Major League Pickleball (MLP) returned for their second event of the season in Holly Hill, Florida. After a period of trades, drops, and pick-ups, the Challenger League teams arrived looking a bit different than in Mesa. On the other hand, team owners for the Premier League were more confident in their original draft picks, with no trades occurring before the second event.

CHALLENGER LEAGUE:

The Challenger League kicked off tournament play on Thursday, with three pools of four teams competing in a round-robin format, with the top two teams in each pool advancing to the playoffs. The reigning champions, the Bay Area Breakers, continued their undefeated streak as they captured the one seed going into the playoffs. After two moves in their lineup, Dallas Pickleball Club earned the second seed, a huge difference from their performance at the first event. In the semifinals, the top seeds showed that they earned their spot as the Bay Area Breakers took down the Chicago Slice in a dreambreaker. Dallas Pickleball Club earned their win over Miami Pickleball Club to earn their spot in the finals. In the championship match, the teams split after gender doubles, with Ewa Radzikowska and Rachel Summers of the Breakers earning their win over DPC, while Brandon French and Daniel De La Rosa grabbed the men’s doubles point for DPC. The Breakers went on to take both mixed doubles points 21-19, 21-18 to earn their back-to-back MLP Challenger League Title. JOOLA Player, Ewa Radzikowska, also earned her second MLP MVP title as she helped her team secure their championship.

PREMIER LEAGUE:

The Premier League started their rounds of play a day later, following the same format as the Challenger League. With the return of Maggie Brascia, the BLQK Bears, home of JOOLA Player Federico Staksrud, earned the one seed going into playoffs. Ben Johns and Etta Wright helped their team, the Seattle Pioneers, earn the second seed. Usual partners, but now opponents, Allyce Jones of the St. Louis Shock and Lea Jansen of the New Jersey 5’s faced off against each other in the quarterfinals. Jones partnered up with pickleball veteran, Simone Jardim, while Jansen played alongside world #1, Anna Leigh Waters. After a tight battle, the 5's prevailed over the STL Shock. On the other side of the bracket, the duo of Lacy Schneemann and Anna Bright on behalf of the New York Hustlers fell to the reigning MLP champs, the Los Angeles Mad Drops. Once again proving their seed, the California BLQK Bears and the Seattle Pioneers made their way out of the semis to continue onto the Championship. In the finals, the Pioneers came out hot with a 2-0 lead after gender doubles with wins over Koop/Brascia and Staksrud/Frazier. The BLQK Bears fought back in the first mixed doubles match-up with Tyler Loong and Meghan Dizon dropping a tight match to Dylan Frazier and Maggie Brascia. In the last mixed matchup, JOOLA teammates Ben Johns and Etta Wright defeated Federico Staksrud and Andrea Koop to earn the title of MLP Champions with Meghan Dizon taking home the title of MVP.