Catherine Parenteau/Christian Alshon became the first team to make the mixed doubles final in San Clemente with an 11-4, 11-9 victory over Jorja/JW Johnson.

It looked like the Johnson siblings—who have ten mixed doubles medals together this year—could potentially force a decider when they got up 5-2 in the second game, but Parenteau/Alshon clawed their way back into it and secured the win in straight games.

Parenteau applauded Alshon for being such a dominant partner to play alongside.

“It’s so easy to play next to Christian,” she said. “All I really have to do is put the ball in play, and he’s gonna take care of the rest.’

With this result, the tandem remains undefeated in matches where they aren’t playing Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns.

They’ll have a chance to get their first win over the top seeds on Championship Sunday.

In the second mixed semifinal, Anna Leigh Waters/Ben Johns battled past St. Louis Shock teammates Anna Bright/Gabe Tardio by an 11-7, 11-4 score line.

One of the keys for the top seeds was keeping the hyperaggressive Tardio out of the middle during dink rallies.

“In Dallas, we played Anna and Quang [Duong], and I feel like Quang and Gabe play kind of similarly in some ways,” Waters explained. “They’re both super aggressive mixed doubles players, so we felt like if we could keep them at bay and limit that aggressiveness and just keep me in the crosscourt rallies with Anna, then we would get what we wanted.”

They did get what they wanted more often than not, resulting in a two-game victory.

Sunday’s final will be a rematch of a pool play contest from Friday, which Waters/Johns won 8-11, 11-6, 11-5 over Alshon/Parenteau.