When Judit Castillo’s backhand passing shot flew past Emily Cederquist and landed inside the baseline at 20-19, a wave of emotion flooded the bench of the Las Vegas Night Owls.

Those emotions surely included excitement, joy, and all the rest.

But the strongest—by far—was relief: the knowledge that the team’s season would last at least one more night.

Las Vegas evened their quarterfinal series against the Atlanta Bouncers with a thrilling DreamBreaker victory to cap the first day of action at the MLP Dallas Playoffs.

The Night Owls had dropped their earlier match to Atlanta by a 1-3 score line, enduring losses in both mixed doubles games.

The second match of their best two-out-of-three series began just like the first: the Bouncers' Jaume Martinez Vich/Todd Fought bested Rafa Hewett/Blaine Hovenier in men’s doubles, while Zoey Wang/Judit Castillo triumphed over Susannah Barr/Emily Cederquist in women’s doubles for the Night Owls.

It looked like Atlanta’s strong mixed doubles performance would continue when Fought/Cederquist had game point at 24-21 on Hovenier/Castillo, but the Night Owls would not go down so easily.

They scored the next five points to steal that first mixed doubles game by a 26-24 score line in a performance that Hovenier says was a make-or-break moment for his squad.

“At that point, I think a lot of our spirits were down knowing that if we lose that mixed, we’re probably done,” he shared. “It was really a matter of just going for our shots and just trusting it. We got a couple lucky balls, and things ended up going our way.”

That win also guaranteed that Las Vegas would get to a DreamBreaker, a spot where they're more than comfortable; they did, after all, boast a 9-2 record in those situations during the regular season.

In that deciding contest, the Night Owls watched as a 15-9 lead disappeared and turned into a stalemate at 18-18.

But Hewett and Castillo put together some clutch points against Martinez Vich and Cederquist, respectively, to eventually close out the battle and keep their title hopes alive.

This is the Night Owls’ third victory against Atlanta this season, and all of them have come in DreamBreakers.

“I think we’re the best DreamBreaker team in Challenger,” Hovenier said. “I think everyone but me has made a medal match this year in PPA singles, so I’m kind of calling myself out, but that just shows the level of singles play on this team.”

Friday night’s result sets up a winner-take-all duel between Las Vegas and Atlanta on Saturday. The winner will advance to the semifinals in Orlando and be promoted to the Premier level in 2025, while the loser will remain in Challenger for another year.        

That match will be streamed on Pickleballtv beginning at noon CST.