St. Louis Shock Freeze Out Anna Leigh Waters, Sweep New Jersey for First Mid-Season Title

St. Louis left no doubt in Grand Rapids, winning the MLP Mid-Season Tournament title with a 3-0 sweep over the New Jersey 5s, earning 10 standings points and jumping into a first-place tie with New Jersey at 93 ▶ The Kitchen (newsletter) ↗.

The blueprint was simple and brutal: don't let Anna Leigh Waters touch the ball.

Jorja and Anna Leigh are by far the number one women's team in MLP, but we played really, really well. We came out with a specific game plan, and it started working. To hit the ball to Anna Leigh is a little bit scary, so we were definitely trying to avoid that. ▶ pickleball.com (news wire) ↗

That's Kate Fahey, whose pairing with Anna Bright handed Waters/Jorja Johnson their first women's doubles loss of the season after a 25-0 start ▶ The Dink (newsletter) ↗. Anna Bright and Kate Fahey went on to beat New Jerseys Anna Leigh Waters/Jorja Johnson 11-6 in women's doubles, Hayden Patriquin/Gabe Tardio beat Will Howells/Noe Khlif 11-3 in men's, and Bright/Patriquin closed it out over Waters/Khlif 11-8 ▶ The Kitchen (newsletter) ↗.

It definitely requires discipline and patience. I think it also requires perhaps a lack of pride to an extent, just to kind of say, 'We're going to do this, and we're going to commit to this game plan.' It was pretty obvious what we were doing, but it worked. ▶ pickleball.com (news wire) ↗

Pro coach and commentator Matt Manasse called it out in real time on X:

Ok let's talk about this. The game plan was perfect, yes, but the execution to stick with it was even better. Every single ball went to Jorja. The patience, discipline and then the readiness to make ALW/Jorja pay with offense when necessary was all-time. St. Louis, take a bow. ▶ pickleball.com (news wire) ↗

It's the Shock's first-ever Mid-Season Tournament title. "This is our third year together as a group, and we have not yet been able to hold up this trophy here in Grand Rapids," Anna Bright said afterward. "So I'm really excited that we get to do that this year, and it was a great match against the 5s. We will likely see them again this year, but this is a really big win and gives us a lot of momentum going into the postseason." ▶ The Kitchen (newsletter) ↗

St. Louis and New Jersey have now split their three meetings this season 2-1 in the Shock's favor — a Dreambreaker win for St. Louis on May 25 (21-15), a New Jersey sweep on May 31, and Sunday's 3-0 St. Louis win ▶ The Kitchen (newsletter) ↗. Both teams sit tied atop the standings at 93 points, though St. Louis holds the tiebreaker on win rate (91% to New Jersey's 86%) ▶ pickleball.com (news wire) ↗.

Getting there wasn't easy — St. Louis needed both gender doubles matches to go 12-10 to escape a tough Los Angeles team in the semifinals, and dropped the mixed doubles game to Ben Johns before Gabe Tardio and Kate Fahey closed it out 11-7 over Max Freeman and Catherine Parenteau .