It’s a RECORD BREAKING weekend in tennis, basketball, soccer and MORE women’s sports action
In partnership with CBC Sports, The 4% Rising is your guide to finding and watching women's sports online and on TV. Subscribe now to receive this guide each week.
WNBA
There are TEN WNBA GAMES to enjoy this weekend so grab a drink, get cozy on the couch, and plan out which matches you’ll catch and which you’ll save for later! Luckily for us, we can always go back and watch previous games on demand on WNBA League Pass, so you can never truly miss any of the action.
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Plus, with expansion on the horizon, now is the perfect time to become familiar with the league! The Athletic reported this week that the W is looking to add up to two more teams before the 2024 season.
This week, the New York Liberty broke their seven-game losing streak by pulling out a win against the Indiana Fever – and now the Liberty will attempt to get their first back-to-back wins of the season against the Washington Mystics at 7 p.m. ET. The Mystics currently sit second in the standings with seven wins and three losses, so the Liberty will need a dominant performance to compete.
Other Friday night games include the Chicago Sky vs. Atlanta Dream at 7:30 p.m. ET, and two 10 p.m. ET matches with the Connecticut Sun playing the Phoenix Mercury and the Dallas Wings facing the Seattle Storm.
Sunday’s SIX game lineup kicks off with the New York Liberty in action vs. the Minnesota Lynx at 2 p.m. ET, followed by the Fever and the Dream at 3 p.m. ET. At 6 p.m. ET, four games will tip off – the Sky will face the Mystics, and the Wings will face the first-place Las Vegas Aces and newly minted Coach of the Month Becky Hammon. Also at 6 p.m. ET, the Los Angeles Sparks will face the Phoenix Mercury, and lastly, the Connecticut Sun will face the Seattle Storm.
Games will be streaming all weekend long on League Pass, Amazon Prime, Facebook, CBS and ESPN so make sure to tune in!
NWSL
Let’s talk about the NWSL— starting with NJ/NY Gotham FC.
Headlines have been full of the No. 10 ranked team in the league, including the announcement of veteran defender Gina Lewandowski’s retirement. The 37-year-old American has played professionally for 15 years on teams in both the United States and Germany and this season will be her last in the NWSL and beyond!
Another exciting milestone for the East Coast team is goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris making history as the first NWSL goalkeeper to reach 500 career regular-season saves!
The record was achieved during last Sunday night’s game where Gotham FC managed to beat No. 2 seed Angel City with a score of 1-0.
Harris told Just Women’s Sports that she is really proud of her accomplishment.
“Just seeing the amount of people who are willing to share their stories of how in some small way maybe I’ve moved them or helped them with either mental health or coming out and showing up for the LGBTQ community. Those things are what really mattered to me every weekend.”
Are Gotham the underdogs to watch? We’ll have to see on Friday as they take on the Washington Spirit.
Last game, the Spirit faced the Chicago Red Stars for the first time since beating them in the 2021 NWSL Championship Final. Though the Red Stars secured a goal early on in the game, Spirit defender Sam Staab eventually found the back of the net, resulting in a 1-1 draw.
Fortunately for Washington, the draw didn’t end their 7-game winless streak. But will they be able to keep it up?
To watch all of this weekend’s games, tune in to Twitch, Paramount+, and Radio-Canada Sports.
LPGA US Women’s Open
The LPGA U.S. Women’s Open has teed off in North Carolina!
This is second major of the LPGA season with a record purse of $10 million US – $1.8 million going to the winner. Here are a few people to look out for in one of the most intense competitions of the year…
A big Canadian name to watch is Brooke Henderson, of course. Though the world No. 11 hasn’t played since April 28, 2022 due to illness, she is returning full of hope for this competition.
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World No. 1 Jin Young Ko will also be competing! South Korea’s top player has 24 professional victories under her belt (including 12 on LPGA Tours). The 26-year-old is an extremely consistent player, but will still have to go up against 20-year-old Philippine-Japanese Yuka Saso who won the 2021 U.S. Women's Open.
Watch the entire weekend tournament on the Golf Channel.
WTA Roland Garros
The French Open, also known to tennis fans as Roland Garros, will wrap up this weekend with the women’s final match going down on Saturday. It’s been a tournament full of upsets, dominant performances, and great storylines, but one player has risen above the rest – Iga Swiatek.
Earlier this week, Swiatek tied Serena Williams for the second longest win streak in WTA Tour History at 34 wins in a row! If she wins in Saturday’s final match, she will pass Serena’s record and tie with Venus Williams for the LONGEST streak at 35 wins. Talk about pressure!
Yet, Swiatek has been completely dominant on the WTA Tour for months and was the favourite to win Roland Garros from the beginning. Now, she heads into the final match to try and win it all, and may have no trouble busting those records.
She’ll face Coco Gauff of the United States, who has been having an incredible tournament (and just graduated high school by the way). This will be Gauff’s first ever Grand Slam final, and she hopes to beat the favourite and come away with her first title.
Gauff, at 18 years old, is the youngest women’s tennis player to make a Grand Slam final since Maria Sharapova played in the Wimbledon final in 2004.
Make sure to catch the final Saturday on TSN and the Tennis Channel!
FIVB Volleyball Nations League
It’s a big weekend in volleyball and Canada’s young squad is ready for year number two of the prestigious Volleyball Nations League.
On Friday and Saturday the Canadians will face off against the U.S. and South Korea in the opening round of competition.
Outside of the Olympics and world championships, which take place this fall in the Netherlands, Volleyball Nations League is the top international competition in the sport. Of the 16 teams, 12 are core nations plus four challengers, of which Canada is one. The last-place challenger team will be relegated and have to compete in the 2022 Women’s Challenger Cup in Croatia to earn their spot back.
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Canada had a big win against the Dominican Republic last night and I’m hoping they can keep that momentum going!
Canada, ranked No. 18 in the world, finished with a 3-12 record last year, which was held in a bubble in Rimini, Italy. The U.S. were the overall women’s winner in 2021, followed by Brazil and Japan.
I can’t wait to watch! Tune in on CBC Sports!
FIVB Beach Volleyball Pro Tour Elite 16
If you thought I was done talking about Canadian volleyball YOU ARE MISTAKEN!
Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes are hoping to qualify for the weekend at the beach volleyball elite 16 Jurmala, ahead of next week’s beach volleyball world championships.
One week after their early elimination, Canadian beach volleyball duo Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes took a strong step toward making sure it doesn’t happen again.
The reigning world champions opened the Latvia Elite 16 tournament on Thursday with a 21-18, 21-16 win over Brazil’s Maria Antonelli and Fernanda Alves.
Pavan and Humana-Paredes lost in straight sets, losing 21-19 and 21-17, in their final match of the day on Thursday. BUT the pair resumes competition on Friday, when they take on Brazil’s Andressa Cavalcanti Ramalho and Vitoria De Souza Rodrigues at 10 a.m. ET.
The FIVB Beach Pro Elite 16 event in Latvia runs through Sunday with the quarter-finals, semifinals and medal matches taking place over the weekend. You can tune in on CBC Sports!
TV Guide
Why 4%?
Only 4% of national airtime is devoted to women’s sports. At The 4% our objective is to promote what, when, and where to watch women’s sports to help raise awareness and grow the audience for women’s sports on TV.