In each of the past two seasons, the St. Louis Shock’s quest for the MLP championship has ended in the semifinals.

They fell to the Dallas Flash in 2024 and the Columbus Sliders in 2025, being sent home as both teams they lost to went on to lift the trophy.

And after the Shock spent $1.23 million to reunite Anna Bright with Kate Fahey, Hayden Patriquin, and Gabe Tardio for the third consecutive season, there was one question ringing around the league: would this move be enough to break the ‘semifinal curse’ and earn a shot at the title?

St. Louis answered that question on Friday with a resounding “yes.”

The Shock became the first team to punch their ticket to the finals with a 2-0 sweep of the Dallas Flash in their semifinal series, winning both matches 3-1.

Both matches followed the same sequence; Anna Bright/Kate Fahey won women’s doubles for St. Louis, JW Johnson/Augie Ge won men’s doubles for Dallas, and the Shock took both mixed doubles games with wins from Bright/Hayden Patriquin and Fahey/Gabe Tardio.

“It’s crazy,” Patriquin said of making the finals for the first time. “We were definitely nervous before this match, but it feels good to kind of get the monkey off our back.”

Dallas certainly didn’t make it easy, either; the Flash overcame a 2-7 deficit to win the second men’s doubles game and had late leads in both mixed doubles games.

The Shock of 2024 or 2025 may have blinked in those moments, but not the 2026 version of the team.

“It means so much,” mentioned Bright. “We really all love each other, and we don’t know how the future is going to go or if we will all be able to be on the same team again, so this is just so special.”

St. Louis will await the winner of the second semifinal series between the New Jersey 5s and Brooklyn Pickleball Team. The 5s took the first match in a 3-0 sweep, and the second match will be played on Saturday at 10am ET.

Catch all the action on Pickleballtv.