Westminster Christian (Fla.) volleyball has advanced to the state championship the last three seasons, but each time came up just short of a title. The Warriors hope this year brings a different result.

Already, the Warriors have turned heads with a win over No. 2 Cornerstone Christian, part of an unbeaten start to the season that has now stretched into postseason play. The Warriors knocked off a fellow unbeaten, Boca Raton, in their regular-season finale before opening the district tournament with a straight-set victory to improve to 22-0.

An undefeated start to the season is nothing new for Westminster Christian. The Warriors won their first 22 matches in 2020 before losing in the state final, but if the Warriors complete an unbeaten season, it would be a first for the program.

The prize the team truly craves, though, is a state title, which would be the school’s first since 2016. As it stands now, the Warriors are just one win from another district title, the first step toward capturing the state crown.

Behind this 22-match winning streak, filled with dominant performances and just three set losses all season, the Warriors are a fixture in the Just Women’s Sports volleyball team rankings, moving up one spot this week to No. 5.

Check out the complete rankings below, and click here to view last week’s rankings.

1. Cathedral Catholic (Calif.), 34-0

The Dons still have not dropped a set and have just one more regular-season match remaining before postseason play begins.

2. Cornerstone Christian (Texas), 55-2

Iowa State commit Nayeli Gonzalez racked up 15 kills in a sweep Tuesday to push her season total to 573.

3. McCutcheon (Ind.), 32-1

The Mavericks cruised to a sectional title, winning all three playoff matches in straight sets, and will compete for a regional title this Saturday.

4. Mira Costa (Calif.), 34-3

The Mustangs capped the regular season with a win over Redondo Union and opened the playoffs with a sweep of 28-win Lakewood.

5. Westminster Christian (Fla.), 22-0

The Warriors face Ransom Everglades in the Class 3A-District 15 championship Friday.

6. Washburn Rural (Kan.), 38-1

The Blues pushed their winning streak to 37 matches, winning six this weekend to claim the Emporia Tournament title. Kentucky commit Brooklyn DeLeye, the No. 6 recruit in the nation, surpassed 2,000 career kills in the process.

Your Lady Blues did it again!! Went 6-0 at the Emporia Tournament beating Lawrence High, Emporia, SMN, Sumner, Bishop Carroll, and Seaman!! Way to go ladies!!🤩

— WRHS Volleyball (@LadyBluesVB) October 15, 2022

7. Prestonwood Christian (Texas), 33-1

The Lions notched two more victories this past week, and Macaria Spears racked up 31 combined kills for a team-leading 434 this season.

8. Bloomfield Hills Marian (Mich.), 35-1

Without Miss Volleyball finalist Ella Schomer and senior Reagan Sass, the Mustangs lost in the Beast of the East championship, their first defeat since September 2021.

9. Highland Park (Texas), 37-2

During their 15-match winning streak, the Scots have dropped just one set.

10. Marymount (Calif.), 30-6

The Sailors opened sectional pool play with a sweep of Huntington Beach.

11. Fayetteville (Ark.), 32-2

In a pair of straight-set wins this past week, Brooke Rockwell had a combined 32 kills, Madeline Lafata added 25 kills, Kennedy Phelan racked up 62 assists and 23 digs, and Ashley Ruff contributed 31 digs.

With tonight’s win, the Volleydogs have secured the outright 6A West Conference Championship-well done! pic.twitter.com/qM2dTXFlZO

— Fayetteville Volleyball (@FHSVolleydogs) October 19, 2022

12. Hamilton Southeastern (Ind.), 30-1

The Royals reeled off three straight-set wins to claim a sectional title, with a potential regional final matchup against No. 3 McCutcheon looming this Saturday.

13. Tompkins (Texas), 34-3

The Falcons’ winning streak has reached 14 with just two regular-season matches remaining.

14. Sierra Canyon (Calif.), 30-4

The Trailblazers opened sectional pool play by beating Newport Harbor in straight sets, with a matchup against Marymount looming ahead.

15. Oconomowoc (Wis.), 34-1

Lilly Wagner dished out 30 assists, and Cordelia Kearns and Marlee Sivak both had 10 kills, as the Raccoons cruised to a straight-set victory in their regular-season finale.

16. Cypress Ranch (Texas), 39-2

The Mustangs have won 23 consecutive matches, dating back to an August defeat to No. 2 Cornerstone Christian.

17. St. Thomas Aquinas (Kan.), 33-2

Alea Goolsby notched 11 kills and Kelsey Schenck contributed 21 assists, as the Saints ended the regular season with a sweep of Olathe Northwest, which finished third in Class 6A last season.

18. Mother McAuley (Ill.), 32-3

A loss to Barrington in the semifinals of Glenbard East’s Autumnfest tournament resigned the Mighty Macs to a third-place finish.

19. Yorktown (Ind.), 31-2

The Tigers’ reward for winning their sectional is a regional semifinal matchup against 26-win Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory, one of the two teams to beat Yorktown this season.

pic.twitter.com/8AChiEDwXs

— Yorktown Volleyball (@YVBTigers) October 15, 2022

20. ‘Iolani (Hawaii), 22-5

The Raiders beat rival Punahou twice to win the ILH Tournament and now have over a week off before the state tournament begins.

21. Dike-New Hartford (Iowa), 41-2

The Wolverines opened postseason play with a sweep to push their winning streak to 18 matches.

22. Mater Dei (Calif.), 28-7

The Monarchs opened sectional pool play with a four-set win over 19-win Palos Verdes, and they have a matchup against Mira Costa on the horizon.

23. Buford (Ga.), 34-5

State champions in Class 6A last season, the Wolves moved up to 7A this season and remain state title contenders, sweeping their first playoff match Tuesday.

24. Saint Francis (Calif.), 26-0

The Lancers have dropped just three sets all season after losing 12 matches last year.

25. St. James Academy, (Kan.), 31-3

The Thunder enter the postseason on a six-match winning streak but are in the same sub-state as No. 17 St. Thomas Aquinas.

Phillip Suitts is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports. He has worked at a variety of outlets, including The Palm Beach Post and Southeast Missourian, and done a little bit of everything from reporting to editing to running social media accounts. He was born in Atlanta but currently lives in wintry Philadelphia. Follow Phillip on Twitter @PhillipSuitts.

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.