14-year-old Kelly Goodnow sparks Carolina Hogs upset over Royals

Kelly Goodnow made her Major League Pickleball debut and helped the Carolina Hogs beat the Palm Beach Royals 3-1 at Sportime Randall’s Island. The 14-year-old stepped into a short-handed lineup, and Carolina ended a drought that had stretched back to May 23.

The Hogs had to lean on the approved UPA player pool after Nicole Conard and Aiko Yoshitomi were unavailable, and the league’s 2026 rules made that path available without a point penalty. Under those rules, a team can add one substitute when two rostered players of the same gender are injured, ill or otherwise unavailable, and that player is released after the event.

Carolina dropped women’s doubles when Goodnow and Abbigal Hatton fell to Tina Pisnik and Sofia Sewing, but Michael Loyd and DJ Young answered in men’s doubles by beating Casey Diamond and Tyson McGuffin to pull the tie even. Hatton and Young then gave the Hogs the edge in the first mixed doubles game against Sewing and Diamond, putting Carolina in front 2-1 and sending the deciding mixed match to Goodnow.

Goodnow and Loyd finished the job with an 11-9 win over Pisnik and McGuffin, a veteran pairing that gave Palm Beach plenty of firepower but not enough margin for error. The Royals came into New York fresh off a fourth-place finish at MLP St. Pete.

Two weeks earlier, she won the Boise PPA Challenger with Carlota Trevino, beating Chloe Igleski and Marianna Petrei 11-5, 11-7 in the final after a three-game semifinal against Jalina Ingram and Lindsey Newman. That title made her the youngest gold medalist in PPA Tour history at 14 years and three months old, breaking the previous mark held by Anna Leigh Waters, who won the 2021 Takeya Showcase at 14 years and six months.