One week is a dangerous amount of time in professional sport. Long enough for questions to emerge. Sometimes long enough for them to disappear. After a disappointing opening event in Dallas, the New Jersey 5s arrived in Columbus needing a response. They left with a trophy and a reminder that the rest of Major League Pickleball may still be measuring itself against them.
Key Takeaways
- The New Jersey 5s swept the St. Louis Shock to win MLP Columbus and secure the maximum 25 standings points.
- The result shifted the conversation after a fourth-place finish in Dallas raised early questions about New Jersey’s title credentials.
- The victory highlighted the balance, depth and structural advantages that make New Jersey one of the hardest teams in Major League Pickleball to solve.
The difference between a good team and a championship team is often revealed in the week after disappointment.
Every team loses.
Every contender encounters setbacks.
The important question is what happens next.
A week ago, New Jersey left Dallas facing scrutiny that few expected to see so early in the season. A fourth-place finish was hardly catastrophic, but for a roster assembled to compete for championships, it felt underwhelming.
The reaction was immediate.
Questions emerged.
Had the league closed the gap?
Were the 5s still the team many expected to dominate?
Was Dallas an early warning sign?
By Sunday evening in Columbus, those conversations felt considerably less urgent.
The 5s had not simply won a tournament.
They had re-established themselves as one of the defining standards of Major League Pickleball.
If you’re following how the global game is shifting week by week, the World Pickleball Report breaks this down every day in our morning briefing.
Dallas created doubt
The reaction to Dallas said as much about expectations as it did about results.
Most teams would accept a fourth-place finish as a reasonable platform from which to build.
New Jersey operate under different conditions.
Championship contenders create their own burden. Success changes the standard by which future performances are judged.
When expectations are high enough, a respectable result can still feel disappointing.
That was the position New Jersey found themselves in entering Columbus.
The pressure was not enormous.
But it was real.
Columbus delivered clarity
The simplest way to answer questions in professional sport is to win.
The 5s did considerably more than that.
Their victory over the St. Louis Shock in the final never developed into the tense, unpredictable contest many expected.
Anna Leigh Waters and Jorja Johnson opened the match with victory over Anna Bright and Kate Fahey.
Will Howells and Noe Khlif followed by defeating Gabriel Tardio and Hayden Patriquin.
Waters and Khlif then completed the job in mixed doubles.
No DreamBreaker was required.
No dramatic comeback materialised.
No moment arrived where New Jersey looked genuinely vulnerable.
For a league intentionally designed around competitive balance, that level of control stands out. The official MLP standings underline the importance of those 25 points, but the performance itself carried a wider message.
The most revealing part of the final was not that New Jersey won.
It was how comfortably they did it.
The difference between talent and structure
The obvious explanation for New Jersey’s success is talent.
The roster is loaded with it.
The more interesting explanation is structure.
Most MLP teams have identifiable strengths and identifiable weaknesses. Opponents can usually pinpoint the line they want to attack or the matchup they believe offers an advantage.
New Jersey are unusually difficult to approach that way.
Their women’s doubles pairing is elite.
Their men’s doubles pairing has already shown it can handle pressure against serious contenders.
Their mixed combinations give them multiple routes through a match.
There is no obvious weak point.
That matters because championships are rarely won through individual brilliance alone.
They are won through balance.
A team that forces opponents to win everywhere becomes much harder to beat than a team relying on one superstar performance.
Columbus offered another example of that reality.
The Waters-Johnson effect
Every title contender possesses a defining advantage.
For New Jersey, it may be the partnership of Waters and Johnson.
The pair did more than win during the Columbus event.
They dominated.
Multiple 11-0 game victories illustrated just how wide the gap can become when they perform at their best.
Yet the real value of the partnership extends beyond the scoreboard.
It changes pressure.
Every opponent enters the fixture knowing they may already be chasing the contest before the remaining lines begin.
That alters decision-making.
It affects lineup construction.
It forces risks elsewhere.
The partnership is not simply producing points.
It is shaping entire matches.
That is a very different level of influence.
Why St. Louis matters
The Shock were not a convenient opponent.
They represented one of the strongest measuring sticks available.
If Dallas was the sample that created doubt, St. Louis were the sample capable of confirming it.
Instead, New Jersey controlled the final from the opening line onwards.
Strong teams beat weaker teams.
Championship favourites are judged by what happens when they face fellow contenders.
St. Louis entered Columbus with legitimate ambitions of leaving with the title.
Instead, they spent much of the final reacting rather than dictating.
That does not diminish the Shock.
If anything, it strengthens the significance of New Jersey’s performance.
What this means for the rest of MLP
The easiest conclusion from Columbus is that New Jersey won an event.
The more useful conclusion is that the rest of the league still faces the same problem it faced before the season began.
How do you consistently beat a team without an obvious weakness?
Dallas briefly created uncertainty.
Columbus restored perspective.
The title race remains open.
St. Louis will continue to contend.
Other challengers will emerge as the season develops.
But Columbus served as a reminder that New Jersey’s ceiling may still be higher than everybody else’s.
That is not because they possess the best player.
It is because they possess one of the most complete rosters.
And completeness is often what championships look like before they become championships.
Why it matters
Early-season events shape narratives long before they shape standings.
Dallas created questions.
Columbus provided answers.
For New Jersey, the trophy represented a successful weekend.
For the rest of the league, it may have represented something more uncomfortable.
A reminder that the benchmark still exists.
The New Jersey 5s left Columbus with 25 standings points and another trophy. More significantly, they left with something they briefly lost in Dallas.
The sense that everyone else may still be chasing them.
Further Reading
- Latest pickleball news from around the world
- Tournament coverage and results
- Rankings and player profiles
- Regional pickleball coverage
For a clearer view of where the sport is heading each month, you can download the latest free issue of World Pickleball Magazine.
Chris Beaumont
Founder and Editor-in-ChiefChris Beaumont is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of World Pickleball Magazine. Chris follows the global game closely, reporting on the latest news, developments, stories and tournaments from all five continents. He also hosts the World Pickleball Podcast, interviewing people at…
View All Articles →
