Hold the spooky 👻 and bring on the skating, key soccer matches, Transylvania Open + MORE this weekend!

Oct 29, 2021

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.

2021 Skate Canada International

Defending champions Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier get ready to compete at Skate Canada International and I must say, I like a good competition on ice. There are so many ice dancers to watch for!

Skate Canada / Patinage Canada @SkateCanada

We are heading to Vancouver! Join us in wishing our athletes attending SCI 🍁 🇨🇦 good luck 💪 Be sure to follow along here on social & on CBC!

We’ll see Canada's Madeline Schizas make her Grand Prix debut. The 18-year-old won the virtual 2021 Skate Canada Challenge and is the 2020 national bronze medallist. Emily Bausback (the 2020 national champion), Alison Schumacher, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva and Alena Kostornaia of Russia, and Karen Chen of the United States will also compete.

Could we really ask for any more?

WELL, if you needed more reasons to tune in… Tessa Virtue, Meagan Duhamel and Patrick Chan will join CBC Sports as special analysts for the broadcast. SO AWESOME!

Catch all the Skate Canada International action you could ask for on CBC Sports every day this weekend.

WTA Transylvania Open

I’m so glad there’s tennis this weekend! Aren’t you?

Emma Raducanu beat Ana Bogdan to reach the Transylvania Open quarterfinals. She seemed far less tense on the court than in her previous match. The U.S. Open champ defeated Bogdan 6-3, 6-4 to help her advance, and this was Raducanu’s 25th win of the year in all competitions. Her next opponent, Kostyuk from Ukraine, is also 19-years-old and was the first of their generation to capture attention when she reached the third round of the 2018 Australian Open at 15 years of age.

Transylvania Open @TransylvaniaOpn

Emma Raducanu, about Ana Bogdan: "Ana moves well and she's a great athlete. I felt it's difficult to put the ball past her, even when she was on the run, I had to keep restarting the point. I learnt to have patience when I play someone who moves that well."

Simona Halep battled through a back injury to advance to the quarters, defeating Varvara Gracheva 6-4, 6-2 yesterday. It seems like she can’t catch an injury break! She will have to capitalize on her strong serve and hope it’ll be enough to help her beat Jaqueline Cristian.

Simona Halep @Simona_Halep

Step by step ✊ @TransylvaniaOpn

Weekend matches:

Quarterfinals Singles: Simona Halep vs. Jaqueline Cristian - Friday at 11 a.m. ET
Quarterfinals Singles: Emma Raducanu vs. Marta Kostyuk - Friday at 1 p.m. ET

Anyone else annoyed that Raducanu is playing in the middle of a work day? Well thank goodness for good ol’ social media helping us with live coverage because let’s be honest - none of us want to miss an Emma Raducanu match.

You can stream all of the matches Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on DAZN as the schedule updates.

FA Women's Super League

The much anticipated Vitality Women's FA Cup semifinals ARE HERE! As the top clubs in English football go at it, we’ll see Manchester City vs. Chelsea and Arsenal vs. Brighton this weekend.

In the quarterfinals a month ago, Manchester City walked all over Leicester City beating them 6-nil. Khadija Shaw completed a hat-trick in that match. Arsenal also had their fun with Tottenham taking that game 5-1 and Caitlin Foord scored a brace.

Who will make it to the finals set for December? Can it be Sunday already?!?

Vitality Women's FA Cup @VitalityWFACup

Who else can't wait for #WomensFACup semi-final Sunday? 🙌

You can watch both matches, beginning with Manchester City vs. Chelsea, Sunday at 8:30 a.m. ET on SN, SN1, SN World, Sportsnet.ca, or ESPN+.

NWSL

It’s the final weekend of matches before the regular season comes to an end for the National Women's Soccer League, and I can already feel it’s going to be good.

The Portland Thorns are still leading the league with a 13-4-6 record and OL Reign are not far behind. The North Carolina Courage have a tough test this weekend going up against an expressive Portland squad on Saturday. The Courage are seventh in the standings. They are tied with Houston Dash at 32 points, and desperately need a win to help their playoff push. The final three playoff spots are still up for grabs! Ahhh! Can’t contain my EXCITEMENT!

National Women’s Soccer League @NWSL

Bring on the chaos.

Don’t forget - playoffs begin NEXT WEEK on November 6. I can’t wait!

Matches this weekend:

Orlando Pride vs. Chicago Red Stars - Friday at 7 p.m. ET
Kansas City vs. OL Reign - Saturday 9 p.m. EST
Portland Thorns FC vs. North Carolina Courage - Saturday at 10 p.m. ET
Washington Spirit Spirit vs. Houston Dash - Sunday at 2 p.m. ET
Gotham FC vs. Racing Louisville - Sunday at 3 p.m. ET

Catch these weekend fixtures starting tonight and all weekend long on Twitch, Paramount+, and CBS Sports Network.

UFC 267

The rumbling has begun for the UFC match of the weekend between Amanda Ribas vs. Virna Jandiroba in Abu Dhabi as both fighters enter the Octagon for the second time this year. One fighter is looking to bounce back. The other is not trying to lose momentum after an impressive win. Let the fun begin!

MMA Junkie @MMAjunkie

Amanda Ribas prays she can get back on track: "I don't want to be like that medium fighter." #UFC267 | Full video: bit.ly/3jHKLeY

Ribas is coming off a defeat after going up against Marina Rodriguez (No. 3) at UFC 257. Ribas lost the fight by a TKO in the second round. This loss snapped the fighter’s five-fight win streak.

In her previous fight, Jandiroba beat Kanako Murata at UFC Vegas 29 in the second round with a TKO. (BTW, this was her first-ever TKO win.) She could break into the top 10 of the strawweight division with a victory against Ribas. Whose grappling abilities will take over in this fight? We’re going to have to wait and see.

Don’t forget to catch the fight this Saturday at 11 a.m. ET on ESPN+.

A quick look back: “Wow!” moments from this week

✌️ Goodbyes are hard: Carli Lloyd played in her final U.S. Women’s National team match Tuesday after what has been an amazing career on the pitch. Want to talk about greatness? The 39-year-old is one of 17 female soccer players to score 100 or more international goals (FYI - she has scored 98 of those 134 goals since turning 30). PLUS this year Lloyd posted a team-high 11 goals in 22 matches. Wow, right?! She released a Players’ Tribune piece saying farewell. Watch her drop the mic with a special message at the end:

U.S. Soccer WNT @USWNT

This is @CarliLloyd, signing off. ⬇️🎤

I promise I’m not trying to make you cry… Sometimes sports just have that effect.

🏀 WNBA expansion team: Four-time WNBA All-Star Alana Beard is trying to bring a WNBA team to Oakland! Beard is going to lead a group of investors and try to make this a reality. The 2016 WNBA champion retired in 2020 and is a 15-year vet, so this expansion team looks like it’s in the hands of the experienced and passionate. This has wow written all over it!

🏟 Women’s sports stadium: NWSL Kansas City owners announced they will be building the first sports stadium specifically as a home for a women's soccer team. It is set to have 11,000 seats and will cost $70 million. Wow! Top-notch facilities help the game grow, so this is what I like to hear!

KC NWSL @KCWoSo

NEWS: KC NWSL and @portkc finalize plans for the first NWSL purpose-built stadium at Kansas City Riverfront. 📰 kcnwsl.com/stadium

Women’s Sports on TV Guide

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