T ITLE FAVOURITES ACES AND L IBERTY SET TO MEET IN W NBA CUP FINAL

The New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces are living up to the preseason WNBA hype and will meet for the first time with a championship on the line when they play for the Commissioner’s Cup title tonight.

The Aces were the preseason favourite to win the WNBA title, with the Liberty the second choice, and the budding rivals each hope to take home that trophy. The first-place Aces won both the Commissioner’s Cup — the league’s in-season tournament — and the WNBA title last season.

girls were pole vaulting much longer than me. I just started in May, so I have to work on being patient and in God’s timing, everything will happen.”

Moxey, a former national team pole vaulter who also coaches his son Kenny Moxey Jr in the sport, was thrilled when he got the opportunity to work with Rolle.

“She seems to be very promising and as long as she continues to stay focused and put in the work, I think she will be able to do better things,” Moxey said.

“I’m looking forward to next season at the CARIFTA Games and moving forward. I think she will be someone to watch. She’s already made history as the first Bahamian female vaulter. She’s a very nice young lady, very educated, who caught on very quickly.”

Not only would coach Moxey like to continue to work with her, but he’s hoping that Rolle’s participation in the sport will inspire more females and even young men to come out and learn the event.

“I have one male vaulter in my son, but I’m hoping that we can get more so that we can continue to have a pool to represent the Bahamas and move on to college and beyond,” said coach Moxey, who heads the Panthers Track Club.

While there are two pole vaulters in Brenden Johnson, who is following in the footsteps of his father, national record holder Brent Vanderpool, along with Tyler Cash, who are both making their presence felt on the international scene, coach Moxey said he’s looking for more competitors to join the list.

And while they wait to expand the list, coach Rolle said it’s good that his niece has opened the door for the females. With her attitude towards competing in the event, coach Rolle said she is certainly on the right track.

“I was planning on letting her do the pole vault from the offseason, but she was sceptical about it,” he said. “So I decided to let her get into track first because she was great at gymnastics.

Spain’s 23-player roster. The 29-year-old midfielder, a two-time Ballon d’Or winner as the sport’s best player, was a substitute in Spain’s first match of this World Cup, started the second match of group play, but has been used sparingly since.

The Barcelona star has played in all five of Spain’s matches, but hasn’t been on the field for more than an hour in any match and has logged just 155 minutes in total. She has no goals, but does have an assist, in the tournament.

Spain coach Jorge Vilda wouldn’t commit Monday to how Putellas will be used against Sweden.

“So I know a lot of gymnastics people are good at pole vault, so when CARIFTA came around and they said they were having it, I asked her if she wanted to do it. She said no. Not yet.”

After CARIFTA, Rolle said he sat down with Rolle and they discussed it and we agreed to let her do it. After consulting with coach Moxey, coach Rolle said the rest was history.

“In June, I sent her over to Kenny Moxey to help her. It only took her six weeks before the trials and she jumped 2.20m. That was a great improvement,” he said.

“She realised that it was the same thing as doing gymnastics and now I can’t get her out of it.

“So look for bigger and better things to happen next year.”

The 3.5 average senior student at Greenville

“We are very happy with the level Alexia has reached. Since the first day of training we have noticed this,” Vilda said.

“It is true that she is in the process of a recovery of nine or 10 months. We’ve adapted... and Alexia is ready for everything.”

Picking up the slack in Putellas’ absence has been Aitana Bonmati, who has scored three goals in this World Cup to tie teammates Hermoso and Alba Maria Redondo Ferrer as Spain’s most prolific scorers.

Sweden has its own player concern with forward Sofia Jakobsson battling an illness ahead of the match.

Preparatory Academy on Tonique Williams-Darling Highway is the daughter of Shancola and Firstnell Rolle and she has an older brother Kaleb Rolle, who is not involved in sports.

“Anaiah is a very determined young lady and what she loves, she puts her mind to it and she excels in it,” said her mother Shancola, speaking on behalf of her husband, Firstnell.

“Coach Moxey was very impressed with her improvement, like we say, in such a short time. Of course, we believe a lot of her gymnastics background had a lot to do with her grasping the concept of being able to excel the way she did in such a short time.”

Her mother said her daughter is a very persistent young lady who rarely likes to miss practice and now as a family, along with her coaches, they are seeing the fruits of her labour. Not only did Rolle compete as

Sweden coach Peter Gerhardsson wasn’t sure of Jakobsson’s status against Spain.

“Let me just say that everyone trained fully and Sofia Jakobsson is kind of climbing the walls currently,” he said. “I don’t know what that means, but I think that is a very positive sign. So, very mild symptoms of illness. I hope that we have everyone available — that’s the plan.” The Swedes have been led offensively by centreback Amanda Ilestedt, who has never been considered much of a scorer at international level and yet has four goals in this World Cup and trails only Hinata

“Winning the Commissioner’s Cup is continuing to have bragging rights. And (I saw) someone said that it would be one of the first pieces of hardware that we would take home as the Liberty,” New York’s Breanna Stewart said. “So using that as motivation and continuing to keep it in perspective, because ultimately our end goal is to win a WNBA championship.”

Each member of the winning team will receive around $30,000. Players on the losing squad each get about $10,000.

“It’s an opportunity to build chemistry, but also win money. It’s a big game, but we couldn’t focus on it ‘til now,” Stewart said.

Liberty guard Courtney Vandersloot agreed.

“The money is big,” said Vandersloot, who lost in the Cup final to Las Vegas last season, when she played for Chicago. “It definitely adds an extra incentive to the game.” a gymnast, but she was also involved in dance and performed with the Bahamas All-Star band.

An extra $30,000 is significant when the maximum base salary for a WNBA player is roughly $230,000. The NBA is starting its own in-season tournament this year with the winning team making $500,000 per player and $200,000 for second place.

The WNBA players aren’t the only ones who benefit from the tournament.

Coach Rolle, however, was just proud to have introduced the multitalented Rolle to coach Moxey to begin her historic journey as the first Bahamian female to compete in the event.

“I’m proud of her. I’m happy for her,” coach Rolle summed up. “History has made it. But this is just the beginning. She’s going to do some big things for the Bahamas.”

The Olympic Games in Paris, France might be a little out of her reach, but Rolle said her aim is to make every national team next year where there is pole vault for women.

She eventually wants to secure an athletic scholarship to attend college for the pole vault, an event she intends to continue to pursue now that she’s given up competing as a gymnast.

Miyazawa’s five goals for Japan in the race for the Golden Boot.

Sweden eliminated Japan in the quarterfinals.

Before this tournament, Ilestedt had scored just eight goals in 64 appearances for Sweden’s national team in a decade-long international career.

“Amanda is amazing, but we have so many players that are really good in areas,” forward Fridolina Rolfo said while praising Sweden’s execution on set pieces.

“I don’t think anyone cares who is the leading goal scorer. But obviously it is amazing that Amanda has scored so many goals on

There are also a couple of charities with vested interest; New York is playing for the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, which provides health care and related services targeted to New York’s LGBTQ communities. Las Vegas is playing for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Southern Nevada.

“The chance to impact someone else’s everyday life, that’s a special gift and a special mantle that we all have to uphold,” Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “Anytime we can pour money back into the community and make meaningful changes in people’s lives, I know myself and everyone in this organization will do what we can to make that possible.” our set pieces, which is our strength.”

Everyone in the Aces and Liberty organisations will be very familiar with one another by the end of the month. Tonight’s game will be the second of four meetings between the WNBA’s top teams in August.

Vilda said because Spain has never beaten Sweden, the Swedes are the favorites to win the semifinal match and maybe the entire tournament. The winner in Auckland faces the winner of the semifinal match between co-host Australia and European champion England.

“About being the favorite team beforehand? I don’t know what team is the favorite in this game,” Rolfo said.

“When you reach the semifinals, there are only good teams. I know they have a great team, and so do we.”