The Dallas Flash (JW Johnson, Jorja Johnson, Tyra Black, Augie Ge) closed out the 2024 Major League Pickleball season with a 3-1 victory over the New Jersey 5s (Anna Leigh Waters, Zane Navratil, Mari Humberg, Will Howells) to claim the Premier level championship.

Even though the two teams had already faced off twice on Sunday and traded DreamBreaker wins, the day’s final match gave fans at the USTA National Campus some unexpected results.

To start, Navratil/Howells beat Johnson/Ge in men’s doubles. This was a disastrous opening game for Dallas, since they had won that matchup in each of their previous matches against New Jersey.

Black/Johnson next took the court for the Flash, desperately needing a win over Waters/Humberg in women’s doubles to send the match to mixed doubles on even footing. That seemed unlikely, given that they hadn’t won in four tries against their foes.

With frequent displays of incredible defense, however, the Dallas duo earned a 25-17 victory in one of the biggest upsets of the weekend.

From there, Johnson/Johnson defeated Humberg/Navratil for the third time of the day, not deterred by the fact that it took eight tries to close them out.

That result left just one final game: Black/Ge for Dallas against Waters/Howells for New Jersey.

Waters/Howells had won both of the day's previous meetings to send those matches to DreamBreakers, so the expectation around Championship Court was that Match 3 was headed in a similar direction.

Black and Ge missed that memo, evidently.

The tandem—who made waves together back in February with a semifinal run at the Desert Ridge Open—stunned Waters/Howells to the tune of a 25-21 victory to seal the deal for Dallas.

For context, Waters had a 46-3 record through the 2024 MLP season coming into Sunday. Black (helped by stellar play from Johnson and Ge, of course) handed her two losses in the same match to help the Flash triumph.

“I was honestly so tired that I didn’t know if we could do it at that point,” Black said of her crucial victories. “It was very difficult, but I knew I had to stay locked in. There was a lot of heckling and everything going on, but I’ve learned to tune it out.”

Ge also played lights-out in that final mixed match, expertly using his length to play as aggressively in the middle as he has all year.

After posting an impressive 11-3 postseason record, he’s now affectionately referred to by the Flash fanbase as ‘Gladiator Ge.’

“I’m just so grateful to be here and grateful to everyone who stayed and watched,” he said. “I just love pickleball. It’s all fun for me.”

Flash owner Mark Molthan had nothing but praise for his team as they raised the Pritchard Cup. 

“No one thought we could, and then we did it. These guys right here are incredible, incredible kids,” he raved. “I would do anything for them. I’m just so happy and so thankful.”

On the other side of Sunday’s result are the 5s, who had a massively impressive season themselves and should leave Central Florida with their heads held high.

5s team captain and five-time MLP champion Zane Navratil tipped his cap to the Flash.

“They definitely earned it. I’ve never seen Augie and Tyra play that well, and JW and Jorja are just phenomenal players,” he mentioned. “We don’t really feel like we lost. They really took it and played incredibly, and so all the credit goes to those guys.”

Earlier on in the day, the St. Louis Shock defeated the Texas Ranchers in a DreamBreaker to secure a third-place finish.

Don’t be surprised to see all four teams that competed this weekend in Orlando right back up near the top of the standings in 2025.