The Phoenix Mercury’s season officially came to a close Saturday, as the team fell to the Las Vegas Aces in a Game 2 blowout to close out their first-round playoff series.

The 117-80 scoreline would imply an implosion, but the Mercury left the contest with plenty to take proud in, even after enduring a season marked by turmoil.

Phoenix Mercury: Year in Review

What went right?

Not too much went Phoenix’s way this season, as the team battled injury, absences and general turbulence in the follow-up to its 2021 run to the WNBA Finals.

Under rookie coach Vanessa Nygaard, the Mercury stumbled to a 2-8 start, looking far from their playoff best. But the team did engineer a turnaround, ending the season with a 15-21 record and a playoff berth.

With limited resources, Phoenix fought to secure the team’s 10th straight postseason appearance, locking up the eighth and final playoff spot.

What went wrong?

Brittney Griner has been wrongfully detained in Russia since February. Her plight made the 2022 campaign an emotional one for the entire WNBA, but especially for Griner’s teammates in Phoenix.

In early August, the Mercury star was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony on drug charges. The U.S. government is working to secure her release through a prisoner swap.

“It’s heavy. It’s just heavy y’all,” Mercury guard Skylar Diggins-Smith said. “Y’all asking these questions don’t really take away from our trauma. You just add to our trauma. We can break down and cry in front of y’all, so you can see how we feel. I don’t know what else to really say about it. It’s our sister. This is not some random Jane off the street. It’s not anything we’re politicizing. It’s a human being and this is our real life friend and real life sister.”

While Griner’s situation makes the more mundane trials of the WNBA season seem small, the Mercury roster became more and more depleted as the season continued.

The team agreed to a contract divorce with Tina Charles in June. Then, veteran guard Diana Taurasi suffered a quad injury that sidelined her for the end of the regular season and the playoffs. Diggins-Smith stepped away from the team due to personal reasons, and she also missed the end of the regular season and the playoffs.

Things went from bad to worse for Phoenix in Game 1 of their playoff series against the Aces, as Shey Peddy went down with a no-contact injury, rupturing her Achilles.

“I don’t know that anybody in this league has been dealt a tougher hand than Vanessa Nygaard,” said Aces head coach Becky Hammon after Game 1.

Diamond DeShields, who averaged 19.5 points and 4.5 rebounds during the playoffs, spoke to the toll of the mounting setbacks on her and her team.

“At a certain point when you take enough hits, you get tired of people saying how strong you are,” said DeShields after the Mercury’s Game 2 loss. “I’m proud to have shared the floor with this team this year.”

What comes next?

Much remains in the air for Phoenix heading into the offseason, but the team’s primary focus almost certainly remains their push for Griner’s safe return to the United States.

“There were a lot of challenges, just really proud of our team and grateful for the opportunity to represent the Phoenix Mercury. They have great fight, great grit. They’re hardy, they’re tough,” said Nygaard following the Mercury’s playoff exit. “But we know there’s bigger things in life, too. As hard as our season was, it’s not as hard as BG’s experience right now being in a Russian jail. So, we try to keep all that in perspective.”

On the court, the Mercury will have to decide what pieces to build around.

Diggins-Smith’s late-season absence and public spats with Nygaard have led to speculation about the 32-year-old’s future in Phoenix, though team ownership has insisted she will be back next season. Taurasi is also a question mark, with the 40-year-old’s retirement likely on the horizon.

After a taxing and chaotic season, the Mercury will look to reassess and rebuild in hopes of a smoother and more consistent 2023.

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

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Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.

With recent transfers Talia von Oelhoffen and Kiki Iriafen joining first-team All-American JuJu Watkins and the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class at USC next season, the Trojans look to transition from an up-and-coming squad to a legitimate title contender. 

Former Oregon State graduate student von Oelhoffen is the latest collegiate talent to commit to the program, announcing her transfer Monday via ESPN. She follows ex-Stanford leading-scorer Iriafen in the jump to the pair’s one-time Pac-12 rival.

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The 5-foot-11 Washington native was a two-time All-Pac-12 guard during her time at Oregon State. But after the recent dissolution of the Pac-12, the Corvallis side found themselves without a permanent home conference going forward. Many big name players opted to take their skill elsewhere as a result, with von Oelhoffen’s fellow ex-Beaver Raegan Beers announcing her own departure to Oklahoma on Monday.

According to DraftKings, USC is now tied with UConn for the second-best betting odds to win the 2025 NCAA women’s tournament. Dawn Staley’s tested South Carolina side, poised for a repeat performance, holds down the number one spot.

Last year, LSU loaded up in the transfer portal after beating Iowa to win the 2023 national championship. The Tigers were clear favorites coming into the 2023-24 season, but were bounced in the Elite Eight by Caitlin Clark’s Hawkeyes. Shortly thereafter, star transfer Hailey Van Lith opted to transfer a second time, this time signing with TCU. 

Yet while history proves that an excess of star power doesn’t always translate to on-court chemistry, on paper, USC sure looks ready to hold their own — in 2025 and beyond.

The United States and Mexico have withdrawn their joint bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup, per a Monday afternoon release from U.S. Soccer and the Mexican Football Federation.

According to the statement, they will instead focus on developing a "more equitable" bid for the 2031 tournament, with the ultimate goal of "eliminating investment disparities" between the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The federations went on to cite the upcoming 2026 Men’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico as an opportunity to build support for local infrastructure, improve audience engagement, and scale up media and partnership deals in preparation to "host a record-breaking tournament in 2031."

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"Hosting a World Cup tournament is a huge undertaking — and having additional time to prepare allows us to maximize its impact across the globe," said U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. "Shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow and raise the level of the women’s game both here at home as well as across the globe."

The decision leaves just Brazil and a joint bid from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands in the running for the 2027 host spot. Brazil — the rumored frontrunner — has never hosted a Women’s World Cup, while Germany hosted the 2011 tournament as a solo venture. 

Furthermore, this postponement doesn’t mean the U.S. is a shoo-in for 2031, as it's been previously reported that 2022 UEFA Women's EURO host England is considering their own Women's World Cup bid. FIFA is scheduled to confirm the winning bid after the FIFA Congress votes on May 17th.