Anna Leigh Waters has won almost everything there is to win in professional pickleball. But one big title had continued to escape her: the Major League Pickleball (MLP) championship.
That wait finally ended in 2026.
Waters helped the New Jersey Fives win their first season-long MLP championship, beating the St. Louis Shock in the championship series. The title was also Waters’ first MLP championship, so it was an important missing piece in an already rich career.
For Waters and the Fives, the victory of this game was especially significant because they had been so close before. New Jersey had made the championship in each of the last two years and had failed to win the trophy.
The story was different in this case; they ensured.
Years Of Near Misses End.
New Jersey Fives came into the 2026 season with big expectations. Waters was already considered the top player in the sport, and the team added a lot of new players.
The regular season didn’t begin well. New Jersey was fourth at the opening event in Dallas. But the team quickly found its rhythm and went on a spectacular run, winning first at three events, second at another, and first again before the playoffs. And that form did allow the Fives to enter the championship stage as the No. 1 overall seed.
Federico Staksrud was the biggest change to the team. And that brought in another great player, depth, and an edge at the most crucial moment of the season. Waters later said the change in the team’s personnel helped the team come together and perform better under pressure.
The championship series against St. Louis was anything but easy for the Shock. They jumped to the lead in the first match and won the first two games, and put New Jersey under enormous pressure.
But the Fives refused to collapse.
New Jersey fought back to win both mixed doubles matches and forced a DreamBreaker. The decisive tiebreaker was a tense one, where both teams were trading points. Waters finally came through when the pressure was most severe as the Fives came back to win and move closer to the championship.
The Trophy That Was Missing From Waters' Collection
Waters’ MLP journey was unusual because of how far she had already gone in the sport. She had already established herself as one of the top players in professional pickleball, but the MLP championship was the only trophy she could not add to her collection.
This year had been hard, even more so than the previous two.
New Jersey had been to the final twice and suffered heartbreak both times. But in 2026 the team returned to the final with different confidence and experience.
The Fives eventually completed a 2-0 sweep of the championship series against St. Louis. This gave the franchise its first MLP title and finally gave Waters the championship she had been chasing.
Waters has said the victory was a team accomplishment and not a particular individual achievement. She said after years of being close and working hard to get the title, she had wanted to get it in front of her for a long time, but she couldn’t have done it without her teammates.
The victory also showed what changed for the Fives in 2026. They already knew how painful losing a championship could be. This time they stayed together through difficult moments and trusted each other when the pressure came up.
But Waters’ significance is more than one trophy. It fills one of the few remaining gaps in her career and turns years of disappointment into a championship memory.
After making the MLP final once and failing once, Anna Leigh Waters and the New Jersey Fives finally got their moment in 2026. And for one of pickleball’s biggest stars, the MLP trophy is no longer the one that got away.
