Finals Week

While many high-schoolers and finishing out their year with finals, so are the best in sports. With the Women's College World Series ending tonight, the NBA and Stanley Cup Finals, and the last week of the French Open, there are plenty of championships to be awarded in the next week.

The Women's College World Series came to an end tonight as Washington swept Florida in the best-of-3 series. With the win, the Huskies softball team gave the school its first ever national championship in not only softball but in any sport. The Huskies were powered by National Player of the Year, pitcher Danielle Lawrie, who can add the championship to her growing resume after pitching for Canada in the Beijing Olympics and winning player of the year. With this championship already handed out, let's turn to the three others being given out soon.

The French Open finals are Saturday for the women and Sunday for the men. The women's bracket is still full of favorites, #1 Dinara Safina, and #2 Serena Williams still in, but a few women might pose a shocker in the final if things go right. With underdogs like Sorana Cristea of Romania and #20 Daniela Cibulkova left, you never what will happen on the clay at Roland Garros.
On the men's side, the bracket is even more wide open with the defeat of #3 Andy Murray and #6 Andy Roddick in the past two days. This leaves #2 Roger Federer as the only player who has won a major left in the tournament, but Federer is looking for his first French Open. There are many good competitors left like #23 Robin Soderling who defeated 4-time defending champ and #1 Rafa Nadal on Sunday and advanced to the semis today with a win over #10 Nikolay Davydenko. But the one man everyone left in the bracket should worry about is #5 Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina. Del Potro is 6'7'' and moves very well on the clay and should give Federer a challenge if they meet in the semis.
Prediction: Women's Final- Serena Williams defeats Dinara Safina in 3 sets.
Men's Final- Del Potro over Fernando Gonzalez of Chile in 4 sets.

Now, to the two most talked about championships at stake, one is already 3 games in, the other starts Thursday and will take a few weeks to play only 7 games.

The Stanley Cup Finals are going exactly as they were last year, with Detroit wnning the first 2 at home and Pittsburgh winning game 3 tonight at home. Will the next 3 games follow the path of last year's series? No. I believe Detroit will come back and win in Pittsburgh to take the 3-1 lead and then raise the cup at home this year at Joe Louis Arena by winning Game 5.
Prediction: As you read above- Wings in 5.
MVP: Nicklas Lindstrom or Johan Franzen, both for Detroit

And finally the series everyone is waiting for will have to wait for next year because the Orlando Magic beat Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals setting up a matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. There is no problem with the matchup, but I do have a problem with a game being played every other day starting Thursday, this will drag the series out for at least a week, maybe even two if they reach game 7. The Magic have an advantage in the 3. With many different shooters in their arsenal (Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu, Courtney Lee, and possibly Jameer Nelson) it will be hard for the Lakers to defend the 3 and Dwight Howard in the middle at the same time. But for Lakers, they do have Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, along with a great supporting cast to get the job done. The series will come down to which team's supporting cast gets the job done. Everyone knows that the stars like Bryant, Gasol, and Howard will show up for all the games, but will the rest of their teams? That we will find out in the next week(or two).
Prediction: Lakers in 7
MVP: Kobe Bryant

Hope you will enjoy the finals of the French Open, Stanley Cup, and NBA as much as I will.