New Jersey 5s
Finished 1 · 118 pts · Champions
New Jersey 5s finished 1 in the 2026 regular season on 118 standings points and made the 12-team playoff. Here is the roster as the season ended, the draft class that built it, and every trade and waiver move in between — reconciled from the league’s own transaction logs.
How the season ended
Champions. Beat Palm Beach in the quarterfinals (3–2, 3–1), Brooklyn 2–0 in the semifinal, and St. Louis 2–0 in the final at CityPickle, Wollman Rink, on 30 August. Both finals days went to a Dreambreaker — 22–20 and 21–9. Federico Staksrud, acquired from Orlando five weeks earlier, took Finals MVP. Anna Leigh Waters was named league MVP. It is the franchise’s first title, at the third final in a row.
Roster at season’s end
| Player | Tour ranking | 2026 season |
|---|---|---|
| Anna Leigh Waters | Women’s doubles #1 · 2715 Mixed #1 · 2501 | 99.2% from 119 matches gender doubles 43-0 · mixed 45-1 · singles 30-0 |
| Federico Staksrud | Men’s doubles #7 · 2026 Mixed #14 · 2015 | 74.5% from 137 matches gender doubles 35-14 · mixed 29-13 · singles 38-8 |
| Jorja Johnson | Women’s doubles #11 · 2062 Mixed #7 · 2149 | 73.5% from 83 matches gender doubles 26-9 · mixed 29-9 · singles 6-4 |
| Noe Khlif | Men’s doubles #18 · 1896 Mixed #21 · 1935 | 68.5% from 92 matches gender doubles 13-9 · mixed 26-10 · singles 24-10 |
| Milan Rane | Women’s doubles #28 · 1823 Mixed #62 · 1708 | 54.8% from 62 matches gender doubles 16-10 · mixed 11-9 · singles 7-9 |
| Will Howells | Men’s doubles #10 · 1977 Mixed #41 · 1796 | 53.3% from 30 matches gender doubles 6-6 · mixed 9-5 · singles 1-3 |
How a matchup is played
Every MLP match is four games in a fixed order — women’s doubles, men’s doubles, then two mixed doubles — each to 11, win by two, and all four are played even when the match is already decided, because point differential decides seeding. New for 2026: there are no starters and subs. A team may use all six players in one match, and may field a different man for men’s doubles than for mixed. Doubles lineups are submitted the night before. At 2–2 it goes to a DreamBreaker — singles, any four from the roster, two men and two women, chosen only after the fourth game, with the home team declaring first.
This is one of four teams whose pairing records were published during the 2026 playoffs. Regular-season records, before the playoffs began:
| Game | Pairing | W–L | Win % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Women’s doubles | Anna Leigh Waters & Jorja Johnson | 33–1 | 97% |
| Men’s doubles | Federico Staksrud & Will Howells | 4–3 | 57% |
| Mixed | Noe Khlif & Anna Leigh Waters | 29–5 | 85% |
| Mixed | Federico Staksrud & Jorja Johnson | 7–1 | 87% |
Where these numbers come from. Rankings and ELO are PickleWave’s per-discipline model, captured 4 September 2026 — an independent rating built from professional match results, not an official tour ranking, and its leaderboards run 100 deep per discipline. Mixed doubles is a single combined pool of men and women, so a rank there is not a rank among men or among women. Season records cover all professional play in 2026 — PPA, APP and MLP combined — not MLP alone. Pairing records, where shown, were published by The Kitchen in August 2026 with statistics credited to PickleKey.com. The roster reconciliation is our own work from the league’s draft results and transaction logs. Pickleball Insiders is not affiliated with Major League Pickleball.
How the roster was built
MLP’s 2026 draft was a live auction — teams bid for each selection slot, so there was no preset pick order. Teams could protect up to five players at the keeper deadline on 15 February; 54 players were kept across the league, and the remaining 66 slots were filled at the draft on 27 February.
Kept (3): Anna Leigh Waters · Noe Khlif · Will Howells
Drafted (3):
| Pick | Player | Reported bid |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Jorja Johnson | $800,000 |
| 58 | Martin Emmrich | — |
| 64 | Lina Padegimaite | — |
Transactions
| Date | In | Out | From / to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 20 | Federico Staksrud | Orlando Squeeze | |
| Jul 20 | Milan Rane | Orlando Squeeze | |
| Jul 20 | Martin Emmrich | Orlando Squeeze | |
| Jul 20 | Lina Padegimaite | Orlando Squeeze |
February post-draft roster: Anna Leigh Waters · Jorja Johnson · Lina Padegimaite · Noe Khlif · Will Howells · Martin Emmrich
More: all 20 team rosters · the 2026 draft · season and calendar · pro coverage
About this page. Pickleball Insiders is an independent publication, not affiliated with, endorsed by or authorised by Major League Pickleball or any team or player named here. The roster is reconstructed from the league’s published draft, trade and waiver records applied in date order; where those records do not balance we say so rather than smoothing it over. A best reading of the public record, not an official roster document. Corrections welcome and made in place. Contact · How we work