WNBA tips off tonight, locals meet Sat.

The WNBA season opens tonight but the first game for the local trio is Saturday.

The Chicago Sky, with rookies Courtney Vandersloot (Gonzaga) and Angie Bjorklund (University HS) opens at Indiana, with third-year veteran Briann January (Lewis and Clark HS).

Preseason stories for the Sky and Fever project both Vandersloot and January as starting point guards and calls each of them the “Player on the Spot” for their team.

You can find information about the two teams and the league in general at ESPN.com , WNBA.com and Sports Illustrated . Most predictions have the Seattle Storm repeating as WNBA champion with Indiana expected to make the East Division playoffs. It’s about 50-50 on the Sky making the top 4 in the East for the first time ever.

Seattle raises its banner Saturday in a noon game on ABC.

Chicago-Indiana is at 4 p.m., and it can be followed through the WNBA website or the team websites.

By the way, the game tonight, 8 p.m. , is Minnesota, with No. 1 draft pick Maya Moore, at Los Angeles and Candace Parker.

Indiana plays its only game at Seattle on June 17, Chicago’s only trip is the season finale on Sept. 11 (you don’t suppose that will get overshadowed quite a bit, do you?).

Each team only has one appearance on ESPN2 (full schedule below) , Tulsa at Indian on June 14 and Seattle at Chicago on July 19.

Date	Time (ET)	Game	Network
Sat, June 4	3 p.m.	Phoenix at Seattle	ABC
Thu, June 9	7 p.m.	Washington at Atlanta	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Tue, June 14	7 p.m.	Tulsa at Indiana	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Tue, June 21	8 p.m.	Phoenix at San Antonio	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
	10 p.m.	New York at Los Angeles	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Tue, June 28	8 p.m.	Los Angeles at Connecticut	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Tue, July 5	9 p.m.	Los Angeles at Phoenix	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Thu, July 14	9 p.m.	Seattle at San Antonio	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Tue, July 19	7 p.m.	Seattle at Chicago	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Sat, July 23	3:30 p.m.	WNBA All-Star Game (San Antonio, Texas)	ABC
Tue, Aug 2	8 p.m.	Phoenix at Minnesota	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Tue, Aug 9	8 p.m.	Seattle at New York	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Tue, Aug 23	10 p.m.	New York at Phoenix	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com
Sun, Aug 28	9 p.m.	Los Angeles at Seattle	ESPN2 / ESPN3.com