THE EVE EDITION
FIRST BLUSH | MON OCT 19
Golden State is three wins from a championship, and Atlanta has one more night at Chase Center to send the series home level. Game 2 tips off at 8:00 PM, two nights after the Valkyries held the Dream without a point over the last three minutes of the opener, won it at the free-throw line and handed Atlanta its first loss of the postseason. Gabby Williams finished that game on a sore knee.
The morning belongs to Rotterdam, where China, Brazil and the rest of the field take their turn at the 164.529 the United States posted in World Championships qualifying, with eight places in Wednesday’s team final at stake, and to Ningbo, where Alexandra Eala tries to end a three-match losing streak against Diane Parry at 7:30 AM. Spain and Mexico open the day in Morocco at 11:00 AM, and the U.S. under-17s begin their World Cup against Samoa at 2:00 PM in Salé.
Raw is in San Diego tonight, a week after Roxanne Perez pinned WWE Women’s Champion Chelsea Green, and every segment Green shares with Liv Morgan now points toward their Women’s Crown Jewel Championship match.
#4 Atlanta Dream at #2 Golden State Valkyries
Atlanta led Game 1 64-61 with a little more than three minutes left and did not score again. Gabby Williams finished with 26 points and made six free throws in the final 2:15 after hurting her knee in a collision with Jordin Canada, and Golden State won 68-64. The Dream averaged 91.3 points in the regular season and scored eight in the fourth quarter. Allisha Gray scored 19 and went 8-for-8 from the line in her return from a left-hand injury, and Angel Reese had 14 points and 12 rebounds before fouling out. The Valkyries are 4-0 against Atlanta this season, and Games 3 and 4 move to Atlanta.
EVE’s Edge: Golden State to win, 74-70. Atlanta will score more than it did in Game 1, but the Valkyries defend too well at home to give up the lead. (Game 2, Golden State leads 1-0.)
Alexandra Eala vs. Diane Parry
Eala comes to Ningbo ranked #19 and unseeded in the WTA 500 draw. The left-hander has lost three straight matches to lower-ranked players: Tatiana Prozorova in Singapore, Xiyu Wang in the Asian Games semifinals, where she still took bronze, and #217 Han Shi in three sets in the first round in Wuhan. Parry, one of the few women on tour with a one-handed backhand, moved into the main draw. The winner meets #6 Diana Shnaider or qualifier Yulia Putintseva, in a draw led by Elena Rybakina and Iga Świątek. The final is Sunday.
EVE’s Edge: Eala to win, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Parry will make her work with the variety off her backhand side, but Eala’s left-handed forehand ends the slide in a deciding set.
Gymnastics World Championships
Women’s qualification finishes in Rotterdam with the United States on top. The Americans scored 164.529 on Sunday, 2.099 ahead of Italy, with Japan third on 161.630, and Skye Blakely and Claire Pease posted the best all-around totals, 55.465 and 54.432. Italy outscored the U.S. on bars and beam but fell twice on floor, and Germany’s Helen Kevric has the top bars score, 14.766. China and Brazil are among the teams still to compete, and the top eight teams reach Wednesday’s team final. The all-around and event finalists are settled today as well.
EVE’s Edge: China to post the best team score of the day, with the United States still first overall. The Chinese bars and beam can match Italy’s, but nobody reaches 164.529.
VfB Stuttgart at Bayern Munich
Wolfsburg’s 5-0 win at Mainz on Sunday moved them past Bayern Munich on goal difference, and Bayern answer with their match in hand at FC Bayern Campus. The champions are 6-0 with a 19-6 goal difference. Promoted Stuttgart lost 4-0 to Union Berlin in their last league match, and this is the clubs’ first competitive meeting. Four Stuttgart players have played for Bayern, among them Luzie Zähringer, on loan from Munich, and Stuttgart coach Nico Schneck expects a hard afternoon. Stuttgart won two of four meetings with Bayern’s second team.
EVE’s Edge: Bayern to win, 3-0. Stuttgart will sit deep after conceding four to Union, but Bayern have too many ways to score at home to drop points and leave Wolfsburg on top.
WWE Raw
Liv Morgan is expected at Pechanga Arena as the build continues toward her Women’s Crown Jewel Championship match with Chelsea Green. Last Monday Green, the WWE Women’s Champion, confronted Morgan, the Women’s World Champion, and then lost an impromptu match to Morgan’s Judgment Day stablemate Roxanne Perez, who pinned her with Pop Rox. Morgan dropped Green with Ob-LIV-ion afterward and stood over her holding the Women’s World Championship. No women’s match has been announced, but Perez now has a pin on a champion to point to.
EVE’s Edge: Green to get her rematch with Perez tonight and win it. A champion headed into a title match cannot leave a pinfall loss unanswered, and Green gets even before she meets Morgan.
UNBUCKLING THE BELT
U-17 Women’s World Cup. The United States open Group E against Samoa at 2:00 PM on FS2 and Peacock, the first of three group matches in Salé. Spain play Mexico at 11:00 AM on FS2, Kenya meet China, the other two teams in the U.S. group, at 11:00 AM on FOX Soccer Plus, and Australia play Chile at 2:00 PM on Peacock.