Zoey Weil: 4 Things to Watch at MLP Playoffs, Newport Beach

Major League Pickleball playoff quarterfinals go down this weekend in Newport Beach, with eight of the league's top teams vying for a spot in the finals at the end of the month in the heart of New York City.

Lock in and listen up – here's what to watch out for.

Fives vs. Royals: Mixed Doubles Madness

There has been a lot of discussion about how this is a bad matchup for the Palm Beach Royals as Anna Leigh Waters and Jorja Johnson will completely negate the greatest strength of the Royals, which has clearly been Tina Pisnik and Sofia Sewing.

Buried underneath this storyline is another one, the mixed doubles matchups. These teams recently faced off in Orlando with the Fives winning 3-1, but Dekel Bar and Tina Pisnik had a match point on Noe Khlif and Anna Leigh Waters.

Sofia Sewing and Casey Diamond went on to defeat Jorja Johnson and Federico Staksrud once the match had already been decided.

You have to wonder if the Fives are feeling comfortable with those matchups and are willing to run it back. As the higher seed, the Fives get to react to the lineup the Royals put out.

Will they opt for the known challenge or roll the dice and try something new?

Shock vs. Ranchers: What Ranchers Team Will Show Up?

The Ranchers have two of the most talented men in pickleball. As a team they’ve only had one marquee win (the Fives in New York in a match that had nothing on the line for the Fives).

The Shock have beaten them thrice this season and the Ranchers have only won a single game: Nico and Eric defeated Hayden and Gabe 12-10.

As a former MLP champion and one of the fiercest competitors on tour, I know Lea Jansen can find another gear. I’m not sure Kaitlyn Christian will be able to bring it out of her though.

Women’s doubles has been a struggle for the Ranchers since they traded for Christian. Even if the ladies find a higher level it probably wouldn’t matter against a team like Kate Fahey and Anna Bright who have looked nearly untouchable.

If one of these matches were to go to Dreambreaker, the Ranchers again have a talented lineup with lackluster results. Lea and Kaitlyn should be the top women’s Dreambreaker pairing but haven’t put up numbers even close to their ability and results on the PPA Tour.

Playing four points at a time is a whole different ballgame and has been difficult for these two all season. While the Shock are still favorites, if the Ranchers can find their peak level these will be highly entertaining matches.

LA Mad Drops vs. Dallas Flash: Which Ben Do We Get?

I disagree with the Drops choice to play the Flash over the ailing Brooklyn squad. JW Johnson has been playing incredible and the energy of the Dallas squad is always high.

Dallas won their most recent matchup at MLP San Diego in a Dreambreaker with Ben going 0-2 and only winning 4(!) points. This might be the fewest points ever earned by Ben in an MLP match. Even at MLP Columbus last year during lighting-gate he got to six points in his men’s doubles match against the Bouncers before deciding to tank.

If Ben wanting “revenge” for his performance in San Diego was part of the Drop’s reasoning in choosing Dallas, I think the Drops will win. If it was something else, then my money is on JW and the squad to keep their level up.

Dallas hasn’t lost a match since MLP New York and have won the last two MLP events that they competed in. Their first match against the Night Owls had a few hiccups but they looked absolutely dominant closing it out. I’m very excited for this series.

Columbus Sliders vs. Brooklyn: Rested or Rusty?

This applies to both teams. The Sliders haven’t competed in nearly a month. The addition of Tyra Black looked promising but was unable to get the Sliders any regular season belts after a disappointing finish at MLP St. Pete and a surprising loss to Dallas at MLP San Diego.

I know Andrei has been taking his time to fill up his X drafts with motivational tweets and hopefully get his team inspired.

If playoff Andrei shows up in Newport, I wouldn’t want to be the Brooklyn team.

I thought Brooklyn was playing 4D chess by sitting Rachel for so long, but her attempted return to women’s doubles against the SoCal Hard Eight’s in Dallas showed that she is still far from her best.

The quick movement and chaos of women’s doubles is far more than mixed doubles (especially if you’re playing with Christian Alshon).

If you’re Brooklyn I think you have to go with Rachel if she is able to play both events, even if she’s not at 100%.
Hannah Blatt has performed admirably in her role, but will get picked apart by the offensive force of Tyra and Paris.

If both of these teams are playing near full strength and look sharp, I think Columbus will be slight favorites.

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