The NWSL announced the framework for the league’s 12th season on Monday, officially kicking off the 2025 campaign on March 14th, with a new champion crowned on November 22nd.

Similar to the 2024 season, the league’s 14 teams will each play 26 matches — 13 home, 13 away —across 25 weeks, ending on November 2nd. A league total of 190 games will determine the eight contenders set to battle their way through November's playoffs.

The 2025 NWSL Challenge Cup will precede the regular season by one week. The match typically pits the reigning Shield winners against the current champion, but since Orlando earned both those 2024 honors, the Pride will instead host 2024 runners-up Washington in the March 7th contest.

Before any athlete takes the pitch, however, they must report to preseason training camps. Instead of a specific date, the NWSL mandates a kick-off window beginning January 15th and ending February 5th.

There are no official preseason matches, but considering six teams — Angel City, Bay FC, Houston, Portland, San Diego, and Seattle — have already committed to participating in mid-Februrary's 2025 Coachella Valley Invitational, expect those clubs to recall their rosters sooner rather than later.

International play extends NWSL summer schedule

Though 2025 lacks a major international contest like the Olympics or a FIFA World Cup, several confederations do have competitions on this summer's docket. The list includes UEFA's 2025 Euro and Conmebol's Copa América tournament.

As such, immediately after the league's CBA-mandated week-long pause at the end of June, the NWSL will suspend play for the month of July. This window will subsequently allow international players to compete for their respective countries without significantly impacting their NWSL club's season.

Within that break, however, clubs will be free to schedule friendlies against other professional teams, both domestic and abroad. This will follow a similar format as Chelsea and Arsenal's 2024 US tour, where the WSL sides went up against Gotham FC and the Washington Spirit, respectively.

New CBA affects 2025 season

Due to last August's newly inked CBA, both the waiver wire and trade windows have been eliminated. This means player contracts are now guaranteed, and trades can occur anytime before the October 9th roster freeze, so long as the athlete consents to the trade.

Two eight-week transfer windows dot the 2025 schedule. The first opens on January 28th, with the second set to start alongside the 2026 free agency period on July 1st.

Where to watch the NWSL in 2025

The complete 2025 match schedule, including full broadcast details, is yet to come. However, the NWSL’s 2023 landmark media deal means over 120 matches have already been claimed by various domestic broadcasters.

Friday games will again air on Prime Video, and Saturday double-headers will remain on ION. Both CBS and ESPN platforms will have significant match packages spanning the regular season, and all remaining games will be available on the league's direct-to-consumer streamer, NWSL+.

All broadcasters except ION have picked up various match rights to November's playoffs, with CBS scoring rights to the title match for the fourth year in a row.

Additionally, the NWSL is currently in international distribution rights negotiations, with the league taking aim at growing its audience outside the US.

Key 2025 calendar dates

• January 15th: Preseason camps may begin
• January 28th: Primary transfer window opens
• February 5th: Final day for clubs to begin preseason camps
• March 7th: 2025 NWSL Challenge Cup
• March 14th: 2025 NWSL regular season kick-off
• March 24th: Primary transfer window closes
• June 23rd-29th: CBA-mandated break
• July 1st: Secondary transfer window opens; 2026 free agency period begins
• July: League-wide pause for international competitions
• August 25th: Secondary transfer window closes
• October 9th: NWSL roster freeze
• November 2nd: Final day of the 2025 NWSL regular season
• November 7th-9th: 2025 NWSL quarterfinals
• November 14th-16th: 2025 NWSL semifinals
• November 22nd: 2025 NWSL Championship

Tennis fans saw an epic battle on Monday, as world No. 39 Emma Raducanu forced No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka into a third-set tiebreak in the third round of the 2025 Cincinnati Open.

The British 22-year-old, who burst into the sport's upper echelons by winning the 2021 US Open as an unseeded teenage qualifier, came achingly close to ousting the top-ranked three-time Grand Slam winner in a match that required more than three hours and two tie-breaks to resolve.

"She's world No. 1 for a reason, and I pushed her more than I did at Wimbledon so that's an improvement," said Raducanu, ultimately falling to the 2024 Cincinnati Open winner in Monday's narrow 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (5) loss.

Clearly affected by the oppressive humidity of the southern Ohio summer, Sabalenka took risks in the match's late stages to offset her 72 unforced errors and her diminishing energy.

"At the end, I went for crazy shots," Sabalenka told the crowd following the 2025 US Open tune-up match. "I think that it was a little bit risky from me and it really helped to put a lot of pressure on her."

Along with Sabalenka, this week's Round of 16 will feature at least four other Top-10 contenders, as 2025 Australian Open victor No. 6 Madison Keys and Kazakhstan's No. 10 Elena Rybakina booked their own Round of 32 wins on Monday, while 2025 French Open champion No. 2 Coco Gauff and 2025 Wimbledon winner No. 3 Iga Świątek enjoyed extra rest as their third-round opponents withdrew due to illness and injury on Tuesday.

Hoping to join the Gauff and Keys's advancing US contingent are No. 4 Jessica Pegula and No. 35 Ashlyn Krueger, who will face Poland's No. 40 Magda Linette and Italy's No. 9 Jasmine Paolini, respectively, on Tuesday.

How to watch the Cincinnati Open

Tennis's best will keep battling for Cincy's trophy — and an edge going into the season's final Grand Slam — this week: The third round will wrap on Tuesday before the Round of 16 kicks off on Wednesday.

Live coverage of the 2025 Cincinnati Open will continue airing on the Tennis Channel.

Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark is feeling the pressure, joining retired WNBA legend Sue Bird on last Friday's podcast to discuss the impact of her recent spat of injuries on league attendance and viewership.

"That's definitely been hard," Clark told Bird about having to ride the bench. "I'm going to go to every road game no matter what, whether I'm playing or not. It's hard because obviously I do feel this responsibility of being out there and playing."

"I sign autographs for way longer when I'm hurt than when I'm active," Clark told Bird, referencing her outsized popularity. "That's never something I wish for, but I still want to make as much time as I can for people."

In total, Clark has missed 19 of the No. 5 Fever's 32 regular-season games — plus this year's Indianapolis-based All-Star Game — as she manages three separate muscle injuries.

Before her injuries, Indiana's 2025 season opener pit Clark against fellow WNBA sophomore Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky earned what is still this year's highest viewership, with 2.7 million people tuning in on May 17th.

Since then, all three rematches have seen the regional rivals face off without one or both of their popular 2024 draft picks.

Despite star absences, however, ratings are up across all WNBA teams, with national networks averaging 794,000 viewers per game through July — a 21% increase over 2024's full-season average.

The mysterious large purple egg stashed inside the Bay Area's Chase Center has hatched, revealing the first-ever mascot for the Golden State Valkyries: a bespectacled raven named Violet.

Violet made her official mascot debut during the No. 7 Valkyries' 74-57 Monday win over the No. 13 Connecticut Sun, with the Golden State crowd welcoming her by singing "Happy Birthday."

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"Ravens are commonly known as Valkyries' helpful and savvy counterparts in Norse mythology," the 2025 WNBA expansion team wrote in Tuesday's press materials, also noting that "because she is near-sighted, she sports gold glasses helping her achieve the excellent eyesight that ravens are known to have."

Nicknamed "Vi," Violet will bring "crucial knowledge [from her daily flights] back for the leaders of Ballhalla to use in battle."

Violet will now join other mascots in the league's spotlight, with teams seeing significant success from the popularity of WNBA-specific characters — sparked by the 2021 debut of New York Liberty icon Ellie the Elephant.

"The cultural phenomenon that Ellie has become today definitely exceeded our expectations," Liberty chief brand officer Shana Stephenson told Andscape last season. "She's become such an integral part of our game-day experience that the energy and atmosphere within our game I don't think would be the same without Ellie."

Chicago has also undergone a mascot revamp recently, replacing the team's old Sky Guy mascot with Skye the Lioness last year.

How to catch Violet the Raven at Golden State

Fans hoping to meet the Valks' new mascot will have a shot on Sunday, when Golden State returns from this week's road trip to host the No. 3 Atlanta Dream in the Chase Center at 8:30 PM ET, airing live on NBA TV.

Currently on a five-game losing streak, the No. 12 Dallas Wings — and star rookie Paige Bueckers — are trusting the process, hunting an upset as they take on the No. 5 Indiana Fever on Tuesday night.

"I think we have a really good young core, we have great pieces to build around, good complementary pieces," Bueckers told reporters on Sunday. "We're all really excited that the front office has doubled down on who we have here right now. I think that's what we're gonna build around."

"We've talked about it enough," the 2025 No. 1 overall draftee continued. "We need to put action behind our words."

First-year Dallas head coach Chris Koclanes has taken much of the heat for the Wings' skid, exiting the court to fans chanting "We want Nola" — a plea for assistant coach Nola Henry to take over the team.

"Stepping into this leadership role, [I'm] being challenged to step outside of character at times and when to hold people accountable in different ways and when to discipline in different ways, so I'm learning," said Koclanes, whose role with the Wings is also his first-ever stint as a head coach — at any level of the game.

"You know we didn't start the season off well, we're not playing how we should be playing. But we need the fans to support us," Dallas forward Myisha Hines-Allen said, directly addressing upset fans after the Wings' Friday loss to the No. 2 New York Liberty.

"At the end of the day, Chris is still our head coach. We still need him."

How to watch the Dallas Wings vs. Indiana Fever on Tuesday

The No. 12 Wings head to Indiana to take on the No. 5 Fever at 7:30 PM ET on Tuesday, airing live on ESPN.