The Report
New Jersey Survive Everything to Win MLP Championship
Good morning, pickleballers.
We have been absent for a few days while WPM founder Chris Beaumont was on commentary duty at the Welsh Open. The microphone has been put down, the inbox has been reopened and there are two championship stories waiting for us.
New Jersey finally have the season-long MLP title which escaped them in 2024 and 2025, but only after surviving two completely different matches against St Louis. In Australia, the fourth-seeded Opals beat every team above them and swept the Heat as Nicola Schoeman completed an MVP season.
At 20-19 in Saturday’s DreamBreaker, St Louis were one point from taking the opening match of the MLP Finals. Will Howells kept New Jersey alive. Anna Leigh Waters then won consecutive points against Kate Fahey to turn match point down into a 22-20 victory.
The route to Sunday’s DreamBreaker was the exact opposite. New Jersey won both gender doubles games before St Louis recovered through mixed. Eight doubles games across the series produced four wins apiece, leaving the championship to the singles rotation both teams had strengthened before arriving in Central Park.
Federico Staksrud and Waters each won their direct matchups 6-2. Jorja Johnson took the final two points as New Jersey completed a 21-9 DreamBreaker victory and a 2-0 series win.
Our analysis explains why the title was decided by more than the stars at the top of New Jersey’s roster, and why Howells’ saved point may have been the most important moment of the weekend.
How New Jersey finally won MLPFourth seeds on Friday. Australian champions by Sunday.
The Opals entered the NPL Finals behind Outback, the Heat and the Adders in the regular-season standings. Their path to the title required them to play all three.
They swept top-seeded Outback 3-0, beat the Adders 3-1 and returned a few hours later to defeat the Heat 3-0 in the championship match. Across three ties against the only teams which finished above them, the Opals won nine sets and lost one.
Nicola Schoeman was named Finals MVP and collected the $5,000 Golden Pickle, adding the weekend’s leading individual award to the five round MVP honours she had already won during the season.
Inside the Opals’ championship runTwo team leagues found champions. Their weekends rewarded different things.
New Jersey spent the season building a roster capable of surviving the DreamBreaker. Staksrud’s arrival from Orlando strengthened the men’s pairing and gave the 5s another elite singles rotation. The final reached that fifth game twice. New Jersey won both.
The Opals followed a different route. Australia’s AFL-style finals system rewarded the highest seeds with protection, but left room for the fourth-placed team to climb through the bracket. New Jersey justified a season of aggressive roster construction. The Opals found their best level after the regular-season table had already placed three teams above them.
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