The St. Louis Shock closed out their hometown event with a dominant 3-0 victory over the Los Angeles Mad Drops to lift the Super Sunday Belt for the first time in franchise history. 

Anna Bright/Kate Fahey set the tone with an 11-1 thrashing of the Mad Drops’ Catherine Parenteau/Jade Kawamoto. 

Bright/Fahey were at the height of their powers this week, as they gave up only ten points through their five games together. 

Bright says that a new pre-match routine courtesy of 13-year-old Elsie Hendershot helped her and Fahey find their best level this week. 

“Kate and I have definitely had a bit of a chip on our shoulder. We’ve been playing some of our best pickleball. I have to shout out Elsie. She came up with a new pre-match ritual for us. I can’t share too much, but I think that has really, really gotten us going and helped Kate and I come out here really, really fired up,” she mentioned. “It felt really good to kind of get that momentum going for the team.” 

That standout performance set the tone for the rest of the contest, as Hayden Patriquin/Gabe Tardio delivered a similarly impressive 11-3 win over the Mad Drops’ Ben Johns/Max Freeman. 

Even after two statement wins, though, the Shock knew that they weren’t in the clear quite yet. 

They had also taken both gender doubles games when they faced Los Angeles at the season-opening event in Dallas; in that contest, the Mad Drops went on to take both mixed doubles games before completing the comeback with a DreamBreaker victory. 

A comeback wasn’t in the cards on Sunday, though, as Bright/Patriquin sealed the sweep with an 11-5 triumph over Kawamoto/Johns, the same team they fell to in Dallas. 

“We had never seen Ben play like he did in Dallas. He played out of his mind, so we went back together, rewatched the match, and had a better game plan today. I think we executed it perfectly, but we couldn’t have done it without the fans.” 

This win caps what has been a busy stretch for the Shock. They were the only team in the league to play in the first three regular season events, coming away with third place in Dallas and second place in Columbus. 

It’s fitting, then, that they finally claimed first at their hometown event. 

Here is a look at the final standings from St. Louis: 

1. 1. St. Louis Shock: 25 points 

1. 2. Los Angeles Mad Drops: 18 points 

1. 3. Brooklyn Pickleball Team: 15 points 

1. 4. Orlando Squeeze: 12 points 

1. 5. Palm Beach Royals: 10 points 

1. 6. Las Vegas Night Owls: 8 points 

1. 7. Utah Black Diamonds: 6 points 

1. 8. Atlanta Bouncers: 4 points 

1. 9. SoCal Hard Eights: 1 point 

1. 10. Bay Area Breakers: 1 point 

1. 11. Phoenix Flames: 0 points
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The 2026 MLP season continues Thursday at MLP Austin presented by Waterdrop, which will run June 11-14 at Austin Pickle Ranch in the Texas capital. 

Buy tickets here, and follow the action on Pickleballtv.