The stage is set and two teams remain as the Chicago Sky and Phoenix Mercury tip off a best-of-five series Sunday for a WNBA championship.

The Mercury advanced to their fourth WNBA Finals after defeating the second-seeded Las Vegas Aces in a thrilling five-game semifinal series. They got there by taking out the New York Liberty and Seattle Storm in first- and second-round single-elimination games. The last time the Mercury were in the Finals in 2014, they swept the Sky to earn their third WNBA title.

Phoenix won all three meetings between the two teams during the regular season, with two of the games decided by single possessions.

Despite depleted depth with injuries to Kia Nurse and Sophie Cunningham, the Mercury’s core of Olympians has found a way. Brittney Griner has led the way with 21 points and 9.7 rebounds per game in the playoffs, while Diana Taurasi has averaged 19.7 points per game and engineered multiple late-game comebacks.

The Sky, meanwhile, are playing their best basketball of the season at the right time. After finishing the regular season in sixth place with a 16-16 record, Chicago flipped a switch in the playoffs, defeating the Dallas Wings and Minnesota Lynx in the single-elimination rounds before upsetting the top-ranked Connecticut Sun 3-1 in the semifinals.

Chicago has not been to the WNBA Finals since that 2014 meeting with Phoenix. Allie Quigley and Courtney Vandersloot, who form the longest-tenured backcourt in the league, were a part of that team seven years ago. The Sky will lean on their chemistry, the championship experience of Candace Parker and the firepower of Kahleah Copper, who’s averaging a team-high 18.2 points per game in the playoffs.

What will it take for the Sky to earn their first-ever WNBA championship, or for Phoenix to win their fourth? We break down the Finals matchup, with keys for each team and a championship prediction.

Keys for the Chicago Sky

Energy and toughness

It takes a certain amount of grit to finish .500 in an up-and-down season and take your play to another level in the playoffs. The Sky have been the toughest team on the court throughout the postseason, no matter which opponent they’ve faced. They feed off of the energy of Copper, who will need to continue to be the most consistent player on the roster for Chicago to win a title.

The Sky will have success if they take advantage of their depth in this series. As a team that thrives on an up-tempo style of play, they need to run at the Mercury and expose their tired legs in the open court.

Rebound the basketball

This has been a major key for Chicago all season long. The Sky have been able to control the glass during the playoffs with a plus-two rebound margin against their opponents. Out-rebounding the Mercury will be no easy task with the 6-foot-9 Griner in the paint, but the Sky’s communication and rotations will need to be on point for them to limit Phoenix’s second-chance opportunities and create looks for themselves.

Offensive versatility

The Sky have five players who average double-figure scoring. Vandersloot, their lead facilitator, has been brilliant at finding her teammates in the situations where they are most successful. And as a team, the Sky are averaging 20.7 assists per game.

With steady and consistent performances from Parker, Copper and Vandersloot, Chicago can force the Mercury to pick their poison every night in terms of defensive schemes.

Limit turnover numbers

At this point, possession is an automatic key for any Sky game. So far in the playoffs, they haven’t let turnovers affect the outcomes of games as much as they did during the regular season, especially against the Sun, but a trend that plagued them earlier in the year could return. The last two semifinal games, in particular, got a bit sloppy for both teams.

Chicago plays fast and makes quick decisions, so some turnovers can be expected. But in order to win three more games and bring a championship back to Chicago, the Sky will need to limit their unforced turnovers and value every possession.

Keys for the Phoenix Mercury

Others need to step up

Phoenix’s depth has been a reason for concern all season, but it’s reached a new level with Nurse out for the Finals with a torn ACL and Cunningham trying to work her way back from a calf injury. Coach Sandy Brondello said Friday night that the team expects Cunningham to return for Game 2 on Wednesday.

In their absence, the Mercury know what they’ll get from the “Big 3” of Taurasi, Griner and Skylar Diggins-Smith. They’ll need Brianna Turner and Shey Peddy to continue to elevate their offensive production and defensive contributions to sustain Chicago’s depth.

Establish Griner immediately

Griner is playing the best basketball of her career at this moment. The Sky have length, versatility and size inside, but none of their post players can match up one-for-one with Griner. Running their offense through her so she can assert her dominance in the paint early on is as important as anything else. Where Griner goes, this Mercury team goes, and their hopes of winning a title depend on her playing the way she has been.

A fast start

Phoenix needs to apply immediate pressure to Chicago in this series. If the Mercury go down two games at home, I don’t see them being able to rebound on the road and win a championship. It’s critical they secure at least one win on Sunday or Wednesday to give themselves a shot.

Diana Taurasi

The X-factor in this fairytale rematch is Taurasi, the 2014 Finals MVP. The 39-year-old has continued to remind everyone why she’s in consideration for the title of the WNBA’s greatest player of all time. Taurasi has led the Mercury to all three of their championships in 2007, 2009 and 2014. She scored a playoff career-high 37 points in Game 2 of the semifinals and led Phoenix’s comeback in Game 5 on Friday night with 14 points in the fourth quarter.

Taurasi in a WNBA Final is something special, and Phoenix has always relied on her to be at her best in these moments.

Prediction

Chicago Sky 3-2

This series is going to be a battle. As remarkable as the Mercury have been with very little margin for error, I think their lack of depth will catch up to them and be the difference in the series, giving the Sky their first championship in franchise history.

Rachel Galligan is a basketball analyst at Just Women’s Sports. A former professional basketball player and collegiate coach, she also contributes to Winsidr. Follow Rachel on Twitter @RachGall.

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

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Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.

With recent transfers Talia von Oelhoffen and Kiki Iriafen joining first-team All-American JuJu Watkins and the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class at USC next season, the Trojans look to transition from an up-and-coming squad to a legitimate title contender. 

Former Oregon State graduate student von Oelhoffen is the latest collegiate talent to commit to the program, announcing her transfer Monday via ESPN. She follows ex-Stanford leading-scorer Iriafen in the jump to the pair’s one-time Pac-12 rival.

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The 5-foot-11 Washington native was a two-time All-Pac-12 guard during her time at Oregon State. But after the recent dissolution of the Pac-12, the Corvallis side found themselves without a permanent home conference going forward. Many big name players opted to take their skill elsewhere as a result, with von Oelhoffen’s fellow ex-Beaver Raegan Beers announcing her own departure to Oklahoma on Monday.

According to DraftKings, USC is now tied with UConn for the second-best betting odds to win the 2025 NCAA women’s tournament. Dawn Staley’s tested South Carolina side, poised for a repeat performance, holds down the number one spot.

Last year, LSU loaded up in the transfer portal after beating Iowa to win the 2023 national championship. The Tigers were clear favorites coming into the 2023-24 season, but were bounced in the Elite Eight by Caitlin Clark’s Hawkeyes. Shortly thereafter, star transfer Hailey Van Lith opted to transfer a second time, this time signing with TCU. 

Yet while history proves that an excess of star power doesn’t always translate to on-court chemistry, on paper, USC sure looks ready to hold their own — in 2025 and beyond.

The United States and Mexico have withdrawn their joint bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup, per a Monday afternoon release from U.S. Soccer and the Mexican Football Federation.

According to the statement, they will instead focus on developing a "more equitable" bid for the 2031 tournament, with the ultimate goal of "eliminating investment disparities" between the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The federations went on to cite the upcoming 2026 Men’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico as an opportunity to build support for local infrastructure, improve audience engagement, and scale up media and partnership deals in preparation to "host a record-breaking tournament in 2031."

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"Hosting a World Cup tournament is a huge undertaking — and having additional time to prepare allows us to maximize its impact across the globe," said U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. "Shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow and raise the level of the women’s game both here at home as well as across the globe."

The decision leaves just Brazil and a joint bid from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands in the running for the 2027 host spot. Brazil — the rumored frontrunner — has never hosted a Women’s World Cup, while Germany hosted the 2011 tournament as a solo venture. 

Furthermore, this postponement doesn’t mean the U.S. is a shoo-in for 2031, as it's been previously reported that 2022 UEFA Women's EURO host England is considering their own Women's World Cup bid. FIFA is scheduled to confirm the winning bid after the FIFA Congress votes on May 17th.