MLP Dallas Playoffs Results, and a 15-Year-Old to Watch

Round 1 of the MLP Playoffs wrapped up in Dallas this weekend, and four teams are moving on to the Quarterfinals in Newport Beach. Here’s who’s through, and a teenager worth putting on your radar before the next round.

The results from Dallas

Brooklyn needed every point it could get against SoCal, eventually closing out the series in a dreambreaker that came down to a mixed doubles battle — Jackie Kawamoto sealed it 24-22. The Dallas Flash took care of business in front of their home crowd, beating Las Vegas to lock up a trip to Newport Beach. Palm Beach Royals got past the Chicago Slice, with Casey Diamond closing the door late. And in the tightest matchup on paper, the Texas Ranchers outlasted Atlanta Bouncers in a dreambreaker of their own.

That’s four series, four winners, and four tickets punched. Brooklyn, Dallas, Palm Beach, and Texas now join New Jersey, St. Louis, LA, and Columbus — the four teams that earned first-round byes — for the Quarterfinals in Newport Beach, August 14 through 16. One more piece of hardware got handed out in Dallas too: Dallas Flash’s Danni-Elle Townsend was voted the league’s 2026 Most Improved Player, a nice storyline heading into the next round for a team that’s been playing its best pickleball of the season.

One to watch: Cailyn Campbell

If you weren’t paying attention to the Brooklyn-SoCal series beyond the final score, you missed a good subplot. SoCal’s roster included Cailyn Campbell, a 15-year-old from Palmetto Bay, Florida, who’s quietly having one of the more interesting rookie years in pro pickleball. Campbell and partner Jalina Ingram make up the youngest team in the entire league, and Campbell herself is already ranked in the top 50 nationally across three divisions: singles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles.

Her breakout moment came on the PPA Tour, not in MLP. Partnering with 45-year-old Tina Pisnik at the Sacramento Open, Campbell won bronze for her first PPA pro medal. That made her only the third player in tour history to medal at age 15, following Anna Leigh Waters and Jorja Johnson, both of whom went on to become some of the biggest names in the sport. That’s the kind of company that gets people paying attention.

Campbell’s SoCal team fell short in Dallas, but that’s not really the point this early in a young career. What matters is that she’s already competing against, and occasionally beating, players twice her age at the sport’s highest level, and doing it across multiple formats. If the Waters and Johnson comparisons hold up even a little, Campbell is a name you’ll want to have known before everyone else does.

What’s next

Newport Beach is the last stop before Championship Weekend in New York City, August 28 through 30. With the bracket now including both the four bye teams and the four winners from Dallas, the Quarterfinals should be a real gut check for everyone involved, including SoCal’s youngest team looking to build momentum for next season. We’ll have a preview before the first ball drops in California.