THE EVE EDITION
AFTERGLOW | MON OCT 19
The Atlanta Dream had played nine WNBA Finals games across three trips, in 2010, 2011 and 2013, and lost every one of them, then dropped a 10th on Saturday. Monday night at Chase Center, Angel Reese made sure there would not be an 11th. Atlanta held Golden State to nine points in the third quarter, turned a two-point halftime lead into 14 and never let the Valkyries back in, and the franchise that had only ever been swept in the Finals left San Francisco with the series even and Game 3 at home.
It was a day of runs nobody could stop. Maddie DiMaria scored six goals, a U-17 Women’s World Cup record, as the United States beat Samoa 17-0, China took the top qualifying total from the Americans on the beam in Rotterdam, and Bayern Munich went back above Wolfsburg. In Ningbo, Alexandra Eala won seven straight games to end her losing streak, and overnight Jasmine Paolini won the last seven of her match from 0-5 down.
Reese and the Dream Even the Finals
Angel Reese scored 30 points with 16 rebounds, and the Atlanta Dream beat the Golden State Valkyries 79-65 at Chase Center to even the WNBA Finals at a game apiece, the franchise’s first Finals win after 10 straight losses dating to 2010. In Game 1 all 14 of Reese’s points came before halftime and Atlanta scored eight in the fourth quarter of a 68-64 loss. This time she made 10 of 16 shots and scored 15 in each half. Rhyne Howard picked up her fourth foul in the second quarter and the Dream led only 39-37 at the break, then held Golden State to nine points in the third, and Jordin Canada’s buzzer-beater from deep made it 60-46 going into the fourth.
Canada finished with 13 points and 10 assists. Gabby Williams, who scored 26 in Game 1, made 3 of 15 shots for 14 points, and Tiffany Hayes added 14 against the franchise where her career began. Game 3 is Wednesday at State Farm Arena, where Atlanta now holds home court.
China Edges the U.S. as Qualifying Ends in Rotterdam
China competed in the last subdivision of women’s qualifying at the World Championships and overtook the United States for the best team total, 164.996 to 164.529. The Americans were better on vault, bars and floor, but China outscored them by nearly three and a half points on beam, where Qingying Zhang posted the top score of the competition, 15.100. Algeria’s Kaylia Némour, the Olympic bars champion, qualified first in the all-around with 55.999 and first on bars. Skye Blakely was second in the all-around and reached three event finals.
Russia, Italy, Japan, France, Canada and Brazil took the other places in Wednesday’s team final, and Germany and Great Britain missed out. Rebeca Andrade topped vault, Reese Esponda led floor, and Charleigh Bullock, 14th in the all-around, was kept out of Friday’s final by the two-per-country rule.
Eala Ends Her Slide in Ningbo
Alexandra Eala beat Diane Parry 6-3, 6-1 in 1 hour and 17 minutes in the first round of the Ningbo Open, ending a three-match losing streak that ran through Singapore and Wuhan. The players traded early breaks, and from 3-3 Eala won seven straight games, the last three of the first set and the first four of the second. She hit 12 winners against nine unforced errors, while Parry made 25 and has now lost five in a row. It was Eala’s 34th tour-level win of the season, after 15 in her career before it.
Eala meets #6 Diana Shnaider next, in a draw led by Elena Rybakina, the defending champion. #2 Iga Świątek and #3 Marta Kostyuk are both chasing a place at the WTA Finals.
Paolini Comes Back From 0-5 Down in Ningbo
Anhelina Kalinina led 5-0 in the second set at the Ningbo Open, and Jasmine Paolini, a set up, looked headed for a decider. She won the last seven games instead and took the first-round match 6-2, 7-5. Kalinina had already been given one reprieve this week: she beat Simona Waltert in qualifying, lost to Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the final round and still reached the main draw as a lucky loser. Paolini, a semifinalist here a year ago, meets #4 Iva Jovic next.
#6 Diana Shnaider needed 2 hours and 26 minutes to beat qualifier Yulia Putintseva 7-5, 7-6(4), a week after beating her in Wuhan, and plays Eala next. Polina Kudermetova, through qualifying, beat wildcard Cristina Bucsa 7-6(5), 6-2 and draws #1 Elena Rybakina. Sára Bejlek came from a set down to beat lucky loser Alycia Parks 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 and meets #8 Sorana Cîrstea.
Harder Leads Bayern Back to the Top
Pernille Harder scored twice and set up two more as Bayern Munich beat promoted VfB Stuttgart 5-0 to move three points clear of Wolfsburg. Linda Dallmann headed in Sarah Mattner’s cross in the 14th minute, and Harder finished Klara Bühl’s cross two minutes later. After halftime Harder sent Bühl around goalkeeper Laura Giuliani, then drove in the fourth from Momoko Tanikawa’s pass and hit the post chasing a hat trick. Edna Imade headed in the fifth in the 90th minute. Stuttgart, in a back five, barely threatened.
Bayern are 7-0 with 21 points, 24 goals scored and six conceded, the best attack and the best defense in the league. Stuttgart stay on eight points, and Bayern visit RB Leipzig on Friday.
DiMaria Scores Six as the U.S. Beats Samoa 17-0
Maddie DiMaria, the most-capped player and leading scorer on Ciara Crinion’s roster, had a hat trick by the 20th minute and six goals by the 73rd as the United States opened the U-17 Women’s World Cup with a 17-0 win over Samoa, setting tournament records for goals in a match and margin of victory. Her first came after 63 seconds, the earliest goal of the tournament. The Americans led 9-0 at halftime, only the second team to score nine in a first half at the event, and finished with 58 shots. Loradana Paletta and Carolina Reyna scored twice each, and 10 players scored in all.
China beat Kenya 3-0 to join the U.S. on three points in Group E, with two goals from Xiaotang Xu, and the Americans play Kenya on Thursday. Spain beat Mexico 2-0 in Group F, and Charlotte Bradshaw scored Australia’s first goal at the tournament in a 1-1 draw with Chile.
SKY and Green Turn the Tables on The Judgment Day
IYO SKY and WWE Women’s Champion Chelsea Green beat Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez of The Judgment Day on Raw in San Diego, a week after Perez beat Green with help from Liv Morgan and Rodriguez. Morgan, the Women’s World Champion, worked ringside again and landed a cheap shot, but this time it backfired. Green’s high crossbody off the top rope took out Perez and Morgan together on the floor and left Rodriguez, the Women’s Intercontinental Champion, alone with SKY, who countered the Tejana Bomb and pinned her seconds later.
Bayley cost Lyra Valkyria the night’s other women’s match, coming out from under the ring to distract her as Lola Vice landed MIA for the three-count. Valkyria went after Bayley at the bell and was flipped over the ringside barricade, and Bayley challenged her to a No Disqualification Match on next week’s Raw.
LAST LIGHT
Monday’s two closest contests both resume on Wednesday, and both start level. The WNBA Finals move to State Farm Arena for Game 3 at a game apiece, and in Rotterdam the team final puts China and the United States, 0.467 apart after qualifying, back on the same floor with the world title at stake.
In Ningbo, the top half of the draw has filled in around Rybakina. Paolini and Jovic play for a quarterfinal against the winner of Shnaider and Eala, and the defending champion waits in the same half for a semifinal, the round where she ended Paolini’s run a year ago.