Tempo set to tip off inaugural pre-season schedule tonight at home

UCLA guard Kiki Rice poses with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert after being selected sixth overall by the Toronto Tempo in the first round of the WNBA basketball draft Monday, April 13, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

The Toronto Tempo will get their first taste of Women’s National Basketball Association competition tonight when they host the Connecticut Sun in pre-season action at Coca-Cola Coliseum.

The Sun finished 11th overall last season with an 11-33 record and missed the playoffs.

The league’s first Canadian team, which took part in its inaugural expansion draft earlier this month, will compete this season in the seven-team Eastern Conference and will be coached by Sandy Brondello. They’ll tip off their 22-game home schedule on Friday, May 8 against the Washington Mystics.

The Tempo, who will finish pre-season play on Friday against the Minnesota Lynx at the Target Center in Minneapolis, will trim their roster from 19 players to 12 before their season opener.

Kia Nurse of Hamilton, Ont., a seven-year WNBA veteran who signed on as the Tempo’s first Canadian player, said she and her teammates are “very excited” to make more hoop history in Canada, starting tonight.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2026.