If you’re a fan of pro pickleball, you had just about everything you could ask for this weekend.

The quarterfinals of the Major League Pickleball Playoffs delivered upsets, high-stakes drama, incredible plays and several epic matches involving many of the best players in the game.

When the dust settled, there were four teams left standing:

  • New Jersey 5s
  • St. Louis Shock
  • Dallas Flash
  • Brooklyn Pickleball Team

While all of the above teams advanced to the semifinals in New York City in two weeks, they had much different paths to get there. Below we break down each of the four quarterfinal series from a memorable weekend of pickleball in Newport Beach, California.

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St. Louis Shock leave no doubt

Four teams might have advanced to New York, but none of them did it in the same fashion as St. Louis.

The Shock left no doubt in their series vs. the Texas, cruising to a 2-0 sweep and outscoring the Ranchers by a combined score of 66-20:

Match 1: 11-3, 11-2, 11-4
Match 2: 11-2, 11-4, 11-5

They looked like a team that was on a mission to get their first title after having strong seasons but coming up short each of the past two years.

While the other teams were battling in out in Dreambreakers and deciding Match 3 situations, the Shock were already at home recovering and prepping for their third-straight appearance in the Major League Pickleball semifinals.

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New Jersey 5s survive close call

The New Jersey 5s also advanced by sweeping their opponents — the Palm Beach Royals — but I wouldn’t say they’re leaving Newport Beach with a ton of momentum like St. Louis is.

Match 1 went to a Dreambreaker, which New Jersey narrowly won despite this incredible play from Tina Pisnik down the stretch, then the 5s took Match 2 by a score of 3-1. But here’s the concerning part: Noe Khlif/Anna Leigh Waters lost both of their mixed doubles games to Dekel Bar/Pisnik (11-4, 11-9).

Khlif/Waters were 29-3 in the regular season and the No. 1 mixed doubles team in the league by winning percentage, while Bar/Pisnik were 15-9 and just outside the Top 10 among duos that played more than 20 games together. So was this a blip, or is the Khlif/Waters duo becoming more vulnerable at the worst possible time?

Since the addition of Federico Staksrud at the trade deadline, there’s been a lot of conversation among fans and pundits about which player — Khlif or Will Howells — should play in the other men’s doubles/mixed doubles spots. New Jersey has seemingly settled on Staksrud/Howells in men’s and Khlif/Waters + Staksrud/Jorja Johnson in mixed.

But regardless of who the 5s play in the next round (we don’t know the matchups yet, but New Jersey will be able to choose either Dallas or Brooklyn as their opponent), Khlif/Waters will likely be up against a mixed team just as strong or stronger than Bar/Pisnik.

So do they stick with their current lineup heading into the semifinals, or do they switch it up? That’s not a question you want to have to answer at this stage of the season.

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Dallas Flash stay hot

The Dallas Flash have been on a tear since trading for Alix Truong and Danni-Elle Townsend in June. They’ve now won 15 of their past 16 matches, and the Los Angeles Mad Drops were their latest victim. This was a very close series, with all three matches going at least four games and one match going to a Dreambreaker.

Match 1: Los Angeles wins 8-11, 11-9, 11-6, 11-6
Match 2: Dallas wins 11-7, 9-11, 10-12, 11-5, 21-11
Match 3: Dallas wins 6-11, 11-2, 11-6, 11-8

In Match 3, JW Johnson was up against LA’s Ben Johns in men’s doubles and mixed doubles and outplayed him in both games with Dallas’ season on the line. After Johnson/Augie Ge won men’s doubles 11-2 on Sunday, Johnson/Brooke Buckner got out to a 6-0 start in mixed that was too much for Johns/Jade Kawamoto to overcome.

Ge/Townsend (who are now 19-4 together since the trade with Columbus involving Tyra Black) closed it out in the deciding game of the series.

Brooklyn knocks out defending champs

For the second straight year Brooklyn has had to battle injuries/illnesses throughout the season. Both Rachel Rohrabacher and Riley Newman have missed significant stretches this year, and it was starting to look like another lost season with a strong roster on paper. Even coming into this series, it still wasn’t clear whether Rohrabacher was going to be 100% healthy (she had mostly been playing mixed doubles and not women’s doubles heading into the playoffs).

But Brooklyn was finally able to put all the pieces together, knocking off the defending champion Columbus Sliders in a very close series.

Match 1: Brooklyn wins 11-4, 11-13, 11-8, 5-11, 21-10
Match 2: Columbus wins 11-4, 4-11, 10-12, 11-8, 21-18
Match 3: Brooklyn wins 11-5, 11-5, 6-11, 11-8

For Columbus, this was a disappointing end to the season after they swung big to get Tyra Black before the trade deadline. The Sliders had put together arguably the best lineup in the league on paper, as they were the only team to have four players (Andrei Daescu, CJ Klinger, Parris Todd and Black) in the Top 10 of the previous PPA Tour gender doubles rankings. But that talented roster never quite gelled, and the defending champs have been sent home earlier than many expected.

Teams get a week off before semifinals and finals

The Major League Pickleball Semifinals and Finals will be Aug. 28-30 at Central Park in New York City.

After each round the teams are re-seeded based on the regular-season points standings.

No. 1 New Jersey
No. 2 St. Louis
No. 3 Brooklyn
No. 4 Dallas

As the top overall seed, New Jersey gets to select their opponent. The 5s are 1-0 against Brooklyn this season and 3-0 against Dallas. St. Louis will play whichever team New Jersey doesn’t pick.