Cat Osterman is set to take the field in what will be her second and last Athletes Unlimited softball season.

The United States Olympian and inaugural AU champion headlines the five-week season in Rosemont, Ill, which begins with doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday. Players can acquire points individually and as a team after each game. League leaders are then appointed as captains, with the ability to draft their own teams the following week.

Osterman captured AU’s first softball title in October 2020, beating out 56 other players with a total of 2,408 points. The veteran pitcher played for 13 winning teams during the 2020 season, finishing the season with 95 strikeouts and a league-leading 1.53 ERA.

The 38-year-old enters the 2021 season on the heels of an emotional Olympics. Softball returned to the Olympics this summer in Tokyo after 13 years, giving Team USA a chance at redeeming their silver medal from the 2008 Beijing Games. Osterman and Team USA advanced to the gold-medal game in Tokyo but again fell to Japan and took home the silver medal.

“Unfortunately, it’s just not been our day twice now,” Osterman said after the loss while fighting back tears. “If you told me this was the ending and I had to redo it, I would choose to do it all over again because this team has heart, has fight.”

Osterman finished the Olympic tournament second to teammate Monica Abbott in ERA and fourth in strikeouts. The Team USA veteran pitched six shutout innings against Italy in the Olympic opener, allowing only one hit. She then threw a complete-game shutout against Mexico in a 2-0 victory.

One month after the Olympics, the Athletes Unlimited season gives Osterman a final chance to take the mound. After coming out of retirement in 2018 to compete with Team USA in Tokyo, Osterman has said she’s officially hanging it up after the AU season.

Osterman will have the likes of Haylie McCleney, Jessica Warren, Victoria Hayward, Erika Piancastelli and Odicci Alexander, among other softball stars, to contend with as she looks to end her professional career with another title.

Warren finished the 2020 AU season ranked second overall in points after posting an 8-1 record as captain. Hayward finished behind her at third, leading the league in stolen bases and posting a .396 batting average. Piancastelli, a catcher who represented Italy at the Tokyo Olympics, ended the 2020 season in fourth with nine home runs and a .885 slugging percentage. McCleney, the 2020 GEICO Defensive Player of the Year, enters the AU season after a dominant Olympic run at the plate, leading all players in Tokyo with a .643 batting average leading into the gold-medal game. Alexander signed with Athletes Unlimited as a rookie following a storied career with James Madison that included a 66-strikeout performance in the 2021 Women’s College World Series.

Warren, Hayward and Piancastelli join Osterman as the first team captains, drafting their own squads for the opening weekend of competition.

The Athletes Unlimited Season starts on Saturday, with Team Hayward and Team Warren facing off at 4 p.m. ET on YouTube and Team Osterman taking on Team Piancastelli at 7 p.m. ET on FS1.

For a full schedule of the weekend’s games, click here.

Editor’s note: Athletes Unlimited is a sponsor of Just Women’s Sports.

Aryna Sabalenka won her first Grand Slam of the 2025 WTA season on Saturday, with the world No. 1 defeating then-No. 9 Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 7-6(3) to claim the US Open trophy — the final Slam of the year.

"To bring the fight and be able to handle my emotions the way I did in this final, it means a lot," Sabalenka said following the match. "I'm super proud right now of myself."

After successfully defending her 2024 US Open title — and claiming tennis's top 2025 paycheck in the process — Sabalenka is now the tournament's first repeat champion since 2014, when Serena Williams claimed a third straight trophy at the New York Slam.

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The 27-year-old narrowly avoided a Slam-less year, going without a trophy despite reaching both the Australian Open and French Open finals as well as the Wimbledon semifinals.

"I think because of the finals earlier this season, this one felt different," Sabalenka said. "All of those lessons are making me tougher, tougher, and tougher."

As for Anisimova, the US rising star added a new career-high WTA ranking alongside her second straight Grand Slam final appearance on her 2025 resume, rising to world No. 4 in Monday's update.

Also earning a noticeable bump on Monday was Japanese star Naomi Osaka, who clocked in at No. 14 after a stellar Grand Slam comeback run to the 2025 US Open semifinals.

The Golden State Valkyries have made WNBA history yet again, setting a new league attendance record by selling out all 22 of the 2025 expansion team's home games this year — and doing so in their debut season.

Even more, the WNBA surpassed the 3 million-fan mark over the weekend, an historic first for the 29-year-old league.

A hit from the very first tip-off, the Valkyries have seen unprecedented support while becoming the first-ever expansion team to make the WNBA playoffs in their inaugural year.

Making the announcement in their final 2025 regular-season home stand against the Minnesota Lynx on Saturday, the Valkyries have officially seen fans fill every one of the Chase Center's maximum 18,064 seats all season — claiming a WNBA all-time record for any team's per-game average along the way.

With those season-long record crowds, Golden State also now owns the WNBA total attendance mark at 397,408 fans on the year.

Just behind Golden State are the Indiana Fever and New York Liberty — the only other WNBA teams that will close out the 2025 regular-season with average crowds over 16,000 and totals breaking the 300,000-fan mark.

With one home game still left to play for each team, Indiana has welcomed 349,313 total fans so far, while New York currently sits at a 341,575 total attendance for the 2025 WNBA season.

Attendance has skyrocketed across the WNBA year, thanks in part to the league adding both a 13th franchise as well as two more home games to each team's 2025 schedule.

As a result, the league demolished the previous season-high attendance of 2.36 million set in 2002 and, with 11 games still on the 2025 regular-season schedule, the WNBA is currently on track to push past the 3.1 million mark before the postseason tips off.

Three retired WNBA icons received their flowers over the weekend, as Minnesota Lynx legends Sylvia Fowles and Maya Moore and Seattle Storm great Sue Bird took their places in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday — making the 2025 WNBA class arguably the most dominant in HOF history.

"Now that I'm in the Hall, I believe I have become Auntie Maya," Moore said in her enshrinement speech. "I want to challenge you up-and-comers to learn to love and seek out joy and connection as your biggest motivator."

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With 11 Olympic gold medals — more than any other HOF group — and 10 league championships between them, plus countless individual honors, Fowles, Bird, and Moore comprise the strongest women's basketball Hall of Fame class in history.

Even more, this is the first year that the Naismith has added a full trio of WNBA players to its hallowed halls — a testament to the unmatched careers of Bird, Moore, and Fowles.

"Put us on a 3×3 team, you'd have some problems — we'd be pretty good," Bird joked. "It is pretty special to go in with people who aren't just amazing players, having impact on and off the court, but these are players that I got to experience life with."

"I think that would be fair to say that they would have the title of best class ever," Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve said.

The 2025 NWSL season for the No. 5 Orlando Pride has taken a sharp downturn, as the reigning league champions are now winless in their last seven games following Sunday's 5-2 loss to the No. 13 Chicago Stars at Northwestern University's Martin Stadium.

While left back Carson Pickett and defensive midfielder Haley McCutcheon each managed to take a goal back for the Pride, a leaky Orlando back line saw five different Stars players hit the back of the net — including a 10th goal on the season for Chicago star striker Ludmila.

"I apologize to the fans that were watching at home, and I apologize to the fans that were here with their support. That was not us today and we have to get it right," Pride head coach Seb Hines said following the match.

Orlando have continued to slide down the NWSL standings since their last win on June 13th, most recently logging three straight losses as the team struggles to find their form following MVP candidate Barbra Banda's season-ending injury on August 16th.

One of the Pride's rare bright spots on Sunday was record-breaking signee Lizbeth Ovalle, with the Mexican international subbing in at the half to make her NWSL debut.

Chicago, on the other hand, hasn't dropped a match since returning from the midseason summer break, with the surging Stars putting on a Sunday show in their impending lakefront home.

"I feel like it's just a really cool atmosphere, a lot more people can come now, and it's really good vibes," midfielder Julia Grosso said after the match.