A Recap of MLP Daytona: Challenger League in the Sunshine State
Wow... what a wild MLP Daytona day 1! We can’t wait to see what is in store over the next few days but before we jump to Friday’s action we have to recap what we saw on Thursday. The Challenger league players really brought the heat so let’s break it all down.
Group A
Mesa Recap
Bay Area Breakers 5-0 1st (Won MLP Mesa)
Orlando Squeeze 2-2 5th (Lost QF 2-3 to Atlanta)
Arizona Drive 1-2 9th (Missed Playoff)
Dallas PB Club 10th (Missed Playoff)
Notable Moves
Dallas PB: Dropped Chuck Taylor for Daniel De La Rosa. Traded Megan Fudge to Columbus for Jill Braverman
AZ Drive: Andreas Siljestrom injured, Pesa Teoni in as his replacement. Dropped Sarah Burr for Heather Nobler.
Thursday Results
Bay Area Breakers 3-0 #1 seed
Dallas PB 2-1 #2 seed
Orlando Squeeze 1-2
Arizona 0-3
Analysis
Bay Area Breakers: The Breakers go 3-0 in group play in defense of their title. After going up 2-0 in gender doubles against the Orlando Squeeze they let off the gas pedal and found themselves at 2-2 after mixed and in a dreambreaker. With Pablo Tellez and Christian Alshon both being expert singles players they are easily able to close them out winning 21-13. It was smooth sailing from there as they beat the AZ Drive 3-1 and the Dallas PB Club 3-2. Both Tellez and Alshon may find themselves in the premier league sooner rather than later. Add in the fact that both their female players Ewa Radzikowska and Rachel Summers are very consistent this is the team to beat in the Challenger league. If this team has any weakness, it’s mixed—they finished 2-4 on the day but it might not matter with how good their gender doubles and singles lineups are.
Dallas PB: The Dallas PB Club was clearly not very happy with their 10th place finish in Mesa as they were the most active team during the Challenger league shuffle draft, trading Meagan Fudge for Jill Braverman and adding Daniel de la Rosa in favor of Chuck Taylor. Those moves paid early dividends as they beat the AZ Drive and Orlando Squeeze before falling to the champion Bay Area Breakers. The offensive ability De La Rosa brings jumps off the screen and is an upgrade over the more conservative conventional style that Chuck Taylor likes to play. Nice response by Dallas to make it to the knockout round.
Orlando Squeeze: The Squeeze were able to push the Bay Area Breakers to a dreambreaker but singles is their Achillies heel, as none of their four players play singles. The Squeeze then fell on the outer courts to the Dallas PB club 1-3 before defeating the AZ Drive 3-1 on grandstand. This roster lacks offensive firepower in a format that demands it. Rettger, Oshiro and Dawson all like to play grind it out styles of pickleball and often don’t scare opponents when they decide to initiate offense. No surprise they go 1-2 and miss the playoffs given the lack of versatility on the roster.
AZ Drive: Andreas Siljestrom was a late scratch and his replacement was the lefty out of Arizona Pesa Teoni. This was Teoni’s first appearance in MLP and he proceeded to go 0-6 in all of his matches. The Drive were clearly missing the big man Siljestrom as he finished 15th in overall player point differential in Mesa. We were surprised that Wes Burrows, who has plenty of MLP experience, didn’t give this team more of a lift but he doesn’t play much of a pro schedule anymore so the lack of high level reps was definitely noticeable. They did finish with two women’s doubles victories so the move to Nobler over Burr looks to be a positive one moving forward.
Group B
Mesa Recap
Utah Black Diamonds 4-2 2nd (Lost in Final to the Breakers)
Chicago Slice 3-1 3rd (Lost in Semifinals to Utah Black Diamonds)
DC PB Club 1-2 8th (Missed Playoff)
Miami PB Club 0-3 11th (Missed Playoff)
Notable Moves
Miami PB Club: Dropped Matt Manasse for Brendon Long
DC Pickleball: Dropped Monica Paolicetti for Amanda Hendry
Thursday Results
Utah Black Diamonds 2-1
Chicago Slice 2-1 #5 seed
DC PB 0-3
Miami PB 2-1 #3 seed
Analysis:
Utah Black Diamonds: We only got to see Utah on the live stream once today. On the outer courts they snuck by the Chicago Slice 3-2 in a dreambreaker. A bit of a surprise given the singles ability of both Garnett and De Heart, They then run into the Miami PB Club and lose 1-3. Each match was extremely close but the duo of Troung/Warnick was able to seal victory late. They prevail in their last match against the DC PB Club 3-2 in a dreambreaker that wasn’t close. They didn't advance based on net match differential, a disappointing result for a team that made a run to the finals in Mesa. They have to be frustrated after going up 2-0 on DC before dropping both mixed doubles matches. Not closing it out 3-1 or 4-0 ended up being the difference.
Chicago Slice: The Slice lost a tough opening dreambreaker to the Utah Black Diamonds before playing possibly the best match we saw all day on championship court against the DC PB club. DC was up 19-15 in the final mixed match and were up 2-1 on the scoreboard. Querrey/Hendry got noticeably tight and De Heart/Ackerman were able to steal a late victory 24-22. They then proceeded to win a tight dreambreaker 22-20 on the back of youngster Connor Garnett. Garnett was matched up against Stefan Auvergne, who must have missed the scouting report on Garnett’s backhand. The Slice clinched their playoff spot by defeating Miami 3-1 in the third and final match. De Heart/Garnett go 0-3 on the day in men’s doubles and have to find chemistry quickly if they want a chance of winning it all.
DC PB: DC PB ends up at the bottom of the group going 0-3 on the day. After an opening 0-4 loss to Miami, they lost in two dreambreakers to the Slice and Black Diamonds. Querrey is definitely improving, showing better doubles instincts but is still lacking consistency in his shot selection, something that will continue to hinder DC’s chances of making a playoff push given that he was the #1 overall pick in the challenger league. The fit next to Auvergne looked awkward at times as both players like to be aggressive. They never found a rhythm going 1-2 on the day.
Miami: Miami pulled its way out of the bottom of the standings and made the playoffs. They opened up strong with a 4-0 over the DC pickleball club. They backed it up with an even bigger win over Mesa finalists the Utah Black Diamonds 3-1 before falling to the Chicago Slice 1-3. What a difference a few months makes. The addition of Brendon Long gave them a true #1 male on the one line which they desperately needed. Alix Truong and Regina Goldberg were solid all day but I was truly impressed with this team’s energy level. They had a lot to prove and played with a chip on their shoulder all day.
Mesa Recap
Brooklyn Aces 1-3 6th (Lost in Quarterfinals to Utah Black Diamonds)
Texas Ranchers 1-2 7th (Missed Playoff)
Columbus PB Club 0-3 12th (Missed Playoff)
Atlanta PB 4-1 4th (Lost in Semifinals to Bay Area Breakers)
Notable Moves
Texas Ranchers: Dropped Steve Deakin for Scott Doerner
Brooklyn Aces: Dropped Cierra Gayton Leach for Hurricane Tyra Black
Columbus PB: Dropped Becky Ryan for Meagan Fudge via trade w/ Dallas for Jill Braverman
Thursday Results
Brooklyn Aces 2-1
Texas Ranchers 2-1 #6 seed
Columbus PB 2-1 #4 seed
Atlanta PB 0-3
Analysis
Brooklyn Aces:
The Aces luckily snuck by the Texas Ranchers on the back of Rob Nunnery who was dominant in men’s doubles. New addition Tyra Black looked solid and played with Corinne Carr (who is 7 months pregnant). Carr sealed the victory in the dreambreaker. They went on to lose to Columbus PB 1-3 and beat the Atlanta Bouncers 3-1 to finish with a 2-1 record. They lost out on a playoff berth by the slightest of margins to the Texas Ranchers (winning 50.63% of their points while the Ranchers won 50.70%). Going 1-5 in mixed doubles didn’t help their cause.
Texas Ranchers: They started off the day losing a heartbreaking dreambreaker 23-21 to the Brooklyn Aces, with veteran Lee Whitwell making two costly errors on returns late. We wondered how they would respond and they did by winning the next two dreambreakers they played against the Atlanta Bouncers and Columbus PB Club. Doerner looked like he belonged in the Challenger league so it looks like all the teams on the bottom of the standings did their homework for the shuffle draft. Wild day for the Ranchers playing three dreambreakers but props to them for coming through under pressure.
Columbus PB: What a turnaround for last place Columbus PB who really looked like a team of misfits after Mesa. The addition of Megan Fudge brought some stability to their lineup but the play of the youngster CJ Klinger is what carried them to the playoffs as he went 6-0 on the day and was a force on the right side. Milan Rane also stepped up playing the left in mixed with CJ. Nice run by Columbus today as they earn the 4 seed heading into the knockstage tomorrow.
Atlanta PB: The most disappointing team of the day was the Atlanta Bouncers who finished 0-3 on the day. They lost two dreambreakers to Columbus PB and the Texas Ranchers 21-8 and 21-10. For a roster full of singles players that includes Hunter Johnson, Ben Newell, and Brooke Buckner we aren’t entirely sure what happened. They seemed to roll over in their 3rd match against the Aces losing 1-3 with some crooked numbers in doubles. I’m sure some of their top players had aspirations of playing in the premier league but this performance certainly won’t help their case.
Top 5 Storylines:
4 of the 6 teams in the playoff bracket missed the playoffs in Mesa.
Shuffle Draft Player The additions of Megan Fudge (Columbus) Scott Doerner (Ranchers) Daniel de la Rose & Jill Braverman (Dallas) and Brendon Long (Miami PB club) all help their teams pull out of the bottom group of six and make the playoffs. The shuffle draft impact was huge.
Sam Querrey is getting better but he is still far away from where he needs to be skill wise to be a #1 male in the Challenger league.
