The Columbus Sliders kept their championship hopes alive with a DreamBreaker victory over the Dallas Flash in the second match of their quarterfinal series to close out Saturday’s action at Barnes Tennis Center.

The Sliders had seen the Orlando Squeeze’s campaign come to an end at the hands of the St. Louis Shock earlier in the day, but they made sure to avoid a similar fate by avenging Friday’s DreamBreaker defeat against the defending champions.

Saturday’s contest followed the same sequence as Friday’s, with Dallas winning women’s doubles and the first mixed and Columbus taking men’s doubles and the second mixed.

Notably, the Sliders’ pairing of Parris Todd/Andrei Daescu defeated Jorja Johnson/JW Johnson for the second day in a row after the latter lost only two matches during the regular season.

In Friday’s DreamBreaker, the Flash’s Jorja Johnson and Tyra Black were the X-factor and collectively outscored Parris Todd and Lea Jansen 12-5 to lift Dallas to a 21-18 win.

On Saturday, though, it was Jansen who made the difference for the Sliders. She outscored Black 8-0 through two rotations to help Columbus secure a 21-14 win and even the series.

Saturday’s performance was a masterclass in resilience from the Sliders. They suffered an emotional defeat on Friday and were just one game away from defeat, but they persevered to save their season.

Daescu, who is 4-0 in doubles in this series, spoke about what the team did to regroup after Friday.

“It was obviously a disappointing result because it was so close, but we felt like we had chances and that we could win that match,” he said. “It was just a matter of regrouping, getting a dinner and a good night’s sleep, and coming back and fighting again today. That’s what the whole team did, and I’m super proud of everybody… We believed that we could do it, and we proved that we could do it today. We’re gonna come back tomorrow and have the same energy and hopefully get the W.”

This series will finish with a winner-take-all duel on Sunday, with the winner advancing to next week’s Premier level semifinals in New York City.