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 weekend.

The St. Louis Shock and New Jersey 5s advanced out of the Semifinals to play in the Finals. Find details of each match of the weekend below.

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Sunday afternoon update: New Jersey 5s close it out in Match 2

Anna Leigh Waters/Jorja Johnson def. Anna Bright/Kate Fahey 11-9: Jorja Johnson bounced back in a big way in Sunday’s opening game. She was much sharper than what we saw in Saturday’s blowout loss to the Shock women, and the win puts the 5s in control as they look to close out the series.

Federico Staksrud/Will Howells def. Hayden Patriquin/Anna Bright 12-10: New Jersey saved three game points against and got some help from the net in big moments toward the end of this game. St. Louis will now have to flip the script from Saturday’s Match 1, which the 5s came back and won after dropping both gender doubles games.

Hayden Patriquin/Anna Bright def. Noe Khlif/Anna Leigh Waters 10-6: Patriquin/Bright stormed out to a 7-0 lead and held off a late push from Khlif/Waters, keeping St. Louis’ season alive. So far in Sunday’s match, each game is the opposite result from what we saw Saturday afternoon.

Gabe Tardio/Kate Fahey def. Federico Staksrud/Jorja Johnson 11-9: This game had a ton of momentum swings and became a grindfest with extended cross-court dinking rallies between Fahey and Johnson in the late stages. Staksrud and Johnson jumped out to a 4-0 lead and looked like they might cruise to the win, but Tardio/Fahey played very clean down the stretch to force a Dreambreaker.

Dreambreaker: Federico Staksrud and Anna Leigh Waters each won their singles matchups by a 6-2 margin, which gave New Jersey plenty of breathing room. Jorja Johnson closed it out with two straight points over Anna Bright.

Saturday afternoon update: New Jersey takes 1-0 lead in Finals

The New Jersey 5s won the first match of the Finals in a thrilling Dreambreaker, 22-20.

St. Louis led for much of the singles tiebreaker, but Federico Staksrud and Will Howells came up with some huge points late to hand the ball to Anna Leigh Waters at 20-20. Waters won the next two points against Kate Fahey to give the 5s a 1-0 lead in the series.

“I feel like in the Dreambreakers all year, Will has been the one getting me the ball to serve or keeping us in it, so huge pops to him for getting that point late when we were down — that was huge,” Waters said after the match. “This was such a team effort to be down two games, and then win the next two in mixed and win the Dreambreaker, that’s really hard to do. We stuck together as a team, which is really important.”

For the entire match, Staksrud was a source of constant energy for New Jersey. Between almost every point he was hyping up the home crowd and his teammates, and said afterward it will take even more energy on Sunday to secure the first title for the 5s since the league switched to the current format.

“I love this team,” Staksrud said. “From the first minute that I was traded to the 5s, they made me feel like I was part of the team for the last 5 years. But we are not finished — there’s still a long way to go. The Shock are a great team, so tomorrow they’re gonna bring it harder than today. We gotta play better tomorrow.”

Here’s how the doubles games played out:

Anna Bright/Kate Fahey def. Anna Leigh Waters/Jorja Johnson 11-2: This was reminiscent of the much-discussed game earlier this season at the Mid-Season Tournament, when Bright/Fahey funneled almost every ball toward Johnson and handed New Jersey’s women’s duo their only loss of the season prior to this game. The Shock deployed a similar strategy in this game, and Johnson made several loose errors. St. Louis kept the pressure on throughout the game and it was never in doubt.

Hayden Patriquin/Gabe Tardio def. Federico Staksrud/Will Howells 11-8: This game had it all — fast-paced pickleball to start, ELITE chirping from Staksrud and a great comeback from Patriquin/Tardio. New Jersey was up 8-3 at one point and had all the momentum, but St. Louis turned it into a grind-fest with long dinking rallies in the second half of the game and scored 8 straight points to win 11-8.

Noe Khlif/Anna Leigh Waters def. Hayden Patriquin/Anna Bright 11-4: Given the questions coming into this weekend about the Klhif/Waters lineup, this was an impressive performance with the match on the line. The win keeps New Jersey alive and hands things over to Federico Staksrud/Jorja Johnson, who have been great together so far this postseason.

Federico Staksrud/Jorja Johnson def. Gabe Tardio/Kate Fahey 11-8: Staksrud/Johnson improve to 9-1 together and New Jersey takes both mixed games to force the first Dreambreaker of the weekend.

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Saturday morning update: New Jersey sweeps Brooklyn

For the third year in a row, New Jersey will play in the Major League Pickleball Finals. They completed the sweep of Brooklyn on Saturday morning, and will face St. Louis in the Finals starting Saturday afternoon. Here’s how they got there:

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.

Match 2: New Jersey def. Brooklyn 3-0

Anna Leigh Waters/Jorja Johnson def. Jackie Kawamoto/Rachel Rohrabacher 11-1: This looked like a replay from the first match. It was never in doubt, and there was simply nothing Kawamoto/Rohrabacher could do to stop the 5s. The defense from Waters/Johnson was especially impressive — they didn’t give up on any point and kept the ball in play until they could regain control.

Federico Staksrud/Will Howells def. Christian Alshon/Riley Newman 11-8: This game ended in bizarre and dramatic fashion. New Jersey took a 10-8 lead, then before the next point Riley Newman appeared to be having a conversation with the Brooklyn bench about whether they wanted to challenge the previous point. The ref stepped in and said she had already called the score, so it was a fault on Brooklyn and game point was awarded to the 5s.

Noe Khlif/Anna Leigh Waters def. Christian Alshon/Rachel Rohrabacher 11-4: The rules controversy seemed to zap the energy from Brooklyn, and New Jersey sprinted out to a 7-0 lead. It was the first time we’ve seen Khlif this weekend, and he played pretty solid despite questions swirling from the outside about whether New Jersey should play Howells in mixed instead of Khlif.

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Friday night update: 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 New Jersey. Match 1 is 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 for the Shock 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.