The quarterfinal round of the MLP Playoffs in San Diego was electric, but the upcoming semifinals and finals to be held this week in New York City will be even better.

Four great teams will be competing first for a spot in the finals and then to be crowned 2025 champion in the finals. Top seed St. Louis will take on Columbus, while LA tangles with New Jersey.

 

Let’s go over each matchup line by line and try to pick some winners.

 

 

St. Louis is the top seed and has been great all year. They enter with momentum, having easily swept Orlando 2-0 in San Diego, dropping only one game. Columbus is the #5 seed, but is coming off the high of dropping Dallas 2-1 in what is up to this point the best MLP match ever. Columbus and Dallas went to three DreamBreakers, winning the last one 21-18 to send Dallas home.

 

In women’s doubles, St. Louis will send out Anna Bright and Kate Fahey to take on Columbus’ Lea Jansen and Parris Todd. Bright and Fahey had a great year, but looked a little bit shaky in San Diego. Fahey has improved, especially at singles, but she is not yet a top 15 doubles player on a consistent basis. She is the weakest of the four women and it will be up to her to play better than she did in San Diego. For Columbus, Jansen and Todd have chemistry issues. It showed in the first two matches against Dallas, with Jansen and Todd feuding and losing badly. Jansen and Todd did play much better in the third match and we will see if the bad blood is all behind them. This match is a true toss up.

 

In men’s doubles, St. Louis sends out Hayden Patriquin and Gabe Tardio to face Columbus’ Andrei Daescu and CJ Klinger. Tardio has been the best player of 2025 MLP. Daescu played like an absolute beast in San Diego, and his leadership was crucial in keeping his team on point. All four are great players, but a slight edge has to go to St. Louis.

 

 

In mixed, St. Louis gets to make the choice of which teams play each other. Both St. Louis and Columbus have clear #1 and #2 teams. It will be interesting to see if St. Louis matches up #1s or plays #1 against #2. Normally, if you think your team is better at DreamBreakers, you send out your best against the opponent’s #2 team, as you are just focused on winning one of the two mixed matches. But, Tardio/Fahey is the best #2 mixed team in MLP, because of Tardio. I expect St. Louis to play Bright and Patriquin against Daescu and Todd, as I believe St. Louis thinks Tardio/Fahey will beat Klinger/Jansen, and thus sending Bright/Patriquin out against Columbus’ best mixed team maximizes their chances to win 3-1.

 

Either St. Louis mixed team is a solid favorite against Klinger/Jansen. Bright/Patriquin would be a small favorite against Daescu/Todd. If St. Louis does flip things, Tardio/Fahey would be about even or a very small underdog against Daescu/Todd. Tardio is the best player on either team, but Daescu is a close second, especially if he plays like he did in San Diego.

 

If it goes to a DreamBreaker, things get really interesting. The St. Louis men are better at singles than the Columbus men, while the Columbus women are very slight favorites over the St. Louis women. The key matchup would be Bright vs. Jansen. Jansen has more singles experience, but Bright is better under pressure. If Bright can play Jansen to a 4-4 tie in a DreamBreaker (or better), St. Louis should win about 21-18.

 

Prediction: I like St Louis to win 2-0, but with both matches being close and hard fought. Expect St. Louis to target Jansen and expect Columbus to target Fahey, with the men’s doubles matchup being an absolute must see war.

 

 

If you thought St. Louis v Columbus was a great matchup, how about Anna Leigh Waters vs. Ben Johns? New Jersey has the higher seed, so they will choose all the matchups. Will Anna Leigh go after Ben or avoid him?

 

In women’s doubles, New Jersey sends out Waters and Meghan Dizon to face Catherine Parenteau and Jade Kawamoto. ALW is ALW; Dizon, after a slow start, has played much better lately, at least in women’s doubles. Parenteau/Kawamoto were hot most of the year before fading late in the season. New Jersey has a very clear edge in this one. 

 

In men’s doubles, LA has Hunter Johnson to go with Johns. New Jersey sends out Noe Khlif and Will Howells. Johnson is not a top 20 doubles player in PPA events, but he has played solidly in MLP. Johns has been locked in, playing at full speed ever since the trade to LA. Howells has played like the top 10 player he is, although he has not yet jelled fully with Khlif. They get better each match, but will it be enough against Ben? Gotta give the edge here to LA.

 

 

In mixed, it will be a fascinating choice to see if New Jersey sends out ALW to play Ben. LA is the better DreamBreaker team, which again means New Jersey should normally play their #1 mixed team against LA’s #1 mixed team to try to maximize their chance of winning both mixed matches and avoid a DreamBreaker. But, I have the sense that Waters does not like to face Johns. So, I suspect New Jersey will play Khlif/Dizon against Johns/Parenteau.

 

If it is Johns/Parenteau vs. Khlif/Dizon and Howells/Waters vs. Johnson/Kawamoto, that will result in a 1-1 split 90% of the time. If New Jersey chooses to go with Howells/Waters vs. Johns/Parenteau, then things get really spicy. I would favor LA in that matchup about 60-40. Johnson/Kawamoto vs. Khlif/Dizon is also a close one. Khlif is the best player of the four, but the LA pair has good chemistry while Khlif/Dizon have not played very well together. So, I would rate it as a tossup, maybe a very slight edge to LA.

 

For any match going to a DreamBreaker, it is going to be must see pickleball. Both teams are built similarly. Whereas St. Louis and Columbus are built primarily to win doubles matches (although both are also good at singles), LA and New Jersey are the two teams most built to go for 2-2 ties and DreamBreakers. Johnson would play Howells, Johns vs. Khlif, Parenteau vs. Waters, and Kawamoto vs. Dizon. The LA men would have a small edge in both of their matchups. The key will be the women. New Jersey needs to win the women’s matchups 6-2 to have their best chance. If I was the coach of LA, I would send out Kawamoto to face Waters and let Parenteau face Dizon. Waters is destroying people in DreamBreakers and Parenteau is no exception. I would send Kawamoto out to face Waters, figuring if she can get one point, that is as good as Parenteau could do, so I then have a big advantage with Parenteau vs. Dizon.

 

Prediction: LA wins in three, winning both their matches in DreamBreakers, while New Jersey takes their one match by a 3-1 score.

 

 

I have had St. Louis as my predicted champion from before the season started, and I am not changing now. I will take them over LA 2-1 in the final, with LA winning a DreamBreaker, but St Louis winning their two matches by 3-1 scores. St. Louis has the best doubles depth and that was what won it for Dallas last year.

 

One thing is for certain in New York. Both semifinals will be great and the final will be even better. Indeed, it all could very well come down to a third match DreamBreaker in the finals. Wouldn’t that be something to see? Tune in to Pickleballtv to watch.

 

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