New Jersey lost the final in 2024. They lost it again in 2025. On 30 August at Wollman Rink they did not lose it, and the way they did it says more about the DreamBreaker than about either roster.
The 5s beat the St. Louis Shock 2–0 in the best-of-two-matches final at CityPickle in Central Park to win the first Major League Pickleball title in the franchise’s history. Federico Staksrud took Finals MVP. For Anna Leigh Waters — who has won essentially everything else the sport offers — it was a first MLP championship.
Match one: the Shock led, and then lost the DreamBreaker
St. Louis opened by taking women’s doubles 11–2, which is about as emphatic as a first game gets. It did not last. New Jersey answered in men’s doubles 11–8, then took both mixed games, 11–4 and 11–8, to force the tiebreaker.
The DreamBreaker went to 22–20. That is the format at its most useful: a singles rotation through every player on the roster, where a team that has been outplayed in one discipline can still be dragged back into the match by whoever happens to be on court at 19–19.
Match two: no tiebreaker needed, and it was closer than the sweep suggests
The 5s took women’s doubles 11–9, men’s doubles 12–10, and mixed 11–6. Two of those three were decided by a couple of points. The scoreline reads like a comfortable afternoon; the games did not play like one.
There was a second DreamBreaker on the Sunday, which New Jersey took 21–9.
The roster that won it
- Women: Anna Leigh Waters, Jorja Johnson
- Men: Will Howells, Noe Khlif, Federico Staksrud
- Mixed: Anna Leigh Waters and Hayden Patriquin
Staksrud arriving in New Jersey was later named the best trade of the season in the league’s post-season awards, which is the kind of verdict that only looks obvious afterwards.
What we would watch next
The offseason trade windows are where this gets decided again. A roster of six with a three-and-three gender requirement leaves very little room to hide a weak discipline, and the DreamBreaker punishes exactly that. Teams that spent 2026 carrying one soft slot will be shopping.
Sources: match detail and roster from The Dink Pickleball; awards from Pickleball.com; format from Major League Pickleball. We did not attend the final — this is a reported recap, not eyewitness reporting, and we would rather say so.
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