Major League Pickleball (MLP by Margaritaville) recently crowned the No. 3 seed Dallas Flash as the inaugural season-long champions of the world’s preeminent coed team pickleball league, following their victory over the No. 1 seed New Jersey 5s at the Vulcan MLP Playoffs Orlando, held at the USTA National Campus. Dallas won the best-of-three match series over NJ, 2-1, on Sunday, following Dallas’ semifinal win over No. 2 seed St. Louis Shock on Friday and Saturday.
Each match featured four games played to 25 with a winning margin of at least two points – Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles, and two Mixed Doubles – and the first team to win three games wins a match. The DreamBreaker tiebreaker – singles competition where players rotate out after four points and played to 21 – is used when teams split the four games.
Match 1: New Jersey, 3-2 (Women’s: 27-25… Men’s: 20-25… Mixed 1: 26-28… Mixed 2: 25-17… DreamBreaker: 21-13)
- NJ’s Anna Leigh Waters and Mari Humberg beat Jorja Johnson and Hurricane Tyra Black in Women’s, 27-25
- Dallas tied the match with a 25-20 Men’s win by Augie Ge and JW Johnson over Zane Navratil and Will Howells
- The Johnsons took Mixed 1 over Navratil and Humberg, 28-26, on their third game point, to put Dallas up, 2-1
- Waters and Howells ambushed Ge and Black, scoring the first 11 points in a 25-17 win to force a DreamBreaker
- NJ (6-0 in regular season DreamBreakers), was down 9-11 before winning nine straight points in a 21-13 victory
Match 2: Dallas, 3-2 (W: 22-25… M: 15-19… Mx1: 25-17… Mx2: 23-25… DB: 21-15)
- Match 2 unfolded eerily similar to Match 1, before Dallas flipped the script in the DreamBreaker to take the win
- Waters and Humberg defeated Jorja and Black in Women’s to begin the match, 25-22
- Ge and JW followed with a 25-19 Men’s win by over Navratil and Howells
- The Johnsons again won Mixed 1 over Navratil and Humberg, 25-17
- Waters and Howells pushed it to a DreamBreaker with a 25-23 Mixed 2 win over Ge and Black
- The Flash took the DB, 21-15 – NJ’s first DB loss of the entire season – to set up a winner-take-all Match 3
Match 3: Dallas, 3-1 (M: 23-25… W: 25-17… Mx1: 28-26… Mx2: 25-21)
- Match 3 opened up with Men’s and NJ’s Howells and Navratil broke through against JW and Ge with a 25-23 win
- Jorja and Black evened the match with their first win of the day over Waters and Humberg, 25-17
- The Johnsons made it a perfect 3-0 in Mixed 1 games against Navratil and Humberg on the day, winning 28-26
- With the title in reach for Dallas, Ge and Black took it home with a 25-21 win in Mixed 2 over Waters and Howells
2024 Premier Level Playoff Results: Champions – Dallas Flash… Runners Up – New Jersey 5s… 3rd Place – St. Louis Shock… 4th Place – Texas Ranchers
2024 Challenger Level Playoffs Results: Champions – Miami Pickleball Club… Runners Up – Chicago Slice… 3rd Place – SoCal Hard Eights… 4th Place – Atlanta Bouncers
The league will announce 2024 award winners in early December and soon share details on the 2025 MLP season.
