dominant doubles wins to lead Brooklyn to a 3-1 opener.
• We got our first look at LA’s new lineup with Garnett; Freeman will continue with Ben in Men’s, but Connor replaces Freeman in Mixed with Parenteau. Will this be the game changer? In their first test, they passed with flying colors, as Garnett/Parenteau won 11-1 on the way to a 4-0 sweep over Chicago.
• We also got our first look at how NJ is deploying their newly acquired players: Staksrud replaces Khlif in Men’s Doubles, and replaces Howells in Mixed with Jorja Johnson. Interesting. Howells and Fed struggled in their first game together, getting stretched to 11-8 by Carolina’s DJ Young/Wyatt Stone, but NJ otherwise dominated the bottom dwelling Hogs for the sweep.
• Chicago’s Hendershot and Wei shocked Palm Beach’s Pisnik & Sewing, who were 22-4 together entering this event, to set the tone. Wei and Goins teamed up to win Mixed-2 to send the match to a DB, where they had match point on their paddles before falling 22-20. This was one that got away from Chicago, and could have nearly sewn up a playoff spot. More drama was to come with Chicago.

Day 2 Observations

• STL kicked off Friday’s action with a “we’re not messing around” beat-down of Phoenix, giving up 11 total points in four games and a 4-0 sweep
• Good lord, LA came to play today against Palm Beach. CP and Jade destroyed Sewing & Pisnik 11-3, then Ben/Max put an 11-1 beatdown on Tyson & Dekel. A straightforward mixed-1 win for Ben & Jade sealed the win before losing the meaningless final.
• You know who else came to play this weekend? Las Vegas, in jeopardy of missing out on a playoff spot. They took it to Brooklyn and had multiple match points in game 4 before Riley Newman’s defense forced a DB. There however, LV’s superior DB lineup jumped out to a big early lead and made it stick, getting the huge upset over Brooklyn and virtually guaranteeing themselves a 2nd place group showing and playoff pickleball
• In the marquee matchup of the group and one of the most anticipated of the weekend, two title contenders in St. Louis and Brooklyn met for the first time this season. They were announced WWE style to the court, where Brooklyn’s still not 100% lineup was immediately put to the test with bench player Hannah Blatt marching out to go against the dominant Bright/Fahey team (record entering this match: 25-3). It didn’t go well, with Blatt & Jackie losing 11-4. Luckily the Brooklyn men were there to pick up the pieces, blasting the top-ranked STL team 11-4 to even the match. Rohrabacher showed back up with Alshon in Mixed-1 and put a rare loss on Bright & Hayden, meaning STL had to win to survive. Win they did; in Mixed-2 Gabe & Kate blanked Riley & Jackie 11-0 to force the DB. The singles specialists came out at this point, mostly cancelling each other out as the DB went back and forth to about 13-13. The difference maker was Bright in her second turn going 4-0 against Kawamoto to give STL an unassailable lead. They win 21-15 to essentially clinch the group and secure a spot in the big event final Sunday.

Day 3 Observations

• Miami kicked off Saturday with a crucial win over Las Vegas for its playoff hopes. Miami dominated both mixed matches to win 3-1 and give itself a solid shot at making it to 12th place. It would not be, as we’ll soon see.
• LA was not troubled against Ben Johns’ former team Carolina now certain to finish dead last this season.
• In perhaps the match of the season, California and Chicago squared off in what was essentially a winner-take-all match for the playoffs. Many predicted this situation when projecting this event, and it came to pass. California’s revamped gender teams cruised to victory to take a 2-0 lead and have Chicago nation worried, but some spirited play from Chicago led to a dominant win in Mixed-1, then a solid showing from John Lucian Goins and Jamie Wei to win Mixed-2 to force the DreamBreaker. In the DB, Chicago looked to be well in control with two 4-0 turns, including a gut-punch 4-0 Weil over Hendershot to give California an 18-14 lead. It wasn’t over though, with JLG making a couple of circus shots against Tellez to get the game to 17-19, then Navratil (who had gotten spanked 4-0 earlier against Frazier) had a 3-1 run to tie the game at 20-20. The next turn of ladies went 2-2, then amazingly 13-yr old Elsie Hendershot, who had gotten outclassed 4-0 earlier, put in a 3-1 turn against Zoey Weil to clinch the match 25-23. One of the best matches in MLP history
• The big showdown for the Group title was finally here, between the two teams that made the biggest Trade deadline moves in New Jersey and Los Angeles. NJ went with Fed/Howells in doubles but they couldn’t do anything with a spirited Ben Johns and the teams split gender. Heading into Mixed, the two teams’ new acquisitions met up in Mixed-2 and Staksrud got the better of Garnett, as NJ swept mixed to claim the group and setup a title-winning match on Sunday with STL.

Group Stage Results

At the end of the group stages, here were the standings, which drive the final day’s competition.

• Group A: STL, Brooklyn, Las Vegas, Miami, Orlando, Phoenix
• Group B: NJ, LA, PB, Chicago, California, Carolina

Three teams finished 3-2 in Group A: Brooklyn, Vegas, and Miami. It came down to Game Differentials, and with the worst GD, Miami drops from a possible 2nd place finish to a distant 4th, sinking their playoff hopes.

Event Standings Results

Here’s a review of the final matches.

• Event 1st Place match: St. Louis versus New Jersey, for all the marbles. This is the match we were all hoping for, rescheduled to be on national broadcast FS1. In women’s, Fahey/Bright couldn’t repeat their isolation strategy from a few weeks back and lost easily 11-5 to ALW & Jorja, but the Tardio/Patriquin team came roaring back to tie it. That put it all on Mixed-1, which turned into a fantastic, back and for the match that highlighted the best that MLP has to offer. After jumping out to a huge 7-0 lead, STL gave it all back with 10 unanswered points. They saved multiple match points, tied up the game, then the two pairs went back and forth for another 10 minutes before NJ won 15-13. The tide had turned; Mixed-2 was an 11-2 blowout and New Jersey takes the event title and the Regular Season title over their biggest rivals.
• Event 3rd Place match: With apparently nothing to play for (LA had secured 3rd place irrespective of the result of this match), LA sat both Johns and Parenteau for the 3rd place match against Brooklyn. Not to be outdone, Brooklyn sat all four of their starters, pulling in two on-site subs to go with their bench to play this match and start with point penalties. LA won 3-2, but the league certainly has to be concerned about this behavior when they have paying customers who may have wanted to see, in particular, Ben Johns play on Sunday.
• Event 5th Place match: Palm Beach made fast work of Las Vegas 3-0 to secure the jump over Texas and a 7th place regular season finish. Las Vegas was assured enough points to qualify for the playoffs win or lose, so the match finished quickly as one would expect.
• Event 7th Place match: In a turn of events from yesterday, Chicago jumped out to a 2-0 lead, then lost both Mixed matches to go to the tiebreaker. Another day, another dominant DreamBreaker performance from JLG, who went 10-2 over Delgado to power Chicago to a DB win and to secure a playoff spot. Had Miami won this, California could have qualified instead of Chicago still, so this still had major playoff implications.
• 9th & 10th place goes to Orlando and California, who earn 1 point a piece. 11th and 12th place goes to Phoenix and Carolina, who finished last in their groups with 6 teams. They receive 0 event standing points, and finish 19th and 20th in the league for the season. They both ended up going 2-21 this year.

2026 Final Regular Season Standings

Here’s the final Regular Season Standings. Teams in Yellow were active in Orlando, and ranks in Yellow indicate significant standings changes.

• With their win, NJ breaks the tie it held with STL for the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. LA held serve to stay in 3rd place above Columbus.
• Palm Beach did enough to keep 7th place. Despite being idle, the events pushed Atlanta up one spot; they finish in 9th place.
• Las Vegas moved from 13th to 11th to secure playoff pickleball.
• The big disappointment on the weekend was California, who entered the event in 9th place but who were pushed down to 13th, just out of playoff positioning, as Chicago did just enough to keep its 12th spot.
• To no surprise, Orlando’s gutted lineup couldn’t muster enough to get itself into even the 7th place match, which could have put them in position to perhaps challenge for 12th place as well, and their season is finished.

Player Stats Analysis for the Weekend

Here’s a quick look at the players who played best (and worst) this weekend.

• To no surprise, newly crowned MVP Anna Leigh Waters went 12-0 on the weekend, but it was her doubles partner Jorja Johnson who led the points percentage at 72%. That’s why NJ is tough to beat.
• Ben Johns put in a good weekend, going 9-1 and winning 68% of his points as he really lit it up with partner Freeman.
• Casey Diamond had a solid weekend: 5-1 and 62% points won. Not bad for a waiver claim.
• Carolina won just 3 games this weekend, and Wyatt Stone was on the court for all of them. Most of the rest of Carolina’s lineup went 0-fer.

What did we learn this weekend?

What were our top three Takeaways from the competition this weekend?

1. The Chicago-California match was the best match I’ve ever seen, and all due credit to a 13-yr old Hendershot who maintained her composure in a way that no young teenager should ever have to, in order to secure that win for her team. I fully expected her to get swept and lose the match for the Slice, and then collapse in tears on the sideline; instead she showed maturity and poise well above her age to stay in the match and win. Just an amazing showing.
2. The Sunday mixed-1 match on FS1 between NJ-STL was probably the best possible product pro pickleball could have EVER put onto a national broadcast. It was so much better than yet another 1v2 PPA dink-fest, and once again highlights what makes MLP such a great product. Emotion on every point, highlight reel shots, total pressure on all players, real-time tactics and strategy unfolding, and amazing play from all competitors. You can’t ask for anything else.
3. Every sport finds itself in situations where there are “dead rubbers” at the end of a competition, where win or lose the results don’t change the standings or playoff advancers. But a team sitting its entire squad on a Sunday is a really bad look.

Media Pick’ Em Contest Update

We have a slew of influencers and members of the traditional pickleball media participating in a season-long pick’em contest. Here’s the link to track the competition online, and I’ll be tweeting out the pick matrix and updates, so follow me on Twitter if interested.

MLP Media Pick’em Competition Weekly Summary: The Dink’s Thomas Shields ties for the Week 9 win and takes the Regular Season title.

Next up on the Pickleball Calendar? According to my Master Pickleball Schedule, we’ll soon get the match selections and the teams ranked 5th-12th will fly out to Dallas for next weekend’s first round of the playoffs.

August is a very busy month for non MLP events, with a slew of APP and International events to cover. Stay tuned this month for events from Chicago, India, Vietnam, Australia, Detroit, and of course the entire run of the MLP playoffs.

MLP-specific stats mentioned herein come from PickleKey.com, which has done a great job collecting detailed MLP player data for the league and went through an off-season re-design that includes a slew of new ways to slice and dice the data.

My colleague Erik Tice at the Dink (who does double duty as the GM for the California Black Bears) is back to maintaining his Public MLP Data sheet, which has all sorts of awesome data.

Any Tour-level match stats quoted in this article are courtesy of PickleWave. Visit picklewave.com for the premier source of Pro Pickleball data, including match replays, highlights, stats, and discussion. PickleWave has more than 31,000 matches in its database across all the pro tours.