Inside Conroe High School’s gymnasium in Conroe, Texas, Ariana Brown makes her presence known, and the brand new member of the Tigers is already earning her stripes with 53 sets under her belt this season.

Brown is a 5-foot-11 outside hitter with a formidable arm — she’s earned the nickname “Texas Hammer” from her hometown crowd — and she can’t help but smile.

After all, the senior leads the team in kills with 278, including 34 on Thursday alone when the Tigers won three matches to extend their record to 25-0 on the year. In all, Brown racked up 83 kills over the week, an impressive span that’s earned her Just Women’s Sports Player of the Week honors.

While Brown is new to Conroe High, she’s no stranger to success. As a junior at Klein, she led the team with 481 kills and 67 aces, securing a second team spot on the All-Greater Houston postseason list. During the summer, she left to join Conroe, a 45-minute drive from home, in part to play under the guidance of her mother, coach Charvette Brown.

“From Day 1, they welcomed her with open arms,” coach Brown said. “They embraced her joining the program. I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

This makes me so happy. She is very humble and doesn’t like to talk about herself like ever. You deserve this and so much more mom/coach. Love you😘 https://t.co/dmFpynjV55

— Ariana Brown (@Arianabrownn15) August 24, 2022

During her first match with Conroe, Ariana dazzled. She tallied 22 kills in the 3-0 win over Lufkin, including her 1,000th career kill, and while that feat was impressive, Ariana isn’t done. With two months left in the season, she wants to reach 1,600 career kills.

She’s currently outperforming her previous seasons, including an impressive sophomore season where she led Klein to the state championship. With her leadership and technical skill set, Ariana has propelled the Tigers to a historic first — an unprecedented start that has them positioned as the top-ranked team in Class 6A.

“We needed that spark,” coach Brown said. “When she came, it almost made the other players say, ‘We can do this.’ She’s upped their level of play.”

All the while, Ariana is basking in the joy of newfound camaraderie — a family at Conroe. She says it’s the key to the team’s success.

“Our slogan for this year is, ‘One team, one mission,’” Ariana said. “We’re all just together. It’s just always good energy.”

In May, Ariana committed to continue her playing career at the University of Louisiana Monroe, where she plans to study nursing.

“I want to be in a field where I can help people,” Ariana said. “I like taking care of people.”

Nika Anschuetz is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @nlanschuetz.

Football Manager is expanding its virtual horizons, with the popular soccer video game's latest release — FM26 — featuring women's teams for the first time in history.

The FM26 lineup spans some 40,000 players across 14 leagues, including the NWSL, the UK's WSL and WSL2, Germany's Frauen-Bundesliga, Italy's Serie A, and Japan's WE League as well as the UEFA Women's Champions League.

Football Manager's new women's soccer offering follows similar moves from other video game entities, with EA Sports also expanding its integration of women's teams and players across its NHL, FC, and NBA2K games in recent years.

Launched in 2004 by British developer Sports Interactive and gaming giant Sega, Football Manager puts users in the driver's seat of their favorite teams, navigating club finances, player transfers, tactics, and even training plans in the hunt for success.

To mimic the manager role most realistically, FM amasses extensive data on players and clubs — with that information bank now so deep on the men's side that clubs have employed it for scouting purposes for over 10 years.

The road to launching a similarly real-world women's game required similar stat-gathering, a project which began in 2021.

"An army of people from the women's game helped us, who wanted us to ensure that women's football was properly represented," said Sports Interactive studio director Miles Jacobson.

Football Manager also recreated their motion capture models using former WSL and WSL2 professional players, twins Mollie and Rosie Kmita, to accurately portray women's movement and body structure in FM26.

"Growing up, I would never have imagined playing Football Manager because it wasn't a space for us," Mollie told BBC Sport. "I think we're about to engage a whole new audience and I'm excited to see how this community continues to grow."

How to play Football Manager 26

FM26 is currently available for download across multiple gaming platforms.

With the 2026 Winter Olympics only a few months away, hockey giants Canada and the USA are hitting the ice, tuning up for February's global showdown with the pair's annual Rivalry Series.

The four-game slate kicks off in Cleveland, Ohio, on Thursday before the titans clash again in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday, with the 2025 Rivalry Series finishing up with two games in Edmonton, Alberta, next month.

This sixth edition of the series will serve as both teams' final international face-offs before heading to Milan, Italy, where five-time Olympic champions Canada will aim to repeat their 2022 gold-medal run while the two-time winning US will hunt a return to the top of the podium.

No other nation has ever won Olympic gold in the seven editions of the women's hockey competition.

The last time the pair met was in April's IIHF World Championship final, in which the US topped Canada 4-3 to lift the 2025 trophy — though Canada holds the all-time head-to-head advantage with a 106-82 record.

Four-time Olympian Hilary Knight and three-time Olympian Kendall Coyne Schofield headline Team USA's Rivalry Series squad, backed by 11 additional US Olympians.

Longtime Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin leads her side, alongside 20 of her fellow 2025 IIHF Worlds silver medalists.

How to watch the 2025 Canada vs. USA Rivalry Series

The puck drops on the four-game docket in Cleveland at 7 PM ET on Thursday before the teams take the ice in Buffalo at 6 PM ET on Saturday.

Both games will air live on the NHL Network.

After crashing out of their first-ever Final Four last season, No. 3 UCLA enters their 2025/26 campaign with heightened promise and added depth as the new-look Bruins take aim at another deep NCAA basketball tournament run.

"This is probably the most complete team I've ever coached, and I think if we can stay healthy and stay focused, we're going to have big things ahead," head coach Cori Close told JWS ahead of this week's season tip-off.

"We have an abundance of opportunities to invest in each other," she continued. "We have an abundance of ways in which we can improve week by week, and we're going to stay focused on those."

The Bruins' success could hinge on next year's projected No. 1 WNBA draft pick Lauren Betts, though Close indicated that teamwork would be key to unlocking the senior center's full potential.

"We both agreed she needs to have less minutes than in the past, and honestly, maybe even less shots, but more efficiency," said Close. "Everybody wins that way, including Lauren."

Recent transfers like former Utah forward Gianna Kneepkins and ex-Washington State guard Charlisse Leger-Walker should balance the 2025/26 UCLA basketball lineup alongside top freshman recruit — and Betts's little sister — Sienna.

How to watch UCLA basketball this week

While forward Sienna's NCAA debut has been postponed due to a lower leg injury, UCLA fans can catch the elder Betts and the rest of the No. 3 Bruins in action against unranked UC Santa Barbara at 2:30 PM ET on Thursday, streaming live on B1G+.

Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball is gearing up for its 2026 return to the court, dropping all six-player team rosters plus a six-athlete development pool ahead of its expanded eight-squad second season on Wednesday.

Reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers was the distribution draft's first pick, with the Dallas Wings star joining expansion side Breeze BC under recently dismissed Seattle Storm head coach Noelle Quinn.

Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell went second, set to lead fellow expansion team Hive BC under head coach Rena Wakama.

Not every Unrivaled lineup saw significant changes, however, with reigning champion Rose BC returning four of their six original players while all inaugural teams opted to protect at least one top performer.

Napheesa Collier and Skylar Diggins are back on the Lunar Owls, Kahleah Copper and Chelsea Gray remained with Rose BC, and Alyssa Thomas and Jackie Young will encore for the Laces while the Vinyl protected Dearica Hamby and Rhyne Howard.

Even non-playoff teams held onto key talent, with Satou Sabally returning to the Phantom and Breanna Stewart staying with the Mist.

A trio of 2025 WNBA rookies also headline Unrivaled's new development group, with Chicago Sky guard Hailey Van Lith, Indiana Fever forward Makayla Timpson, and Dallas Wings guard Aziaha James part of the six-player group that will fill in across the league to offset any injuries during the season.

How to buy 2026 Unrivaled player jerseys

While Bueckers's Breeze BC replica jersey sold out just minutes after Wednesday's roster reveal and subsequent merchandise drop, fans can gear up for the 2026 Unrivaled season by snagging other player's jerseys from the Unrivaled shop.

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The 2026 Unrivaled team rosters