The Third Time is the Charm
By Adriana Falco
September 2, 2026 • 13 min read
FOR TWO YEARS, the New Jersey Fives had reached the final stage of the Major League Pickleball season only to watch another team lift the trophy.
In 2024, it was the Dallas Flash. In 2025, the Columbus Sliders. Both times, New Jersey won the opening match of the Finals in a DreamBreaker before losing the next two. The Fives had been close enough to know exactly what a championship felt like without ever getting to experience it themselves.
Then came 2026.
Back in the MLP Finals for a third consecutive season, New Jersey found itself in an eerily familiar position. The opponent was different. The setting was Central Park. But once again, a championship match against the St. Louis Shock had reached a DreamBreaker.
This time, the ending changed.
The Fives swept the best-of-three Finals series 2-0, winning Saturday’s DreamBreaker 22-20 before taking control of Sunday’s decisive tiebreaker 21-9. With the victory, New Jersey captured the first season-long MLP championship in franchise history, while Anna Leigh Waters finally added the one major professional pickleball title that had been missing from her résumé.
For Finals MVP Federico Staksrud, who collapsed face down on the court as the celebration erupted around him, there was almost no way to describe what had just happened.
“It’s something that I’m going to remember my whole life,” Staksrud said moments after the victory. “That’s what I play for, for this moment. And I just got emotional because you work so hard and I dream about this every single day. I literally, I’m in my house and I’m thinking about this moment, and it finally happened.”
“This team is really special to me. There’s a lot of us who have been through a lot and to celebrate together, it means a lot.” — Anna Leigh Waters
One More Chance
New Jersey did not arrive in New York simply hoping this would finally be its year. The Fives had built the season around making sure it was.
After a fourth-place finish at the opening MLP event in Dallas, New Jersey finished first at three consecutive events, followed by a second-place finish and another first. The run gave the Fives the No. 1 overall seed entering the playoffs and the advantages that came with it.
The roster already featured Waters, Will Howells and Noe Khlif. New Jersey spent $800,000 in the draft to select Jorja Johnson, adding one of the game’s top women to play alongside Waters. The move gave New Jersey the top women’s doubles team in MLP and added another proven championship player to a roster built to finish the job. Then, shortly before the trade deadline, the Fives made another major move, acquiring Staksrud from the Orlando Squeeze for the championship push.
By the time New Jersey reached Central Park, the pieces were in place. As the No. 1 seed, New Jersey had the right to select its semifinal opponent, chose the Brooklyn Pickleball Team and then swept Brooklyn in both semifinal matches, 3-0 and 3-0, to advance to the Finals.
It was the matchup the season seemed to have been building toward. And it immediately became a fight.
From 0-2 to the DreamBreaker
St. Louis could hardly have started Saturday’s opening match better. Anna Bright and Kate Fahey stunned Waters and Johnson 11-2 in women’s doubles. Then Hayden Patriquin and Gabe Tardio erased an early New Jersey lead to defeat Staksrud and Howells 11-8.
Two games played. Two St. Louis victories. New Jersey was one loss away from dropping the first match of the Finals. Instead, the Fives responded.
Waters and Khlif defeated Bright and Patriquin 11-4 in the first mixed doubles game. Staksrud and Johnson followed with an 11-8 victory over Tardio and Fahey. The Finals were headed to a DreamBreaker.
St. Louis eventually built an 18-15 advantage and moved within striking distance of the match. Staksrud helped pull New Jersey even, and at 20-20, the ball went to Waters.
She delivered. Waters won the final two points against Fahey, completing a 22-20 comeback that gave New Jersey the first match of the Finals. One victory down. One more to go.
“I dream about this every single day, literally. I’m in my house and I’m thinking about this moment, and it finally happened.” — Federico Staksrud
Déjà Vu
Sunday began almost as a reversal of Saturday. This time, New Jersey took both gender doubles games. Waters and Johnson defeated Bright and Fahey 11-9, while Staksrud and Howells pulled out a 12-10 win to move the Fives within one game of the championship.
St. Louis refused to let it end there. The Shock answered by taking both mixed doubles games, forcing the Finals into another DreamBreaker.
For Waters, the scenario was impossible to ignore.
“I was feeling a little déjà vu, honestly,” she said afterward. “We went to the DreamBreaker because every year we’ve lost the final the exact same way.”
The memories of 2024 and 2025 were right there. So was the opportunity to finally change them.
“Honestly, when we went into the singles, I was like, ‘Anna Leigh, you’ve just got to kind of give it your all,’” Waters said. “Feddy played insane. Everybody, honestly, played insane in the DreamBreaker.”
Unlike Saturday, Sunday’s DreamBreaker did not remain close. Across the two Finals DreamBreakers, Waters outscored Kate Fahey 12-6 in their head-to-head singles rotations, including a 6-2 advantage on Sunday. Howells and Waters each produced strong early rotations before Staksrud delivered a 4-0 turn against Hunter Johnson. New Jersey surged to a 14-6 advantage and never relinquished control. At 19-9, Jorja Johnson scored the final two points to finish it and close out the DreamBreaker victory.
The final score was 21-9. The championship belonged to the Fives.
Waters saw something bigger in the way her team had handled the pressure.
“I think it just shows in the tight moments we stick together as a unit,” she said. “That’s what we kept telling each other is, ‘Be a unit.’”
It was a message built over years rather than one weekend.
“I think throughout the many years we’ve been doing this MLP and getting to the finals, we’ve always been a unit, always come back and always giving it our all,” Waters said. “But it feels amazing to win. This is definitely something I’ve been wanting to, you know, check off the list for a while now. But I couldn’t have done it without my teammates. Definitely a group effort here.”
“The most satisfying part is looking my players in the eyes and knowing what they’ve gone through to be here.” — Ryan Harwood
The One Trophy Waters Didn’t Have
For a player whose career has already redefined what dominance looks like in professional pickleball, an MLP championship had remained an unusual omission. Waters had collected virtually every other major accolade available to her. But year after year, the MLP trophy had escaped. She ranked this one accordingly.
“Very high because I think about it every year, you know, coming back to this moment in the finals,” Waters said when asked where the championship belonged among her accomplishments. “To kind of, like I said, knock it off and get it done with this team means a lot.”
The significance went beyond adding another trophy to her collection.
“This team is really special to me,” she continued. “There’s a lot of us who have been through a lot, and to kind of get this and celebrate together, it means a lot. Not only for me to, like I said, check it off the list, but just celebrating with the team, it’s really special.”
The Missing Piece
If New Jersey’s championship was years in the making, one of its most important pieces had been there for only a fraction of that time. Staksrud joined the Fives in a late-season trade from Orlando. By Finals weekend, there was little question about his impact.
He went 4-2 in doubles over the weekend and was particularly valuable in the DreamBreakers. Against Hunter Johnson, one of the strongest men’s singles players in the sport, Staksrud held a 13-7 advantage across the two Finals tiebreakers. His performance earned him the inaugural MLP Finals MVP award. But when the trophy was his, Staksrud immediately spread the credit.
“This is not a solo journey,” he said.
He thanked his former Orlando Squeeze teammates and the UPA before turning to the Fives, acknowledging not only the players standing beside him but those who had helped build the franchise before he arrived.
“This team has been unbelievable,” he said. “Anna Leigh, Noe, Will, Ryan, Millie, Jorja. You guys are amazing.”
Then he turned his attention toward the crowd.
“Lastly, the most important thing at the end of the day, you guys that are here watching,” Staksrud said. “Because if you guys were not here, this is not possible. So, the fans of Squeeze, the fans of Fives, we love you guys. We enjoy doing this and we’re going to keep pushing to make this sport grow even more.”
More Than a Roster
Ryan Harwood had been waiting even longer. The Fives co-owner and general manager had been part of the franchise since its beginning. He had watched the team reach the Finals, lose, return and lose again. When New Jersey finally won, his reaction was not about roster construction, trades or strategy.
“It means everything,” Harwood said. “I care about these players more than they could possibly know. I think about them more than I should. I want them to have the best careers they could possibly have. I really love them.”
Before celebrating his own team’s accomplishment, Harwood acknowledged St. Louis.
“They’re an incredible organization,” he said. “They set the standard. They set the bar very high, and honestly, I probably wouldn’t be as passionate as I am about this if it wasn’t for them on the other side. We have a great rivalry, and they make this that much more enjoyable.”
Then came the people who had made the Fives what they were. Harwood thanked the UPA, the team’s ownership group and Gary Vaynerchuk. He recognized co-owner Raquel Joseph for pushing him to make difficult roster moves.
After finishing his remarks, Harwood even returned to the microphone when he realized he had forgotten someone he called “the most important person on the whole freaking team”: Leigh Waters. “I knew nothing about pickleball, she taught me everything,” he said. “Leigh, we’ve been through everything together. I love you, thank you so much!”
He even talked about the Fives’ fans, known as Clowntown, who had transformed from something Harwood once helped organize into a traveling fan base of their own.
“I’ve lost complete control of Clowntown,” he joked. “They have gone rogue, they travel on their own. It’s incredible to see the true fandom that MLP has brought to this sport.”
The emotion became even more apparent when Harwood was asked what part of winning was most satisfying.
“The most satisfying part is looking my players in the eyes and knowing what they’ve gone through to be here,” he said. “The late-night talks I’ve had with Noe, with Will, with everybody. We care so much. Probably too much, to be honest.”
He went player by player, remembering the decisions, doubts and relationships that had led to Central Park.
“You never lost confidence. We never lost confidence,” he told Howells and Khlif.
Then he reached Staksrud.
“Federico, we’ve been wanting to be on the same team for a long time,” Harwood said. “We made it happen. He’s the chosen one. I love this guy. I cannot believe we did this together.”
“We’re trying to build something from scratch. It’s an unbelievable thing that we’re doing here, and we’re just going to keep trying to get better.” — Samin Odhwani
A Record-Setting Stage
New Jersey’s breakthrough came during a Finals weekend that also represented another milestone for MLP. On Saturday, 4,200 fans filled the stands across the day’s two sessions at Wollman Rink in Central Park, setting a single-day attendance record for the league. Sunday’s championship match drew another packed crowd, with part of the action airing nationally on CBS.
For MLP Commissioner Samin Odhwani, the scene provided a glimpse of what the league is trying to build. As the Fives waited to receive the trophy, Odhwani’s final words focused on the people filling the seats.
“The last words I have to say are just a thank you to our staff, our organization, the UPA, and most importantly, like Feddy said, the fans,” Odhwani said. “We couldn’t do this without you guys.”
Then he put the moment into perspective.
“We’re trying to build something from scratch,” Odhwani said. “It’s an unbelievable thing that we’re doing here, and we’re just going to keep trying to get better.”
With that, there was only one thing left to do.
“I think it’s time to give these guys the hardware that they deserve.”
Third Time’s the Charm
Three seasons. Three consecutive trips to the MLP Finals. The first ended in disappointment. So did the second. The third ended with champagne spraying across center court in Central Park.
For the New Jersey Fives, the championship was not simply the product of one dominant weekend. It was the culmination of roster moves, difficult conversations, years of relationships, two previous Finals losses and a team that kept coming back.
For Waters, it completed a trophy collection that had been missing one conspicuous piece. For Staksrud, it produced a moment he had imagined while sitting at home and an MVP honor he immediately shared with everyone who helped him reach it.
For Harwood, it was the chance to look his players in the eyes and know they had finally achieved the goal they had been chasing together. And for the Fives, after two years of leaving the Finals wondering what might have been, there was nothing left to chase.
They were finally MLP champions. ●
About Adriana Falco
Adriana Falco is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Pickleball Weekly, a global digital magazine reaching readers in over 125 countries across six continents. A pickleball player since 2012, she combines more than 25 years of executive leadership with a passion for storytelling that captures every facet of the sport. With a career from international technology companies to major news organizations, Adriana covers the people, businesses, innovations, and global trends shaping pickleball’s future, with a mission to connect and inspire the worldwide pickleball community through credible journalism and compelling stories. She is also the author and creator of the Pickleball Pip children’s book series.
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