MLP San Clemente 2025 – EOD Musings

The live blog is tough to keep up with full time jobs but we still like to provide some thoughts as they come up each day. So we’ll use this as a space to talk provide thoughts at the end of each day and see how we enjoy it for future events.

Saturday, June 28th

Weird day. Not quite as exciting as yesterday. The weirdest story was Jessie Irvine sitting out both matches for Phoenix due to what the broadcast called a “disagreement” between Irvine and Genie Bouchard. They didn’t elaborate at all beyond that but we are hearing that this is something that has been building up to this throughout the season. So, it didn’t come out of nowhere.

Phoenix got a win with Alex Walker subbing in for Jessie Irvine against the Hard Eights, who were both on a 6-game losing streak. Genie lost both her matches but played well in the Dreambreaker. Quietly, Sock and McGuffin are 3-0 together on the weekend. Not surprisingly, things in Phoenix are a bit of a mess but they are still whistling to some wins.

Utah has come back down to earth here. Losses to tier 2 teams in Columbus and LA today.

SoCal is fun and energetic, but they don’t have the horses yet. Cailyn Campbell looks to be the real deal. Jalina Ingram has some raw tools. We need to go back and watch a little more before making any proclamations on anyone.

Brooklyn and Columbus are trucking along this weekend. Brooklyn has two very winnable matches and should finish with a bare minimum 8 points for the weekend, with a chance at the full 12. It’s too bad we don’t get to see them face off against one another, but we do get a Columbus-LA matchup tomorrow, which is a very important one for the Mad Drops.

The Challenger crap shoot continues. Bay Area over Florida: California over Bay Area in a Dreambreaker. DC over California in a Dreambreaker. We took a little flack for saying Las Vegas looked “somewhat vulnerable” yesterday but they somehow lost to DC in a Dreambreaker today.

To be fair, a comment using the word vulnerable probably needs to be fleshed out more because Vegas is still clearly the class of Challenger by a mile. But they aren’t completely blowing teams out either, which was the point. Buckner and Wang have not been a stone cold lock. There were close wins and, even though it’s one game to 11, Tellez/Wang haven’t been a sure thing – almost losing to Truong/Young and then losing a bad one to De La Rosa/Gecheva. The fact is that they aren’t unbeatable because the floor of their best players is lower than other Premier level players.

Friday, June 27th

Round. ‘Em. Up. A really good day of pickleball. This is what MLP is supposed to be. A lot of competitive matches today. The headliners are the SoCal Hard Eights and Brooklyn Pickleball Team.

Brooklyn got a big regulation win over the Mad Drops despite missing all 3 of their men. To be fair, AJ Koller is probably an upgrade on Pat Smith but then to have Rafa Hewett come in with him to win the gender matchup is so Rafa Hewett of Rafa Hewett. AJ won both his matches, including his mixed with Rachel Rohrabacher against CP and Quang. How no one picked up Koller as a sub is beyond us. Can they keep it rolling the rest of the weekend?

SoCal is officially frisky. They pushed the Mad Drops to a Dreambreakers their men’s energy, especially Hovenier, propelled them to getting a well earned point. Their men almost took down Daescu/Klinger and Fu/Campbell pushed Daescu/Todd to the brink. These guys and teenage women feel like they are playing for something and are making the most of their opportunity.

Disappointing day for the Mad Drops and Flames. LA is unable to back up their strong Daytona performance, showing their men’s vulnerabilities with two lower floor guys. Phoenix won both their gender matches, taking advantage of Tyler Loong’s broken right wrist (to be fair, Tyler doesn’t really use his right hand that much anyway). They lose their mixed and then blow a lead in a Dreambreaker. Tough times.

Not much to say about Columbus other than Andrei Daescu looked off today. A handful of easy misses almost cost them a men’s loss. Out of character for the big man.

Challenger is really a crap shoot. Las Vegas averted a Dreambreaker after Pablo/Chao Yi narrowly came back against Truong/DJ Young in regulation. Las Vegas is somewhat vulnerable except you then have to go to a Dreambreaker with them. Otherwise, we had Florida beating DC, California losing to Nashville. It’s semi-controlled chaos.

Thursday, June 26th

We are back with a full Challenger day, just like the good old days. With Mari Humberg getting traded from DC, we have a very clear #1 team in Las Vegas and a rather muddled #2 through #6 grouping.

James Delgado is getting more experience by the day and it looks like the Night Owls are gelling in their 2nd event. Having 3 Premier quality players will do that for a Challenger team. It will be a shocker if any Challenger team can knock off Vegas.

Bay Area could take the cake for most disappointing Challenger team. Eric Roddy just doesn’t seem to be it. Their women got tight and squandered a big lead. The consistency isn’t there as much at this level so who knows what a women’s win against DC could have propelled for Bay Area.

Florida is the most weirdly fun team to watch in Challenger. Cason Campbell has skills but he is still figuring out the decision-making part of the game in a big way. He and Frantova have such a wild variance in their level as they overcame a big deficit against the Chefs en route to their big win. Travis Rettenmaier continues to play well.

DC is rather boring just because the team is a group of known commodities. They still might be the 2nd best team as it is still unclear what Juan Benitez can provide for California on the right side with Michael Loyd now in the mix.