THE EVE EDITION
AFTERGLOW | FRI OCT 23
Skye Blakely stood at the end of the floor in Rotterdam with the hardest work already behind her. Two years after an Achilles tear took her off the road to Paris, she had stuck her bars dismount, hit every skill on beam and carried more than a point into the last rotation, and all she needed was a routine without a fall. She got it, and the United States has its first world all-around champion since Simone Biles. Behind her, the favorite spent the night climbing out of a hole she dug on her first vault, and a rookie who had the best all-around total of the week lost hers on one beam series.
The rest of Friday belonged to teams that knew what they needed. Portland got one goal and a 10th straight playoff trip, Ohio State held Colgate to nine shots, Florida stayed perfect at home, and Leylah Fernandez needed only two sets in the middle of the night to reach a final in Ningbo.
Blakely Wins the World All-Around Title
Skye Blakely won the women’s all-around title at the World Championships in Rotterdam on Friday with 55.733, beating Liudmila Roshchina, competing for World Gymnastics 2, by 0.534. Blakely, 21, opened with 14.200 on vault, stuck her bars dismount for 14.400 and hit every skill on beam for another 14.200, leaving her needing only a steady floor routine. Roshchina had just taken the lead with 13.400 on floor, and Blakely answered with 12.933, more than enough. Ke Qinqin of China took bronze with 55.032 despite a fall on her beam dismount, 0.034 ahead of Kaylia Nemour. Nemour, the Olympic bars champion who qualified first, mistimed her Yurchenko double full in the first rotation, landed a vault with no twists for 12.366 and sat 21st. She climbed back with 14.866 on bars and 14.500 on beam, the best beam score of the final, and finished fourth.
Claire Pease, the 17-year-old who posted the highest all-around total of the team final, fell on her opening beam series and finished seventh with 54.232. Roshchina’s silver was her first world medal. Blakely is back on Saturday in the vault and uneven bars finals.
Gymnastics Full Story →
Rybakina and Shnaider Set Up a Ningbo Semifinal
#1 Elena Rybakina beat qualifier Katarzyna Kawa 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 in the Ningbo quarterfinals after the #128-ranked Pole, fresh off an upset of Belinda Bencic, broke her three times in the second set. The defending champion served eight aces and won 35 of 43 points on her first serve. #6 Diana Shnaider fell behind #4 Iva Jovic 3-0 and won six straight games to take the first set, lost the second 6-4 and broke twice in the third for a 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 win in 2 hours and 11 minutes, finishing it with her fourth ace on her third match point.
Shnaider avenged a 6-0 final-set loss to Jovic in Dubai in February and is 10-3 at the tournament, where she reached the final in 2023. Rybakina has beaten her twice this year in straight sets, in Stuttgart and Cincinnati.
WTA Full Story →
Ohio State Shuts Out Colgate
#1 Ohio State beat #8 Colgate 3-0 at the OSU Ice Rink on Friday night and outshot the previously unbeaten Raiders 40-9. Kaia Malachino scored on the power play late in the first period, Hilda Svensson made it 2-0 early in the second, and Jocelyn Amos added a shorthanded goal at 8:18 of the second. Colgate managed four shots in the second period and three in the third.
Ohio State is 8-1-0 and Colgate 6-1-0. The teams play again Saturday afternoon in Columbus, with the Buckeyes chasing a sweep of the weekend.
NCAAW Hockey Full Story →
Florida Sweeps LSU to Stay Perfect at Home
#5 Florida swept LSU in Gainesville and outhit the Tigers 41 kills to 24. The match turned early: LSU’s Jurnee Robinson went down at 15-13 in the first set while trying to block Logan King and was helped off after three kills, and Florida took the set 25-18. LSU stayed close in the second until Alec Rothe hit two straight kills for a 22-20 lead and King finished it. Jordyn Byrd closed the third with a deep kill.
Florida is 16-2 and 7-1 in the SEC and has not lost at home this season. LSU fell to 8-10 and 3-6. Elsewhere, #3 Louisville beat Florida State.
NCAA Volleyball Full Story →
Müller Sends Portland Into the Playoffs
Marie Müller scored the only goal in the 60th minute, striking a deflected ball from about 20 yards, and the Portland Thorns beat the North Carolina Courage 1-0 before 20,105 at Providence Park to clinch a 10th straight playoff place, the longest active run in the league. North Carolina had 63 percent of the ball, but Portland put seven shots on target to the Courage’s two. The clean sheet was the club’s 100th, the first team in NWSL history to reach it, and the Thorns have scored in 13 straight matches, a club record.
Utah and Seattle drew 0-0 earlier in the night, which leaves the Courage alive going into Decision Day at home against Denver on November 1. Houston won 3-1 in Chicago with goals from Leah Klenke in the 4th minute, Maggie Graham and Clarissa Larisey before Sam Staab headed one in for the Stars in stoppage time.
NWSL Full Story →
Fernandez Reaches the Ningbo Final
Leylah Fernandez beat Marie Bouzková 6-3, 7-5 in the first Ningbo semifinal to reach her second final of the season. She broke away from 2-2 in the first set and won four of the last five games, and in the second she recovered from 4-2 down. It turned around the only previous meeting between them, a 6-0, 6-1 loss to Bouzková in Toronto in 2019.
Fernandez won the title in Singapore the last time she reached a semifinal, and Bouzková had won both of her earlier finals this year. Fernandez plays #1 Elena Rybakina or #6 Diana Shnaider for the title.
WTA Full Story →
LAST LIGHT
Portland goes to Houston on November 1 with its place already secure, and the race behind the Thorns goes to the last day. Decision Day will be crowded: North Carolina needs a result at home against Denver and help from elsewhere, and Utah and Seattle each settled for a point on Friday when a win would have done more.
Fernandez waits in Ningbo for her opponent in Sunday’s final, and the same morning the balance beam and floor finals close the World Championships in Rotterdam.