The Toray MLP Playoffs in Newport Beach reached their conclusion on Sunday, as six teams battled for the three remaining semifinal slots after the St. Louis Shock claimed theirs a day earlier.

The New Jersey 5s took one of those spots with a 3-1 victory over the Palm Beach Royals to win their quarterfinal series 2-0; New Jersey’s pairing of Anna Leigh Waters/Noe Khlif suffered their second straight loss to Tina Pisnik/Dekel Bar, but Jorja Johnson/Federico Staksrud closed out the victory with an 11-3 win over Sofia Sewing/Casey Diamond in the second mixed doubles game to advance to the final event of the season for the third straight year.

The other two series were much more complicated, and we’ll start with the No. 4 Columbus Sliders taking on No. 5 Brooklyn Pickleball Team.

Brooklyn won the opening match of the series on Saturday in a DreamBreaker, so Columbus came into Sunday’s second contest in a must-win situation.

Things looked dire for the defending champions when the Sliders’ Tyra Black/CJ Klinger got down 3-8 against Jackie Kawamoto/Riley Newman in the second mixed doubles game, but they scored the final eight points of the contest to force a DreamBreaker.

And in that DreamBreaker, Columbus kept Klinger and Black in the lineup—ahead of ‘singles specialists’ Judit Castillo and Alex Crum. The moved paid off handsomely, as the Sliders won 21-18 to keep their season alive and force a deciding match.

Brooklyn struck first in the third match, as the pairings of Rachel Rohrabacher/Jackie Kawamoto and Christian Alshon/Riley Newman put them up 2-0 going into the mixed doubles.

The Sliders’ Parris Todd/Andrei Daescu came up clutch with a win over Rohrabacher/Alshon in the first mixed doubles game, which set the stage for Black/Klinger and Kawamoto/Newman to return to the court in a situation they had faced just a few hours earlier.

And just like in that earlier meeting, Kawamoto/Newman jumped out to a big lead—this time 9-0. That advantage proved to be too much to overcome despite a furious rally from Black/Klinger, as Brooklyn triumphed 11-8 to seal the 3-1 victory and advance to the semifinals in New York City.

Newman spoke about what this win means to an organization that has faced no shortage of adversity throughout its 2026 campaign.

“It means a lot. There were a lot of hard times going on for us this season,” he told Pickleballtv’s Ireland Horvat. “There were injuries, there were sicknesses. There were things behind us that went down. We battled through, and that shows we’ve got a lot of grit and a lot of toughness.”

We’ll now move on to the series featuring No. 3 Los Angeles Mad Drops taking on the No. 6 Dallas Flash, which also went to a deciding contest after Dallas tied the series at 1-1 with a DreamBreaker win on Saturday.

The Mad Drops got off to a dream start as Catherine Parenteau/Jade Kawamoto defeated Danni-Elle Townsend/Alix Truong 11-6 for their first win of the series, but it was all Flash from there.

Dallas’ pairing of JW Johnson/Augie Ge dominated Ben Johns/Max Freeman 11-2 before Johnson teamed up with Brooke Buckner to secure an 11-6 win over Kawamoto/Johns in the first mixed doubles game.

It then came down to Parenteau/Parenteau taking on Townsend/Ge for the third time, after teams had split their first two meetings.

Townsend/Ge took it home 11-7 to improve to 19-4 together and send Dallas to the semifinals.

Ge, who has been with Dallas since the team drafted him in 2024, spoke afterwards about the crazy ride the 2026 MLP season has been.

“This win means so much,” he said. “I could not be prouder of this group. I’ve been on the Flash for three years now, and this has been such a fun year. We’re not done.”

After a memorable weekend in Southern California, just four teams remain in contention for the 2026 Major League Pickleball championship:

• 1. New Jersey 5s
• 2. St. Louis Shock
• 3. Brooklyn Pickleball Team
• 4. Dallas Flash

As the top seed, New Jersey will get to pick whether they play Brooklyn or Dallas in the semifinals; St. Louis will play the team not chosen.

Semifinal action will begin August 28 in New York City.