New Jersey beats St. Louis in Orlando to win MLP regular-season title
New Jersey closed out Orlando by beating St. Louis for the MLP regular-season crown, then claimed the top playoff seed in a season split that went 2-2.
New Jersey beat St. Louis in Orlando to win the Major League Pickleball regular-season title, turning the final day at Walt Disney World into a direct handoff of the league’s top spot. The result came at ESPN Wide World of Sports inside State Farm Field House, where Major League Pickleball had staged its final regular-season event of the year and the last chance for teams to bank standings points for the 2026 playoffs.
The matchup mattered because it paired two of the league’s most recognizable franchises at the exact point when the bracket was about to lock in. MLP framed Orlando as the last stop before the postseason, and the host team, the Orlando Squeeze, was part of a weekend built around the sport’s top teams. In that setting, New Jersey did more than take one match from St. Louis. It secured the regular-season title and set up the playoffs with the No. 1 seed.
Pickleball.com reported that the New Jersey 5s avenged a Mid-Season Tournament loss to the St. Louis Shock in Orlando, and that the win clinched the top playoff seed. The season series between the rivals finished 2-2, a split that underlined how thin the margin was between them all year. New Jersey’s second win over St. Louis came with the most leverage attached, in a building where every result carried direct playoff weight.
That makes the Orlando finish useful beyond the trophy. For advanced players studying pro doubles, the matchup offers a clean look at what wins in pressure pickleball: roster depth that can survive a season-long grind, and pairings that can hold up when standings points are on the line. New Jersey’s ability to answer St. Louis after the Mid-Season Tournament loss showed a team that could reset, adapt, and peak at the right moment.
The result also changed the recent title picture. St. Louis had won the Major League Pickleball regular-season title in 2025, with the crown decided in Dallas, Texas. New Jersey’s 2026 finish in Orlando shifted that center of gravity, and it did so in the strongest possible way, by beating the team that had held the league’s recent standard when the season reached its last, highest-stakes match.
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