Columbus Sliders Pickleball Premier Victory: The Columbus Sliders defeated the New Jersey 5s 3-1 on Sunday in New York City to win the 2025 Major League Pickleball Premier level championship. The victory gave Columbus its first Premier title and capped off a playoff run where the team eliminated three of the league’s top regular-season squads.
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How the Match Unfolded
The championship series followed a familiar start. Anna Leigh Waters and Meghan Dizon secured women’s doubles for New Jersey, while Andrei Daescu and CJ Klinger answered with a win in men’s doubles for Columbus.
The turning point came in mixed doubles. Although Columbus won the coin toss to set pairings, they kept the lineups the same. Lea Jansen and CJ Klinger faced Meghan Dizon and Noe Khlif again, a matchup New Jersey had won earlier with the help of a controversial call. This time, Jansen and Klinger powered to an 11-4 win, giving Columbus the edge.
That result left Parris Todd and Andrei Daescu to face Anna Leigh Waters and Will Howells. For the third time in a row, Todd and Daescu sealed the win, clinching the championship for Columbus.
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Player Reflections
Andrei Daescu, who went 14-2 in doubles during the playoffs, credited the team effort.
“The 5s are a great team full of great competitors, and we just took it to them and believed in ourselves. We kind of had a chip on our shoulder from the beginning of the playoffs, and these guys just showed up every single day,” Daescu said. “It wasn’t just the players, either. It was our players on the bench (Marcela Hones and Ross Whittaker), our owners, our staff, our Columbus Sliders fans in the crowd. I know we played in New York City, but we really felt like we played in Columbus.”
He also explained the effort behind the success. “There’s a lot of work that goes into this,” he told Ireland Horvat. “It’s a lot of days on the road, a lot of practice, a lot of days playing when you’re sore and a lot of sacrifice. To get this kind of title makes everything else worth it for us.”
Parris Todd added that the team’s underdog role was a source of motivation. “We were the underdogs through and through this whole time,” Todd said. “We kept getting chosen and knew that we had another giant to face every series. We just felt like it was David versus Goliath every time.”
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Why It Matters
The championship run is one of the most remarkable in Major League Pickleball history. Columbus defeated the St. Louis Shock, Dallas Flash, and New Jersey 5s—three of the top regular season teams—in just ten days. Both St. Louis and Dallas had selected Columbus as their opponents, only to see the Sliders rise to the challenge.
While Columbus celebrated, the loss marked heartbreak for New Jersey. For the second year in a row, the team led by Anna Leigh Waters fell in the final after winning the opening match.
With the season concluded, players from both sides will quickly shift back to the PPA Tour, starting with the Walgreens Open on the Las Vegas Strip.
News in Brief: Columbus Sliders Pickleball Premier Victory
The Columbus Sliders won the 2025 Major League Pickleball Premier level title with a 3-1 victory over the New Jersey 5s in New York City. Led by Andrei Daescu and Parris Todd, Columbus completed a stunning playoff run, beating three top teams in ten days to claim their first championship.
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