THE EVE EDITION
FIRST BLUSH | WED OCT 28
Good morning. Oklahoma State was never on the original guest list in Atlanta. The Cowgirls took Stanford’s place in the East Lake Cup field, beat top-seeded USC on Tuesday, and now get one more day of match play against Arkansas, which is playing its first East Lake Cup, with the trophy waiting at the end of it.
The U-17 Women’s World Cup starts its round of 16 in Rabat in the late morning, and then Europe has the early afternoon. The Women’s Champions League reaches its third matchday with Bayern and Real Madrid outside Munich, Chelsea at home to Roma, and Arsenal and OL Lyonnes at home in the late window.
The evening brings Queen Aminata’s shot at Persephone’s TBS Championship on Dynamite and Stanford’s trip to Berkeley, the first of two meetings with Cal in three days. Tokyo carries on overnight at the Ariake Coliseum, where Naomi Osaka plays for a quarterfinal place, and Golden State waits one more day for its first chance to close out the WNBA Finals in Atlanta.
Oklahoma State vs. Arkansas
The East Lake Cup final puts two teams that took unusual roads to Wednesday on the same tee sheet at East Lake Golf Club. Oklahoma State only joined the four-team field when it replaced Stanford, then knocked out top-seeded USC in Tuesday’s semifinals. Louise Depadt beat Sarah Hammett with a birdie on the first extra hole after Hammett had come back from five down, and Tarapath Panya and Ellie Bushnell won 3 and 2. Arkansas, the second seed and playing its first East Lake Cup, routed Eastern Michigan. María José Marín, the Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion and Monday’s medalist, edged Baiyok Sukterm, and Sara Brentcheneff, Natalie Blonien and Ebba Liljeberg won too. USC and Eastern Michigan play for third.
EVE’s Edge: Arkansas to win the Cup. Oklahoma State has the momentum after beating USC, but the Razorbacks have the best player in Atlanta at the top of their lineup and depth behind her.
Real Madrid at Bayern Munich
Bayern hosts Real Madrid in Unterhaching on the third of six matchdays in the Women’s Champions League league phase, and neither side has lost yet. Bayern opened with a 2-2 draw at home to Manchester City and then won 3-0 at Benfica. Real Madrid has drawn both of its games 1-1, at home to Paris Saint-Germain and away at Manchester City, which leaves it two points behind Bayern’s four. Madrid has shown it can take points from the best teams in Europe; it has not yet beaten one. Chelsea, also unbeaten, hosts Roma at the same hour.
EVE’s Edge: Bayern to win, 2-1. Madrid will be hard to break down, as City and PSG both found out, but Bayern has more ways to score, the better form and the home crowd on its side.
Persephone vs. Queen Aminata
Queen Aminata gets her second shot at the TBS Championship in eleven days, and this time Persephone has no one else in the ring to lean on. At WrestleDream on October 17, Aminata was one of three challengers in a four-way that Persephone escaped by pinning Hyan with a moonsault press. Aminata earned this match last week on Dynamite, pinning Maya World to become the top contender. Persephone kept the belt at WrestleDream by picking her moment in a crowded match. One on one in St. Louis, she has to deal with Aminata from the opening bell to the finish.
EVE’s Edge: Queen Aminata to win the TBS Championship. She has the momentum of last week’s win, and a singles match takes away the scramble Persephone used to keep her title at WrestleDream.
#18 Stanford at California
Stanford and Cal meet twice in three days, starting at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley before Friday’s rematch at Maples Pavilion. Stanford is 13-7 and 6-4 in the ACC, and all seven of its losses have come against ranked opponents: Texas A&M, Penn State, Arizona State, SMU, Pittsburgh, Louisville and, on Sunday, North Carolina in five sets. Its best wins came in the opening weekend, over Wisconsin and Kansas in Pittsburgh. The Cardinal is unbeaten at home and 3-4 on the road, which makes Berkeley the harder half of the week.
EVE’s Edge: Stanford to win, 3-1. Cal will have the crowd, but Stanford has beaten every unranked team it has played this season and has spent two months testing itself against the top of the poll.
#7 Naomi Osaka vs. Mia Pohánková
Naomi Osaka is back in Tokyo after an injury kept her out of last year’s Pan Pacific Open, and she opened with a 6-3, 7-6 win over Jasmine Paolini. Her round of 16 opponent is Mia Pohánková, a Slovak wild card who beat Tereza Valentová 6-1, 6-4. Osaka has reached three finals at this event and won it in 2019, and her summer showed that level is back: a first grass-court final in Bad Homburg, then a straight-sets win over Aryna Sabalenka on the way to her first Wimbledon quarterfinal. The winner plays Alycia Parks or Kimberly Birrell for a semifinal place.
EVE’s Edge: Osaka to win, 6-4, 6-3. Pohánková comes in loose after a clean win, but Osaka has already beaten a top player this week and will have the home crowd behind her.
UNBUCKLING THE BELT
U-17 Women’s World Cup. The round of 16 opens at 11:00 AM with Germany against Venezuela on FS2 and Morocco, the host, against DPR Korea on FOX Soccer Plus. Brazil meets Poland on FS2 and Argentina meets Ghana on FOX Soccer Plus at 2:00 PM. The winners play in Sunday’s quarterfinals.
EuroLeague Women. The third round of group play tips off at 1:00 PM with Basket Landes at Athinaikos and Flammes Carolo at Fenerbahçe, and Emlak Konut visits USK Praha at 2:00 PM. Valencia Basket, still looking for its first win, hosts Rapid București, which is in its first EuroLeague Women season, at 3:00 PM. Every game is on YouTube.
Champions League. Chelsea hosts Roma and Servette hosts OH Leuven at 1:45 PM, with Servette and Leuven both still looking for a first win. Arsenal hosts Benfica and OL Lyonnes hosts Inter at 4:00 PM, the second a meeting of two sides on four points. Every match is on Paramount+.
NCAA Volleyball. #14 Texas, 10-7, hosts Georgia at Gregory Gym at 7:00 PM on SEC Network, four days before #17 Texas A&M comes to Austin.
LPGA. The Asian swing moves to Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club for the first round of the Maybank Championship at 9:30 PM on Golf Channel.
WTA. Leylah Fernandez plays #5 Elise Mertens at 10:30 PM. The session closes at 4:00 AM Thursday with #1 Elena Rybakina’s first match, against fellow Kazakh Yulia Putintseva, a qualifier who beat Maria Sakkari in three sets. Both are on Tennis Channel / App.