“The name of the game in the playoffs is resilience.”

That’s what Will Howells of the New Jersey 5s said Sunday afternoon after helping his team advance to the Premier level semifinals.

And the statement’s validity was fully evident in the Columbus Sliders’ DreamBreaker triumph over the defending champion Dallas Flash in the final match of their quarterfinal series.

The first two matches of the series went to DreamBreakers, so it was only fitting that the finale did, too.

The Sliders started off well, with Lea Jansen/Parris Todd beating Jorja Johnson/Tyra Black 11-4 in women’s doubles for their first win of the series. After that, Andrei Daescu/CJ Klinger picked up their third consecutive victory over JW Johnson/Augie Ge to give Columbus a 2-0 lead.

That advantage wouldn’t last long however, as the Flash’s mixed doubles pairings of Black/Ge and Johnson/Johnson went on to take both remaining games to force a winner-take-all singles contest.

With the score tied at 18, both teams sent out their respective lefties: Klinger for Columbus, and Ge for Dallas.

The 19-year-old Klinger, who has not competed in singles at a PPA Tour event since 2023, reeled off three points in a row and sealed the victory with a backhand winner up the line to close out what Zane Navratil described on X as “the best MLP series of all time so far.”

“It was a great team effort,” Klinger said of the performance. “I went 2-6 in the earlier rotations, so I wasn’t feeling good going back out there, but I was glad I stepped up when it mattered.”

Andrei Daescu, who had a 5-1 doubles record in the series, spoke about that it will take for his team to triumph again at next week’s DoorDash MLP Finals, powered by Toray.

“The margins are really small. Everybody’s really good, but we’re really good as well. We just have to continue to battle through adversity. It’s a roller coaster ride. That’s what makes it fun, especially when you come out on top,” he said. “We learned for sure that we have the skill to compete with anybody. We just took out the champions, and we learned that we have the skills and strength to battle.”

More battles await the Sliders in the Big Apple. They will join the St. Louis Shock, New Jersey 5s, and Los Angeles Mad Drops in next week’s Premier level semifinal round.