The Shock go Undefeated in Their Hometown - Patriquin makes his case for MVP

The highly anticipated MLP St. Louis event did not disappoint. There was plenty of drama, upsets, controversy, and a huge trade made in the middle of the event. 

The Chaifetz Arena, on the University of Saint Louis campus, hosted the event, with Champsionship Court and Grandstand Court lining up next to each other. The other half of the arena held two warmup/practice courts.

Standings from the MLP St. Louis event

Overall Premier Level standings after the MLP St. Louis event

Let’s unpack the action.

Top Storylines from MLP St. Louis

St. Louis Shock go undefeated in their home arena

Let’s be honest. The Shock looked disheartened after the Mid-Season Tournament loss to the Dallas Flash. Anna Bright lost both her games, and rushed off the court right away. Momentum was going to be difficult to turn around after the loss, just days earlier.

The St. Louis Shock stepped up to the task. They won 14 out of 15 points, and beat Brooklyn, Columbus, and Dallas in regulation. They took over first place in the standings in terms of points per match.

The scary thing about the Shock’s domination is the fact that there were times when they did not play their best. Anna and Kate went 2-3, but beat Jorja and Tyra 11-3. When the women lost, the guys picked them up - the team seems to be firing on all cylinders.

I need more time to do all the player stats from the event, but I would be very surprised if Hayden Patriquin wasn’t the top-rated player from the whole event. He was a menace the entire time, playing a super solid left side in both mixed and men’s. Patriquin went 10-0 in the five matches he played in, really stepping up for his team. 

Patriquin just made his case to be the male MVP of the Premier Level, and it seems like everyone else is chasing him.

Brooklyn and Columbus finished their regular season, with both having positives heading into the playoffs

Brooklyn Pickleball Team

Finished the regular season sitting in 4th place, in terms of points per match, at 2.24 ppm. They have 56 points in their 25 matches and now they wait nearly a month before the playoffs start to play again.

Brooklyn won’t complain about hte break. They have played their past four events with subs for one reason or another. AJ Koller held down the fort for the team, while Riley Newman and Dekel Bar were dealing with injuries and sickness. Riley is back and is looking to be 90%+ of his normal self. Dekel is still dealing with a rib injury, but is hopeful to be back for the playoffs.

I have said it before, but I will say it again - Rachel Rohrabacher and Jackie Kawamoto really stepped up for Brooklyn. They were so steady and only lost a few games together in the last two months. Plus, their play in mixed doubles has been phenomenal. 

Brooklyn earn 12 points from their last six matches, but none were bigger than the last. In the last match of the regular season, Brooklyn beat the Columbus Sliders 3-1 in regulation, securing the fact that they finished four points ahead of the Sliders. There was a chance the Sliders could take away that fourth place spot, but Brooklyn shut them down.

Columbus Sliders

The Sliders only earned 1.4 points per match in their last five matches, earning seven points.

The loss to Brooklyn probably stung a little bit, as they were on the cusp of surpassing Brooklyn in the standings.However, Columbus has to be happy with the final outcome of their regular season. They missed Klinger for six matches early on in MLP Columbus, and were in 8th or 9th place after the first couple of events.The odds are that Columbus will finish 5th or 6th in terms of standings, and the top teams will not want to play them in the first round of the playoffs. The team is very good at Dreambreakers, especially the women.

Lea and Parris really showed out the last few events, winning nearly every game they played. They had a weird loss to the Atlanta Bouncers and Chicago Slice women, but also had very good wins over the Flash and Shock.

I think that last sentence sums up the Sliders. The biggest takeaway from this weekend for the Sliders is this: they can beat anyone. They were the first team to beat the Dallas Flash, and they did so in a Dreambreaker. 

The Sliders are inconsistent with their results, but they definitely proved to the top teams that they can hang with the best of the best. I don’t think any top team wants to face them in the playoffs.

The Ben Johns trade sent shock waves through pro pickleball

There was a three-way trade on Saturday between the Utah Black Diamonds, Carolina Hogs, and LA Mad Drops:

Move #1: LA picked up Brandon French to replace Quang Duong

LA Mad Drops:

• Received Ben Johns and Etta Tuionetoa from the Carolina Hogs
• Received cash and Mehvish Safdar from Utah Black Diamonds

Carolina Hogs:

• Received cash and Brandon French and Danna Funaro from the Mad Drops

Utah Black Diamonds:

• Received Etta Tuionetoa from LA 

Why this trade was made this way - the limit is $200,000 per player transaction. So Carolina sent both Etta and Ben to LA, that way LA could send more than $200,000 in cash for Ben. Essentially, I believe the cost was much closer to the $400,000 maximum.

Once that happened, Utah sent an undisclosed amount of cash to LA for Etta Tuionetoa.

What this means

The playoff picture is absolutely crazy right now - before, it was either the Shock or Flash who were favored to win the whole thing.

After all the recent trades, I truly think there are 7 teams who could legitimately win the title in 2025: Dallas Flash, St. Louis Shock, New Jersey 5s, LA Mad Drops, Brooklyn Pickleball Team, Columbus Sliders, and Brooklyn Pickleball Team.

We will see how quickly LA is able to gel together with Ben, as they finish their season in MLP Dallas this weekend, and they face NY, STL, TX, CAR, NJ, and Dallas. What a gauntlet.

The Dallas Flash had its first issues and are hosting MLP Dallas next week

The Flash didn’t look their normal selves this weekend. It’s a long season, and this just seemed like the event that they didn’t play particularly well at.

It didn’t help that in the first round of the Dreambreaker, Hurricane Tyra Black hurt her left ankle going for a Lea Jansen overhead, on Saturday. The Flash ended up losing that match in a Dreambreaker, and then lost the next one 1-3 to the Shock.

After the match, Parris Todd made it known that she thought the roll-out surfaces being played on caused extra health concerns for players and the league should do something about them, for safety purposes.

Tyra played the rest of the weekend in either a taped up ankle, or an ASO wrap, I couldn’t quite tell.

Dallas has a quick turnaround, hosting MLP Dallas in just four days from their last match. Of note, Dallas did just trade for Sam Parker as the third woman. If Tyra’s ankle isn’t 100%, we could see Parker called into action alongside Augie and Jorja this week.

All results from MLP St. Louis

• Dallas Flash: Brooklyn W (3-1), Columbus L (2-3), St. Louis L (1-3), Atlanta W (3-1), Chicago W (3-2)
• St. Louis Shock: Atlanta W (4-0), Columbus W (3-1), Chicago W (3-2), Dallas W (3-1), Brooklyn W (3-1)
• Brooklyn Pickleball Team: Chicago W (3-1), Atlanta W (4-0), Dallas L (1-3), Chicago W (4-0), St. Louis L (1-3), Columbus W (3-1)
• Columbus Sliders: Chicago W (3-1), St. Louis L (1-3), Dallas W (3-2), Atlanta W (3-2), Brooklyn L (1-3)
• Chicago Slice: Atlanta W (3-2), Brooklyn L (1-3), Columbus L (1-3), Brooklyn L (0-4), St. Louis L (2-3), Dallas L (2-3)
• Atlanta Bouncers: Chicago L (2-3), St. Louis L (0-4), Brooklyn L (0-4), Columbus L (2-3), Dallas L (1-3)

There is no rest for the weary, as MLP Dallas starts Thursday, the 24th. Check out The Dink newsletter on Wednesday morning for a full event preview.