MLP Playoff quarterfinal action continued Saturday in Southern California, as the eight remaining teams in contention for the 2026 championship took the court across four quarterfinal series.

The day featured two series having their first matches: No. 1 New Jersey 5s v. No. 7 Palm Beach Royals and No. 4 Columbus Sliders v. No. 5 Brooklyn Pickleball Team.

Columbus and Brooklyn squared off for the first time this season, as the defending champion Sliders played their first match since ending their regular season nearly a month ago at MLP San Diego.

Rachel Rohrabacher returned to action from injury and came up big for Brooklyn, winning women’s doubles alongside Jackie Kawamoto and mixed doubles with Christian Alshon to force a DreamBreaker.

In that deciding contest, the No. 5 seeds dominated.

Brooklyn’s combination of Christian Alshon and Chris Haworth outscored the Sliders’ Alex Crum and Andrei Daescu by a combined 13-3 score line, and Jackie Kawamoto dominated Columbus’ Judit Castillo 6-1 to help lead Brooklyn to a 21-10 win.

Here are the final score lines from that contest:

• WD: Rachel Rohrabacher/Jackie Kawamoto (BKN) def. Parris Todd/Tyra Black (COL) 11-4.
• MD: Andrei Daescu/CJ Klinger (COL) def. Christian Alshon/Riley Newman (BKN) 13-11.
• MXD 1: Rohrabacher/Alshon (BKN) def. Black/Klinger (COL) 11-8.
• MXD 2: Todd/Daescu (COL) def. Kawamoto/Newman (BKN) 11-5.
• DreamBreaker: BKN wins 21-10.

In the very next match, the top-seeded New Jersey 5s took the court against the No. 7-seeded Palm Beach Royals.

The 5s were heavily favored, but the Royals put up quite a fight; veteran Dekel Bar went 2-0 across men’s doubles with Casey Diamond and mixed doubles with Tina Pisnik to deliver a DreamBreaker opportunity for Palm Beach.

That singles contest was tight throughout, as the Royals’ Sofia Sewing outscored Anna Leigh Waters 5-3 and Tina Pisnik delivered what might go down as the shot of the year in professional pickleball.

Despite an inspired performance from Palm Beach, New Jersey prevailed 21-17 to claim the first match of the series.

Here are the final scores from the match:

• WD: Anna Leigh Waters/Jorja Johnson (NJ) def. Tina Pisnik/Sofia Sewing (PBR) 11-4
• MD: Dekel Bar/Casey Diamond (PBR) def. Federico Staksrud/Will Howells (NJ) 11-4.
• MXD 1: Pisnik/Bar (PBR) def. Waters/Noe Khlif (NJ) 11-4.
• MXD 2: Johnson/Staksrud (NJ) def. Sewing/Diamond (PBR) 11-5.
• DreamBreaker: NJ wins 21-17.

Elsewhere, the St. Louis Shock closed out their quarterfinal series with a second straight 3-0 sweep of the Texas Ranchers, while the Dallas Flash kept their season alive with a DreamBreaker win over the Los Angeles Mad Drops.

The final matches of the NJ-PBR, COL-BKN, and LA-DAL series will take place on Sunday on Pickleballtv, with coverage starting at 12pm PT before moving to FS1 at 4pm PT.