The WNBA playoffs headline a packed weekend of women’s sports as the Phoenix Mercury, Las Vegas Aces, Connecticut Sun, and Chicago Sky battle it out of a spot in the WNBA Finals. NWSL action is also back in full swing, with league standings beginning to tighten.

Here’s what to keep an eye on this weekend in women’s sports:

WNBA semis: Connecticut Sun vs. Chicago Sky

Sunday, October 3^rd at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN

The Connecticut Sun will have a red-hot Courtney Vandersloot to contend with in Game 3 of their semifinal playoff series. The Chicago guard became just the second player ever to record a triple-double in the WNBA playoffs in the Sky’s Game 1 double OT victory over the Sun.

WNBA semis: Phoenix Mercury vs. Las Vegas Aces

Sunday, October 3^rd at 3 p.m. ET on ABC

Kelsey Plum has been on a tear for the Aces, propelling Las Vegas to a Game 1 win with 25 points off the bench. In Game 3, look out for more action from Plum and the highly-anticipated matchup between Liz Cambage and Brittney Griner.

NWSL: North Carolina Courage vs. Washington Spirit

Friday, October 1^st at 7 p.m. ET on Paramount+

After a four-game winless streak, the North Carolina Courage will look to get back to their winning ways against the Spirit. Friday’s contest comes after the NWSL announced disciplinary action against the Spirit following an investigation into allegations of abuse leveled at former coach Richie Burke.

NWSL: Racing Louisville FC vs. Gotham FC

Friday, October 1^st at 7:30 p.m. ET on Twitch

Gotham FC continues to fight their way up the NWSL standings, recently downing the Courage 3-1 in a galvanizing win. With Midge Purce back on the pitch, the team will look to build on their momentum for a late-season push.

NWSL: Chicago Red Stars vs. Orlando Pride

Saturday, October 2^nd at 7:30 p.m. ET on Twitch

The Chicago Red Stars have not lost a game in five contests, working their way up to 4^th in the league standings. The Pride sit one point shy of Chicago at 5^th in the standings, with Saturday’s matchup foregrounding a potential fight for playoff inclusion.

NWSL: Kansas City vs. Houston Dash

Saturday, October 2^nd at 8 p.m. ET on Paramount+

The Houston Dash enter their Saturday matchup against Kansas City coming off a 4-0 victory over Racing Louisville. The Dash will look to build off that momentum in a bid for a spot in the NWSL postseason.

NWSL: Portland Thorn FC vs. OL Reign

Saturday, October 2^nd at 10 p.m. ET on Paramount+

The Cascadia rivalry between the Thorns and OL Reign is always heated, but the stakes are even higher as this meeting could determine the No. 1 playoff seed. Portland currently sits at the top of the league standings with 38 points, while OL ranks second at 35.

FAWSL: Chelsea vs. Brighton

Saturday, October 2^nd at 6:30 a.m. ET, livestream on NBC Sports app

Chelsea will take the pitch after a 6-1 rout of Manchester United. Expect superstars Fran Kirby and Sam Kerr to continue linking up in the final third for the Blues.

FAWSL: Arsenal vs. Aston Villa

Sunday, October 3^rd at 7:30 a.m. ET, livestream on NBC Sports app

Arsenal looks to continue their undefeated charge to the top of the FAWSL standings, with Vivianne Miedema cementing her claim as one of the most exciting players in soccer today. The new edition of Tobin Heath to the gunners makes the team an early championship favorite.

FAWSL: Manchester United vs. Birmingham City

Sunday, October 3^rd at 1:45 p.m. ET, livestream on NBC Sports app

Manchester United will look to bounce back after a brutal 6-1 loss to Chelsea. At the bottom of the FAWSL table, Birmingham City has yet to record a win this regular season.

LPGA: Shoprite Classic Presented by Acer

Friday, October 1^st at 1-4 p.m. ET on Golf Channel

Saturday, October 2^nd at 1-4 p.m. ET on Golf Channel

Sunday, October 3^rd at 1-4 p.m. ET on Golf Channel

Golfers will descend upon Seaview Bay Course in Galloway, NJ, to play for a $1.75 million purse.

25-year-old American pro golfer Nelly Korda secured her spot in LPGA history on Sunday, notching her fifth-straight title at this weekend's Chevron Championship in The Woodlands, Texas.

Ranked No. 1 in the world by Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, Korda joins Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sörenstam (2005) as just the third LPGA player to rack up five consecutive tour wins. She is also the third No. 1-ranked player to capture The Chevron Championship victory since the rankings debuted in 2006, accompanied by Lorena Ochoa and Lydia Ko.

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The Florida native shot three-under 69 in Sunday's final, besting Sweden's Maja Stark despite Stark's valiant come-from-behind attempt in the 18th. Korda finished with a four-day total of 13-under 275, celebrating her two-stroke win by cannonballing into Poppie's Pond, much to the crowd's delight. She left The Club at Carlton Woods with $1.2 million from an overall purse of $7.9 million.

It wasn't long ago that the two-time major champion's current winning streak seemed unimaginable. After maintaining her No. 1 position for 29 weeks, Korda underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from her left arm in 2022. She returned to the course not long after, but failed to win a single tournament in 2023 before seeing a surge in form during the first four months of 2024. As of today, she hasn't lost a tournament since January.

Korda will attempt a record sixth-straight win at next week's JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles, where she'll vie for a cut of the $3.75 million purse.

USWNT regulars Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson furthered their cases for Olympic inclusion with their respective club victories on Saturday and Sunday.

After a roller coaster of a week that saw former Thorns head coach Mike Norris reassigned and a flurry of last-minute roster reshufflings as Friday's trade window closure loomed, the NWSL sprung to life over the weekend with standout performances from ninth-place Portland and third-place Chicago, among others.

After her blocked attempt at goal set up a volleying sixth-minute opener from veteran Christine Sinclair — now the only player in history to record a goal in all 11 NWSL seasons — Smith swiftly netted her own in the 27th minute off a breakaway run that eluded Houston's backline. The goal represented Smith's third of the season as well as her 35th for the Thorns, ultimately leading to the home side's first win of the season in a 4-1 routing of the Dash.

But that wasn't Smith's only stat of the evening. The star forward also lapped former Chicago Red Star Sam Kerr to become the youngest player to reach 50 NWSL goal contributions across all games, chalking up 40 goals and 10 assists at the age of 23 years and 254 days.

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"Obviously it feels good to get a win," said Smith in a post-match press conference. "But this is the standard the Thorns have always had. So a win is great, but a win is the expectation — we're hungrier than ever after the way we started."

170 miles up the road, Lumen Field similarly showcased some promising Olympic prospect footwork on Sunday. In Chicago's 2-1 victory over the lagging 13th-place Seattle Reign, striker Mallory Swanson racked up an impressive counterattack assist on fellow forward Ally Schlegel's fourth-minute goal. Swanson went on to find the back of the net herself before halftime, lacing an explosive ball into the top corner in the 31st minute, her second of the season after returning from a lengthy sidelining injury.

Speaking of injuries, fellow USWNT favorites Alex Morgan and Tierna Davidson were not as fortunate as their national squad teammates this weekend. Each exited their club matches early, Morgan with an ankle knock in San Diego's loss to Orlando and Davidson with an apparent hamstring incident early on in Washington's win over Gotham.

LSU came out on top at the 2024 NCAA women's gymnastics championship in Fort Worth on Saturday, besting Cal, Utah, and Florida to capture their first-ever title.

The Tigers' win was far from a landslide. LSU took the first rotation handily thanks to 2024 All-Around winner Haleigh Bryant's team-leading 9.9375 backed by four additional 9.9+ scores from her teammates. But Utah then responded with three strong beam performances of their own, causing the Red Rocks to slide confidently into second place by the end of the second rotation.

By the halfway point, all four teams fell within .288 points of one another before Utah overtook the pack with a dominant floor showing after three rotations. LSU then went on to ace the beam event with Konnor McClain's meet-leading 9.9625 score, coming away with the highest collective score ever awarded to the event in NCAA championship history. The achievement propelled the Tigers to victory, ensuring them the title after the final rotation.

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"This team is full of individuals that have incredible character and integrity and love for each other and all the things you hear from coaches when they sit at a podium like this in a moment of victory, but I promise you it's a real thing," said LSU coach Jay Clark in a post-meet press conference. "I'm just so happy for them."

Contributing to Saturday's atmosphere of excitement was the absence of last year's champion and this year's heavily favored Oklahoma Sooners. Hot off earning the highest team score in NCAA history just last month, the top-ranked Norman squad suffered a shocking loss in the semifinals, where five major mistakes contributed to a third-place finish and a season-low team score of 196.6625.

With Oklahoma out, it was truly anyone's game.

"Every team was out there fighting for their lives — all four teams, it could have gone any of four ways out there," Clark told reporters. "As much as I feel for what happened to Oklahoma in the semifinals, I think it made for a championship that became so packed with emotion because every team out there believed they could do it. It was just tremendous."

LSU is now the eighth program in the sport's history to earn an NCAA women's gymnastic championship.
They share the honor with Georgia, Utah, UCLA, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, and Michigan.

Cameron Brink already has her rookie of the year pick for the upcoming WNBA season, and it’s Indiana-bound star Caitlin Clark. 

In the latest edition of Kelley on the Street, host Kelley O'Hara caught up with Brink in New York hours before the Stanford phenom went No. 2 overall to the Los Angeles Sparks at the 2024 WNBA Draft. When O’Hara asked who would win the WNBA's rookie of the year, she answered without pause.

"Caitlin Clark," she said, while a fan commented that she thought Brink would take home the award. Brink later added that the extra foul granted to WNBA players will be "good for me."

"I hope it’s me," Charisma Osborne, who was later drafted by the Phoenix Mercury, said when asked her ROY prediction. "But, I don’t know — we’ll see."

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