Major League Pickleball Finals live blog: St. Louis Shock, New Jersey 5s start strong
Welcome to our annual live blog of the Major League Pickleball Semifinals and Finals. We’ll be providing updates below after each match over the next three days.
Both rounds will be a best-of-three match series, with the Semifinal matches starting Friday afternoon from Central Park in New York City. Here’s the Semifinal matchups:
New Jersey 5s vs. Brooklyn Pickleball Team
St. Louis Shock vs. Dallas Flash
The winners will play in the Finals, with Match 1 scheduled for Saturday afternoon/evening.
FULL PREVIEW COVERAGE
MLP Finals on CBS
CBS will carry exclusive coverage of the MLP Finals on Sunday at noon ET. The national TV window will feature Match 2 of the Finals. All other matches will be available on Pickleball TV and the Pickleball TV app, in addition to select time windows on MSG Network and Tennis Channel.
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Major League Pickleball Semifinals and Finals live updates
ST. LOUIS SHOCK PUNCH TICKET TO FINALS
After being eliminated in the Semifinals each of the past two seasons, St. Louis got over the hump Friday with a 2-0 sweep of the Dallas Flash. That means the Shock are into the Finals and will play the winner of New Jersey/Brooklyn starting Saturday afternoon.
“We were definitely nervous coming into this, but it feels good to get the monkey off our back,” Hayden Patriquin said in his post-match interview.
Here’s how the two matches played out:
Match 1: St. Louis def. Dallas 3-1
Anna Bright/Kate Fahey def. Danni-Elle Townsend/Alix Truong 11-1: The St. Louis women picked up right where they left off in the Quarterfinals in Newport Beach, playing at an extremely high level and dominating Game 1 of this series. Truong was not sharp for Dallas, and Townsend made a few errors when she tried to increase the amount of court she was covering. The Flash were very aggressive and often were the ones initiating the attacks, but St. Louis made them pay for choosing the wrong times to speed up.
JW Johnson/Augie Ge def. Hayden Patriquin/Gabe Tardio 11-5: Johnson/Ge might be underdogs on paper in this matchup (Patriquin/Tardio were the best men’s team in the regular season), but the Flash duo played like the favorites in Match 1 of the series. This game was tied 5-5 at one point, but Dallas played very clean down the stretch and seemed to have the advantage whenever the ball got sped up. Announcer Adam Stone commented that the point changed anytime Johnson touched the ball, and that certainly seemed to be the case — if the Shock sped up to the wrong spot, Dallas shut it down right away.
Hayden Patriquin/Anna Bright def. JW Johnson/Brooke Buckner 11-2: This game was over QUICK. Bright wins women’s and mixed by a combined score of 22-3 in Match 1.
Gabe Tardio/Kate Fahey def. Augie Ge/Danni-Elle Townsend 11-6: This was the first time we’ve seen Tardio/Fahey this postseason — they didn’t have to play in Newport Beach because St. Louis swept the Texas Ranchers in both Quarterfinal matches. The St. Louis duo started a bit slow and were down early, but Tardio said in his post-match interview that they “found their groove” toward the middle of the game and were able to close strong.
Match 2: St. Louis def. Dallas 3-1
Anna Bright/Kate Fahey def. Danni-Elle Townsend/Alix Truong 11-1: It was much of the same for the Shock women in the second match of this series. Bright/Fahey kept their intensity up and Fahey played nearly error-free as St. Louis cruised.
JW Johnson/Augie Ge def. Hayden Patriquin/Gabe Tardio 11-9: Patriquin/Tardio got off to a much better start this time around, jumping out to a 7-2 lead, but Johnson/Ge battled back to give Dallas a glimmer of hope heading into mixed doubles. Johnson/Ge continue to play their best in the biggest moments — with their season on the line two weeks ago in the quarterfinals, they came up with a huge win over LA’s Ben Johns/Max Freeman, then go 2-0 against the best men’s team in the league in this series.
Hayden Patriquin/Anna Bright def. JW Johnson/Brooke Buckner 11-9: This felt like a huge missed opportunity from Dallas in the moment. The Flash were up 9-7, but Patriquin/Bright turned it on late and slammed the door when they got the chance. This was the moment some doubt could have crept in and maybe would have in prior years.
Gabe Tardio/Kate Fahey def. Augie Ge/Danni-Elle Townsend 11-9: Dallas’ season comes to an end in heartbreaking fashion. It looked like the Flash had a chance to steal this one and force a Dreambreaker, but Gabe Tardio capitalized on an ill-advised lob from Augie Ge at 9-8 to force a crucial side-out, and St. Louis immediately cashed in on the opportunity.
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NEW JERSEY JUMPS OUT TO 1-0 LEAD OVER BROOKLYN
New Jersey and Brooklyn only played the first match of the series on Friday, and will be back for Match 2 at 10 a.m. ET on Saturday.
Match 1: New Jersey def. Brooklyn 3-0
Anna Leigh Waters/Jorja Johnson def. Jackie Kawamoto/Rachel Rohrabacher 11-2: This one looked a lot like the women’s games from the St. Louis vs. Dallas series. The 5s were on point and Brooklyn looked completely overmatched from the jump.
Federico Staksrud/Will Howells def. Christian Alshon/Riley Newman 11-8: This was the game of the day. Staksrud/Howells sprinted out to an 8-1 lead at one point before Alshon/Newman clawed their way back and eventually tied it at 8-8. Early in the game it was Staksrud who controlled the pace and hit winner after winner, then it was Howells who came up with some huge counters at the end to push the 5s over the top.
Federico Staksrud/Jorja Johnson def. Riley Newman/Jackie Kawamoto 11-6: Staksrud and Johnson continued their strong start to the weekend and their record is now 8-1 since Staksrud was traded to the 5s at the trade deadline.
