The stage is set for Caitlin Clark.

For the first time in eight years, the Indiana Fever are advancing to the WNBA playoffs where they will meet the Connecticut Sun in a mouth-watering first-round clash.

Clark has taken women’s basketball to new heights this seasonGetty

Clark and the Fever lost their final game of the WNBA regular season on Thursday night against the Washington Mystics, but it mattered little as they’d already locked up the No. 6 seed and finished with a 20-20 record.

After a rough start to the season — losing eight of their first nine games — Clark and All-Star teammates Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell have turned things around to lead the Fever into the postseason where they will meet a dangerous Sun team who went 27-11 during the regular season and enter the playoffs as the No. 3 seed.

The first round matchup will be a best-of-three series. The higher seed (Sun) hosts the first two games of the series (Game 1 is set for Sunday, September 22) and, if necessary, the lower seed hosts the win-or-go-home Game 3.

Spearheaded by deadly sharpshooter Clark, the Fever are loaded with mercurial up-and-coming talent.

But make no mistake, the veteran Sun, led by Team USA Olympic gold medalist Alyssa Thomas, are overwhelming favorites to reach this year’s final four.

Clark’s hungry underdogs undoubtedly have a mountain to climb if they’re to advance to the semi-finals. They enter the first-round series vs the Sun having gone 1-3 against them in four regular season games in 2024.

They lost twice in the opening week and fell for a third time shortly before the Olympics break.

However, a resurgent Indy have been a different team since the Paris Games, rattling off win after win that included an 84-80 win against the Sun in late August, the last time the two teams met.

Clark is the new face of women’s basketballGetty

Former Iowa Hawkeye Clark has had a rookie campaign for the ages after being selected No. 1 overall in April’s draft.

The 22-year-old basketball phenom has all but wrapped up Rookie of the Year honors with a string of stellar performances of late that have also seen her enter MVP conversations.

The all-time leading NCAA scorer — man or woman — has ripped up the record books during her debut season in the W, and in turn become the biggest thing in women’s sports.

Clark finished the regular season having scored the most points by a point guard in any single season in WNBA history. That’s having already clinched the record for most points by a rookie and the league’s single-season assist record.

She’s also the first WNBA rookie to record a triple-double (she has two) and tied the all-time record for most threes in a single game (seven) by a rookie in WNBA history.

Clark also led the league in 3-pointers this year, and had the second most of all-time in a single season with 122. 

Reese (left) and Clark’s rivalry has had an unprecedented impact on the WNBAGetty

Her star power, transcendent talent, and rivalry with Angel Reese has launched the WNBA into a new stratosphere.

‘The Caitlin Clark effect’ became a tangible economic phenomena due to her unprecedented impact on the popularity of the women’s game.

Clark’s box office appeal saw 36 of the Fever’s 40 games scheduled for national broadcast.

The team also set broadcast records for the most viewed WNBA games on ABC, ESPN, NBA TV and Ion networks, and they have played in the 14 most-watched WNBA games this season.

Indiana also sold 100 percent of its season-ticket inventory, and saw their home attendance up 264 percent from 2023.

They also saw a 1,193% increase in jersey sales from last year and have more social media views than any other WNBA, NBA, NFL, NHL, or MLB team over the last five months.

‘Clarkmania’ has taken the world by storm in 2024, and now the world will get to see its hoops heroine ball out on the grandest stage of all.

Should the Fever do the unthinkable and advance past the Sun, they would meet either the high-flying Minnesota Lynx or the Brittney Griner-Diana Taurasi led Phoenix Mercury in a best-of-five, semi-finals series starting on September 29.

The Las Vegas Aces, Seattle Storm, New York Liberty, and Atlanta Dream will duke it out on the other side of the postseason bracket, before one team advances to the best-of-five WNBA Finals on October 10.

Nobody is expecting the Fever to still be alive by then.

Clark will have to be at her devastating best just for the Fever to stand any chance of advancing past the Sun.

But if anyone can upset the odds it’s record-breaker Caitlin, who’s journey to women’s basketball immortality is truly only just beginning.