Post-game Preseason 1: Valkyries storm back vs Sparks, fall short in highly entertaining debut

with Apricot's live game notes

May 07, 2025

The Valkyries sent me their official summary which is very professional, unlike my in-game in-person notes. But does the press release tell you what the “Get Loud” meter is called in Valkyrie territory? I DON’T THINK SO. So you get my notes first and then the facts next.

Apricot In-Game Notes

Starters: Thornton, Billings, Fagbenle, Burton, Hayes.
Sparks: Jackson, Hamby, Stevens, Burrell, Plum
"Welcome to Ballhalla"
The same MC as the Warriors, training the crowd in the new cheers. G! S! V!
Billings hits the first shot in Valks history, midrange J. Out of the gate, plenty of energy on defense playing right up on players (allowing layups though). Going over screens, aggressive. Pushing the pace in transition.
Billings with a fluid move in the post. Pretty diverse offense so far. Crowd is pretty rowdy and suitably outraged on fouls.
GSV is a scrappy team. Digging down to get a throw-off-Sparks turnover.
Kate Martin enters to an enormous roar.
Valks getting some good looks from 3 but not hitting anything. Hayes is pretty electric running in the open court.
More chant training. "Vaaaalkyyyriiiies" a la "Waaarrriorrrs". Also "Lets Go Valkyries"
Another part of the culture:
"Put your V's up" (and put up two fingers)
Billings is inhaling every rebound. Leite with a suave layup. They are definitely hanging with the more star studded Sparks.
Crowd is pretty loud.
Martin might have hit a fan with that three point shot. But fans are just happy to see her.
Next 3 from Martin is a splash, but Fagbenle moving screen. Clear sign of spiritual cooperation with GSW
The interior defense is feisty. LAS getting a zillion OREBs but feels a bit lucky in a scramble...
Interior D of the second string is not as good
Vanloo showing some dribbling moves. Serious hot dog passing. Very entertaining.
Musical chairs is the first fan contest.
Booo they took out Vanloo, no more wildly entertaining chaos and blind backwards two handed fling passes
The offensive system right now is five-out dribble dribble and kick to a 3 or sometimes a split cut from the delay spot.
Burton with the risky pass (stolen) but did not reach the transcendent levels of Vanloo's Loki-like wilditude
GSV has missed 13 straight threes to open their history.
This crowd is seriously pumped for a preseason game.
Billings hits the franchise's first three
Another moving screen. GOLDEN STATE
I need a thesaurus to generate more synonyms for gritty, scrappy.
Deafening roar for first shot made in the halftime game between school kids. And the second. This crowd is just really happy to see basketball
These halftime kids are outrageously good. Nonstop scoring machines
Okay now a near brawl for the halftime kids.
That was some of the highest level school ball I've ever seen at a halftime. Align Worldwide, great advertisement for themselves.
Nice run from the starters. This is a pretty solid group... scrappy D, plays up into the body. Offense continues to be five out and mix of pin downs, handoffs and drive and kick.
Tiffany Hayes makes fans oooooh almost every play. She had the premature celebration going too (another player's missed three)
Kate Martin is not bad as a second string secondary creator.
Deafening roar for winner of the Valkyries Shuffle (hide ball behind three Valks shields and shuffle).
OH YEAH VANLOO IS BACK. LET THE CHAOS BEGIN
Vanloo I think lost a player in transition and gave up an open 3, then came down two plays later with a dazzling drive and score. I hope she makes the team, "efficiency" and "winning" be damned.
uh oh, Kate Martin 3... crowd getting picked up on quake monitors... and now 3 free throws for Kate... I may need ear plugs
Vanloo PNR to Linskens on roll to Amihere corner 3 to tie the game. GOOD CHAOS. Crowd is going nuts.
The Get Loud meter is called the "Battle Cry Meter". Checks out.
Both GSV and LAS have gone 10 deep so this has been pretty high quality play.
Vanloo with another entertaining layup miss.
So far, Thornton, Billings, Fagbenle, Burton, Hayes are the first unit. Martin, Leite, Vanloo, Amihere (who has impressed with scoring) and Linskens are the second unit.
Keep in mind that Talbot was supposed to start, but was scratched due to right quad.
Okay, CHEN HAS ENTERED THE GAME. Huge roar.
Chen and Cunane in. Cunane just ball-faked her defender into the next county.
Then GOOD CHAOS Vanloo to Amihere.
Kaitlyn Chen may be edging out Kate Martin in fan favoritism. She got a huge roar just for dribbling the ball up in transition.
So... as I was saying.
Thornton, Billings, Fagbenle, Burton, Hayes are the first unit. Martin, Leite, Vanloo, Amihere (who has impressed with scoring) and Linskens are the second unit.
Chen and Cunane last off the bench except for Toure who is available. I imagine Toure is in soon. Talbot out with right quad soreness. Zandalasini out, right foot. Salaun hasn't come to camp yet I don't think.
Nice ovation for the 83-65 GSW-MIN score. The poor bastards don't know about Steph.
Vanloo with GOOD CHAOS, hustles for a steal, then a dazzling pass for a layup, then backs into a Spark for... maybe a foul? Challenged.
Skittish play from Kaitlyn Chen. She is good at pushing the pace, and had a nice pass there. But that was after missing two layups and a bad pass over Vanloo's head for a pick-2
Toure is in.
Bibby also in. Hits a three. Very tight ending, but as happens in preseason, it's mostly players not likely to make the roster.
Amihere may be playing her self onto the roster. Explosive moves inside.
Then again Amihere with the Big Crunch time bucket three point play to cut it to 3 with 1:00 to go.
This looked over, but a three shot foul with 7.4 sec to go, down 4... and Toure misses one, hits one, needs to miss one... and makes it. And the dagger FTs. And the meaningless 3 to lose some gamblers some money.
Roaring ovation for GSV.
Very entertaining game. GSV hung right with LAS. Going to be some hard roster choices ahead.

The Golden State Valkyries summary

The Golden State Valkyries announced their arrival on Tuesday night with their first-ever preseason game, falling to the Los Angeles Sparks 83-82 in a contest that came down to the final buzzer at Chase Center.

By the Numbers

Laeticia Amihere scored a game-high 20 points, 14 of which came in the fourth quarter including nine in the final five minutes. The forward accounted for 56 percent of Golden State’s fourth-quarter points.
Monique Billings added nine points and eight rebounds. Kayla Thornton also added nine.
Kyara Linskens hauled in eight boards, seven of which came on the defensive end.
The Valkyries erupted with 32 points in the third quarter while holding the Sparks to 18, shooting 55.6 percent (10/18) from the field. Golden State ended up with 57 second-half points while holding the Sparks’ to 44.

Game Rewind

Billings recorded the first points for Golden State on a 16-foot shot from an assist by Tiffany Hayes. The Sparks extended their advantage to 12-5 following consecutive Rickea Jackson three-pointers midway through the period. The Valkyries reduced the gap to one point with a decisive 6-0 run, highlighted by a pair of Thornton baskets, with just over two minutes remaining in the first quarter. Los Angeles connected on another three-pointer with three seconds left to take a 16-13 lead after the opening period.

Amihere drew the and-one on a driving layup and completed the three-point play that cut the deficit to 20-16. The Sparks extended their lead to 28-18 following Stevens’ shot, part of a 14-5 run, before Veronica Burton’s bucket ended the run. Billings knocked down the first three-pointer for the Valkyries, making it 30-23 with just under three minutes left in the half.

Thornton opened up the second half with a three from the wing. Billings’ basket began an 11-0 run for Golden State, which made it a two-point game at 41-39. Kate Martin and Julie Vanloo added layups to answer the Sparks’ attack, and Martin followed with a three with just over a minute left off the handoff from Linskens, cutting it to three at 54-51. Martin was fouled on the three on the ensuing position and made it count by knocking down all three from the charity stripe to level the score at 54-all. Amihere answered Los Angeles’ triple with 4.8 seconds remaining to tie things up once again going to the fourth quarter, 57-57.

Los Angeles went back up by three after Aari McDonald’s three, and she made another from deep that gave the visitors a six-point advantage. Amihere began her run with a layup off an assist from Vanloo, and followed with a free-throw. The Sparks worked their way to the line and extended their lead to 75-69 before Chloe Bibby made a three for her first points of the night. Los Angeles made their final three free throws to go up four, 83-79, and Amihere ended the game with a buzzer three to bring Chase Center to their feet.

Up Next
Golden State travels to Phoenix for its final preseason tune-up against the Mercury on Sunday, May 11 at 3 p.m. and airing on KPIX+ and KMAX.