In the biggest upset of the 2025 Major League Pickleball season so far, the Utah Black Diamonds (5-6, 15pts) defeated the New Jersey 5s (8-3, 24pts) in a DreamBreaker to close out Thursday’s action at Pictona.

The 5s were without usual starter Meghan Dizon due to illness, but Anna Leigh Waters/Christa Gecheva were able to eke out a 13-11 victory over Utah’s Allyce Jones/Genie Erokhina in women’s doubles.

Will Howells/Zane Navratil then cruised to their fifth straight win together with an 11-0 thrashing of Connor Garnett/Tyler Loong to give New Jersey a 2-0 lead going into mixed doubles.

But the Black Diamonds were far from finished, even with their backs against the wall.

Jones/Garnett jumped out to a 7-2 lead over Waters/Howells and eventually took the first mixed doubles game by an 11-8 score line.

Jones spoke about the mentality that helped her and Garnett bounce back from earlier losses in gender doubles.

“Whenever I’m next to Connor, I have all the confidence in the world with my shots,” she mentioned. “We have such good team chemistry that we can just vibe. It doesn’t matter what the score is—we feel good together, and we just love competing together.”

That win gave Erokhina/Loong a chance to force a DreamBreaker, and they took full advantage by earning an 11-5 victory over Gecheva/Navratil.

Like in the day’s first DreamBreaker between the Los Angeles Mad Drops and St. Louis Shock, the men were the X-factor for the winning team.

Garnett and Loong combined to outscore Howells and Navratil 15-3 to help lift Utah to an eventual 21-13 triumph.

This is a shocking result, especially when you take into consideration the 2024 results for these two teams.

Utah finished at the bottom of the Premier level standings, while New Jersey was one DreamBreaker away from winning the league championship.

What a difference half a year has made for Utah.

“I think it’s just about not listening to the outside noise, being a team, and being confident,” Garnett said of the Black Diamonds’ turnaround in 2025. “We have a ton of fun together, and so we just go into every match ready to fight.”

Utah will look to carry the momentum from a 2-0 showing on Thursday into matchups against the St. Louis Shock and Texas Ranchers on Friday, while New Jersey will next face the SoCal Hard Eights on Saturday.