THE EVE EDITION
FIRST BLUSH | MON OCT 26
Monday comes down to one game in San Francisco. The Valkyries and the Dream have split four, and the winner of Game 5 at Chase Center goes one win from a first WNBA title. Golden State is in only its second season. Atlanta lost its first three trips to the Finals without winning a game and is now two wins from the trophy.
The rest of the day has its own stakes. In Atlanta, four of the best college golf teams in the country play 18 holes at East Lake for their match-play seeds. An hour before tip-off in Toronto, Halifax plays for the last place in the Northern Super League playoffs, and it needs a win to get it. At the same hour as the game in San Francisco, Becky Lynch and Stephanie Vaquer meet in Fresno on Raw, with a title shot at Liv Morgan going to the winner.
The night ends in Tokyo, where Naomi Osaka walks onto Center Court in front of a home crowd to face Jasmine Paolini, the player who beat her the only time they met.
Atlanta Dream at Golden State Valkyries
The Finals are now a best-of-three, and Golden State has two of the three at home. The Valkyries won Game 1, lost the next two, including a 26-point defeat in Atlanta, and evened the series on Saturday, 67-62, with defense. They led by 16 at halftime, forced 18 turnovers and won the paint 38-28 while making only four threes. Gabby Williams led them with 17. Kiah Stokes had three more blocks and has 14 in the series, a Finals record. Angel Reese, who came into Game 4 averaging 21.1 points in the Finals, had four at halftime. The Dream won Game 2 at Chase Center, so home court has guaranteed nothing.
EVE’s Edge: Golden State to win, 71-66. The Valkyries have won both games they turned into a grind, and Stokes at the rim is the difference at home. (Series tied 2-2)
Women’s East Lake Cup in Atlanta
The East Lake Cup brings together the four semifinalists from the last NCAA Championship, and this year’s women’s field is USC, the national runner-up, Arkansas, Eastern Michigan and Oklahoma State, in for champion Stanford. Monday is 18 holes of stroke play to crown an individual winner and seed the match play on Tuesday and Wednesday. USC has Jasmine Koo, who won the individual title in 2024 when the Trojans swept both crowns. Eastern Michigan, a semifinalist in May, is playing its first regular-season match-play event since 2022. Golf Channel has it from 3:00 PM.
EVE’s Edge: USC to win the stroke play, with Jasmine Koo the medalist. The Trojans are the deepest team in the field, and Koo has won here before.
Halifax Tides at AFC Toronto
The last playoff place in the Northern Super League is decided in Toronto. Vancouver beat Calgary 3-2 on Sunday behind two goals from Mia Pante and moved three points past Halifax, so the Tides need a win to take back fourth on goal difference. A draw sends Vancouver into a semifinal against first-place Montreal. AFC Toronto is already in and has its own reason to push: a win lifts it past Ottawa into second and gives it the home second leg of their semifinal. Halifax has scored 23 goals in 24 matches, the fewest in the league, but it has conceded only 23, level with Toronto for the best defense.
EVE’s Edge: Halifax to win, 1-0. The Tides know how to protect a single goal, and they have nothing left to save their legs for.
Becky Lynch vs. Stephanie Vaquer
The winner gets the next shot at Liv Morgan and the Women’s World Championship. Raw general manager Adam Pearce made the match on Saturday, shortly after Vaquer released a video saying she had been medically cleared. She revealed an ankle injury on Raw after Money in the Bank and was back at live events in Honolulu within a week. Lynch, a former champion, knows exactly where to aim. Raw is live from the Save Mart Center at Fresno State, where the card also has Bayley against Lyra Valkyria in a no-disqualification match and IYO SKY against Raquel Rodriguez.
EVE’s Edge: Stephanie Vaquer to win. Lynch will go after the ankle all night, but Vaquer has been cleared, and she is the fresher and more dangerous challenger for Morgan.
#7 Naomi Osaka vs. Jasmine Paolini
Paolini beat Osaka 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the fourth round of the Miami Open last year, a match in which Osaka had 15 break points and converted three while Paolini took three of her five. A week ago in Ningbo, Paolini won a match from 0-5 down, and she arrives in Tokyo looking for a run to steady her season. Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion and former world #1, is the seventh seed in a draw led by Elena Rybakina, who has a bye. The winner plays Tereza Valentova or Mia Pohankova in the second round, and the crowd at Ariake Coliseum will be on one side.
EVE’s Edge: Osaka to win, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Paolini will drag her into long rallies, as she did in Miami, but Osaka’s serve and the crowd carry the deciding set.
UNBUCKLING THE BELT
WTA Tokyo. Leylah Fernandez, the Ningbo finalist, opens overnight against Japanese wild card Himeno Sakatsume with Elise Mertens waiting in the second round, and sixth seed Sorana Cîrstea plays qualifier Maya Joint.