Anna Leigh Waters and Mari Humberg playing pickleball.
Anna Leigh Waters and Mari Humberg competing for the New Jersey 5s at MLP Atlanta. Major League Pickleball

5s survive against Drive in DreamBreaker

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The New Jersey 5s are into the semifinals of the MLP Mid-Season Tournament after a DreamBreaker victory over the Arizona Drive.

This was New Jersey’s first match since Atlanta in May, but the team featuring Anna Leigh Waters, Zane Navratil, Will Howells, and Mari Humberg didn’t show any signs of rust out of the gate.

The 5s won both gender doubles games to start the match, but Arizona’s pairings of Lacy Schneemann/AJ Koller and Kaitlyn Christian/Dylan Frazier rallied to take both mixed doubles games to send the match to a deciding contest.

It was all New Jersey from there, though.

Both Howells and Waters went 7-1 through two singles rotations against Koller and Schneemann, respectively, to lead the No. 3 seeds to a dominant 21-9 triumph.

 

This is the fourth victory of the season for New Jersey, and each one has come by way of a DreamBreaker.

Talk about living on the edge.

The 5s will face the Dallas Flash in the semifinals on Saturday, while the Drive move to the consolation bracket to face the Utah Black Diamonds later Friday afternoon.