For the second event of the MLP Champions Series, the Scorpions travelled two time zones east to Dallas to open with the Masters (60+) team playing at the home of the MLP Dallas Flash, Pickler Universe. The Scorpions opened with a resounding win over the Kansas City Stingers, capturing all the gender matches and 3 of the 4 mixed matches. Scott Burr, Jas Stefanovic, Dean Ayers, Rob Dennison, Lu Curiel, and Annie Feller all recorded double wins.
Their second match of the day had them facing the LAXtreme a “local” rival new to the league this year. The battle was trending the way of the Scorpions until the last two matches went the way of the Xtreme, resulting in a 4-4 tie. This called for a “team breaker” where every duo plays a two-point segment to determine the winner. Players exchange at 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 points. This was the first team breaker for a Scorpion team as they did not play a single one last season. Unfortunately, LA pulled out an 11-9 win.
Two battles normally end the day, but due to the imbalance of scheduling with 9 teams, the Scorpions had another battle to play starting at 5pm against the Columbus Hotshots. Howard Mendel and Annie Feller led the way with double wins. Unfortunately, Jas Stepanovic and Kim Jagd collided in mid-air defending against a lob that resulted in Jas suffering a serious cramp that forced her out of the match. Sub Lu Curiel playing with Scott Burr played the last match of the night that could have given the Scorpions a victory, but lost 11-10, 11-4, and forced another team breaker making a long day even longer. Finally, at about 9:45 pm the Scorpions lost their back-to-back team breaker 9-11 to finish with a 1-2 record for the day.
Given a bye Friday morning, the Scorpions got double wins from Burr and Curiel coupled with subbing for some tired players to earn a 5-3 win over the Denver Ionics in their final battle. For their two-day efforts, the Scorpions managed a third-place finish with 8 points, and a fourth place overall in the standings after two events. The team was led overall by Howard Mendel at 6-2, Lu Curiel at 6-1 and Annie Feller at 5-0.
On Saturday, both the Prime and Premium took the courts together at Club 13 in Denton, TX. The Prime saw a new face in their lineup as Kyle McMakin, aka The Cowboy, subbed in for Morgan Evans. As the dust cleared on Sunday afternoon, the “young” Scorpions find themselves in second place behind Austin. The day started with the battle against Oklahoma City going to a 3-3 tie forcing the first team breaker for the 40’s. Team breakers are a rhythm breaking confusing experience the first time through, and the Scorpions fought hard but lost, 11-6.
The day only got tougher as they had to face the first-place Austin Ignite in the afternoon battle. Dropping both gender matches was the difference in the match, as they split the mixed matches resulting in a 4-2 victory for Austin. Sunday was a better day as the Scorpions claimed victories over Kansas City (5-1) and Seattle (4-2). Annie Tichenor and A.C. Meyer came out in sync winning 11-1, 11-5. Bret Bucher and Kyle McMakin followed suit winning 11-2,11-8. Claiming three more victories in the 4 mixed matches sealed the fate of Kansas City.
Sunday afternoon followed a different script as the women won their gender match in two games, while the men lost their gender match in three games. Again, the Scorpions captured three of the four mixed matches to secure the 4-2 win over The Houston Hammers. Tichenor and Meyer captured three wins over the weekend and continue to show they are a team to be reckoned with.
The Premier team took to the courts at 8 am on Saturday against Columbus hoping to get off to a good start for the weekend against some of the top-rated teams. After three rounds of play, the Scorpions held a slight 5-4 lead. The Scorpions couldn’t rally for a win and lost all three final matches to drop the team battle, 7-5.
After a lunch break came a pairing with Austin who was expected to be one of the top teams. The Scorps brought their best game to start off the gender matches, capturing 5 of the 6 matches, and a 5-1 lead. The intensity for the Scorpions continued in the mixed matches as they were able to win 4 of the 6 matches to lock up the team battle winning 9-3. All the line 1 players, Sabrina Guillebeaux, Cord Robbins, Keri Olson, and Piet Aldrich were double winners. The line 2 players, Natalie Hill, Keith Jain, Wendy Ochoa, and John Riedy pulled off the same feat to help the team secure a 9-3 win.
It was a reversal of fortune for the Scorpions in their Sunday morning match, as they dropped the team battle with the OKC Punishers, 9-3. Line 1 held its own securing wins in both gender matches, but the team could not capture anotherwin until the last mixed match of the morning. Despite the sound drubbing, the coaches and players were pleased with the effort and style that the Scorpions were trying to execute, just not the results.
“We’ll continue to improve and get better as we continue to train hard and gain more experience together as teammates,” said team owner and coach, Kim Jagd.
The afternoon battle against the Houston Hammers, another top-rated team, was a bitter pill to swallow as the Scorpions missed a chance to force a team breaker in the last match of the session. Six of the matches went the full 3 games with both teams playing some exciting pickleball. But the result was another loss for the Scorpions, dropping them to 1-3 for the weekend.
The Scorpions next event will be Sept. 3-6 at Center Court Pickleball in Glendale, Arizona. And the Scorpions will return to Dallas for the MLP Champions Series Championship on Oct 30-Nov. 1.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: CV Scorpions have a tough 1-3 trip to Dallas with several close losses