Will Howells celebrating a point for the New Jersey 5s at the DoorDash MLP Finals in New York City.
Will Howells celebrating a point for the New Jersey 5s at the DoorDash MLP Finals in New York City.  Major League Pickleball

5s strike first in championship series with DreamBreaker victory

The New Jersey 5s defeated the Columbus Sliders in a DreamBreaker to kick off the Premier level championship series in front of a national CBS audience. 

Anna Leigh Waters/Meghan Dizon took the women’s doubles win for New Jersey before Andrei Daescu/CJ Klinger did the same in men’s doubles for Columbus.

In mixed, Dizon/Noe Khlif beat Lea Jansen/Klinger before Parris Todd/Daescu cruised past Waters/Will Howells to bring on the deciding contest.

Even though Howells lost both of his doubles games, he brought his best in singles.

The University of Notre Dame tennis product outscored Daescu 8-4 through three rotations in the DreamBreaker to help lead the 5s to a 21-17 triumph in front of their hometown crowd.

 

Even though a season title is now just one win away, Howells knows that there is still lots of work to be done ahead of the next match(es) in the series.

“It's a good win, but we’ve gotta get ready for tomorrow,” he mentioned. “It’s a long series—we learned that last year after winning the first one and then losing the next two. I’m gonna study some doubles tonight. I didn’t play my best in doubles, but I’m happy with how I played in singles. It’s a great team win nonetheless.”

New Jersey will look to capture the Premier level title by winning the second match of the series, which is scheduled for Sunday at noon ET.

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