MLP New York Recap - The Fives win three straight events

The New Jersey Fives won their third straight event on Sunday, in the MLP New York Super Sunday Final. SPORTIME Randall’s Island hosted the event for the second straight year.

It was an all hometown final, with the Fives and the Brooklyn Pickleball Team making the finals. However, the Fives swept Brooklyn, 11-1, 11-8, 11-4. New Jersey capped off their third straight event win in dominant fashion and have now taken control of first place in terms of total points and points per event.

The Fives got off to a “slow start” in MLP Dallas in the first event, losing to the Columbus Sliders on Friday, the first day they played, and then losing to the St. Louis Shock for third place on Super Sunday. Since then, the Fives have won MLP Columbus, MLP Austin, and now MLP New York.

The only hiccup along the way this weekend actually came against the Texas Ranchers on Sunday (more on this later). The Ranchers were able to hand the Fives their first loss after a 15 match undefeated streak, in a tight 21-19 Dreambreaker.

Let’s get into all of the storylines.

The LED videoboard fell down on Thursday and landed on Rachel Rohrabacher

In what turned out to be a crazy and chaotic Thursday afternoon, the videoboard collapsed on Rachel Rohrabacher during a match between the Brooklyn Pickleball Team and the Bay Area Breakers.

In the first game of the match (women’s doubles), the Bay Area Breakers were serving, down 2-10-2, with Rachel getting ready to return serve. Out of nowhere, there were some gasps from the crowd and a yell of “look out!”, but the video board collapsed toward the court, and landed on what appeared to be Rachel’s left leg.

The scene was chaos for a few minutes while teammates rushed the court to lift the board off of her and ensure she was taken care of. The medical staff took care of Rohrabacher and the operations team were able to lift the board back upright and secure it.

With play resuming, the Breakers showed tremendous sportsmanship, conceding women’s doubles, as they were already down 10-2. This gave Rachel the opportunity to get examined without feeling the need to rush out onto the court. In mixed doubles, Hannah Blatt stepped in and played with Chris Haworth in a game that only mattered for tie breakers, as Brooklyn won the first three games.

Rachel did not play on Friday, but did suit up for a couple of games on Thursday. She was definitely not 100%, but seemed to be pushing to help her teammates. A second place finish in an event where arguably your best player was injured in an accident is an unbelievable outcome for Brooklyn. Rachel made this statement on Sunday:

Obviously, prayers and thoughts are with Rachel during her recovery.

The Texas Teams Came Roaring Back to Life

The Dallas Flash and Texas Ranchers took fourth and third place, respectively, in MLP New York.

In MLP Austin, the Flash finished last in their pool of six teams, earning zero standings points in the event. They were without Hurricane Tyra Black, who was battling an illness. Between that event and this event, Dallas traded Tyra to Columbus in exchange for Danni Townsend and then also traded Albie Huang to Phoenix in exchange for Alix Truong.

The Flash finished in second place in Pool B and went 4-1 in their matches.

The Ranchers were coming off an MLP St. Petersburg event where newly acquired Nico Acevedo got a little dinged up and Layne Sleeth ended the event in a shoulder sling. They had to make some roster moves and ended up picking up Rafa Hewett and Angie Walker on Waivers and then in the first four team trade in MLP history, acquired Kaitlyn Christian.

The Ranchers started off the weekend well, winning their first two matches, but then had a hiccup against SoCal, losing in a Dreambreaker 21-19. This looked to derail their plans of a top four finish. However, on Sunday, after some weather pushed some matches back from Saturday until Sunday, the Ranchers were able to hand the Fives their only loss on the weekend in another Dreambreaker, 21-19. Nico Acevedo proved to be the differencemaker, going 10-2 in his Dreambreaker points against Noe Khlif.

Fittingly, the somewhat new teams from Texas, the Flash and the Ranchers, met for the third place match on Super Sunday. The Ranchers again pressed their luck, making it to a Dreambreaker, and beat the Flash 21-19 in their second Dreambreaker of the day. In this Dreambreaker, Oncins proved to be the differencemakers, going 9-3 against Augie Ge.

The Ranchers took home 15 standings points and third place, while the Flash went home with 12 standings points and a fourth place finish. All in all, it was a great weekend for the two teams.

Weather Caused Delays on Saturday and Sunday

Rain fell on Saturday and the event had to be moved indoors. The league was able to get most of the play completed, but had to delay the start of two matches to Sunday morning. This delayed the Super Sunday matches a bit, and some teams were left in limbo in terms of when they were going to play. It all worked out in the end though, and considering all the circumstances, the league did well to complete all the matches on time on Sunday.

A look at the final pool results

Pool A Notes:

SoCal had a good weekend, going 3-1 and beating the Ranchers, but got a bit unlucky in a three-way tie at 3-1, falling to third place in the pool based on point differential. This was a fairly good result for them though, as they had Meghan Dizon out with an illness throughout the weekend, up until Super Sunday. She went 0-2 in their Super Sunday matchup against the Palm Beach Royals.
Vegas had a bit of a slip up this week, where I am sure they were hoping for more than four standings points. They completed a trade for Clayton Powell and sent Blaine Hovenier to Bay Area in a three team trade earlier in the week, but this event was their worst finish. So far they have scored the following regular season points in their three events: 10, 8, and now 4.
Chicago showcased their new younger roster, which is built for success in the future. The Slice traded for both John Lucian Goins and Elsie Hendershot from St. Louis as part of that four team deal I mentioned earlier. The Slice slipped from ninth in terms of points per event to 13th, and did not win a match in New York. There will be growing pains for this young team moving forward.

Pool B Notes:

The Royals went 2-3 in pool play, but were still able to salvage 10 standings points from the weekend, despite losing to the Carolina Hogs, 1-3, in the opening match of the event. Casey Diamond regressed a bit since being claimed off waivers by Palm Beach, going 5-7 overall in his doubles games. Even without their best stuff, the Royals walked away with 10 points and are firmly in that sixth spot in the standings.
The Smash continue to entertain, and get some results. They made the 4v4 matchup on Super Sunday, and beat the Las Vegas Night Owls in a Dreambreaker, 21-15, with newly acquired Mogle, Weil, and Frantova, all beating their opponent by two points.
Bay Area traded for Blaine Hovenier this week, but the pickup didn’t really help them make Super Sunday. The Breakers will continue to build for the future and tinker with their lineups to find the best possible partnerships.
The Carolina Hogs were unable to travel all their ladies, so 14 year old Kelly Goodnow stepped in to play for the team this weekend. She played well in her first match against Palm Beach and ended up clinching a regulation win alongside Michael Loyd in their mixed doubles match. After that, the Hogs weren’t able to grab another match win, but overall, I would think they left New York with some positives to build off of.

Event Standings

This upcoming weekend is the ONLY break the 2026 MLP Season has. Get some rest and relaxation because after this weekend, we are headed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the Mid-Season Tournament at the Beer City Open.

Photo Credit for feature image: pickleball.com