Hand in hand, the Sidwell Friends players and coaches lined up at the edge of the hotel pool. Backs straight and faces giddy, the Quakers were ready to lift off.

The Quakers, long a middle-tier program in the D.C. area, took a massive leap in 2021-22, rolling to a perfect regular season, a conference title and a state championship. And on Saturday morning, coach Tamika Dudley’s team added one last piece of hardware to its collection, defeating Lake Highland Prep 50-39 in the inaugural State Champions Invitational (SCI) national title game after trouncing Centennial (Las Vegas) in the semifinal, 63-30.

When the Quakers returned to their Tampa hotel after the championship, around 1 p.m., their first stop was the pool. The players were still in their white jerseys; the coaches in their slacks and polos. Against a crystal blue sky and a throng of palm trees, the team that vaulted into the nation’s upper echelon capped its season with one last, cathartic jump.

“We were just trying to win the (D.C. State Athletic Association) championship this year,” Dudley said. “I wasn’t even thinking this big.”

Dudley’s players forced her hand. Sidwell Friends announced itself on the national stage on Dec. 11 when it defeated DeSoto, a team from Texas with seven Division I commits, by 18 points. Senior guard Kiki Rice, who would go on to win JWS Player of the Year honors, recorded 17 points, 13 rebounds and four assists in the 54-36 victory, a harbinger of things to come.

With that win, the Quakers entered winter break with a 5-0 record. When they finally returned to the court about a month later, Dudley found a team with a special swagger. At the center of it all was Rice, a superlative all-around talent with a stubbornly great mindset.

“There’s nothing I hate more,” the UCLA signee said, “than losing.”

Her teammates shared that sentiment. Junior Jadyn Donovan, a 6-foot junior, was Rice’s right-hand partner, averaging 15.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game.

But it was Donovan’s defense that took center stage when it mattered most in the SCI, an alternative to GEICO Nationals for programs that had competed in state championships. (Montverde claimed the GEICO crown the previous weekend.)

Late in the final against Lake Highland, the Highlanders went on a bit of a run with a couple of 3-pointers. Dudley put Donovan on Lake Highland’s lead facilitator, and Donovan responded with a number of blocks despite the fact she was running on fumes.

“I swear, that court was bigger than any court I’d ever played on,” Donovan said.

Donovan, who finished with 15 points, 11 rebounds, six blocks and four steals, scored the Quakers’ last basket when Rice (10 points and seven rebounds) tossed her an alley-oop in transition from just past half-court in the game’s final minute.

Exclamation point‼️ Rice to Donovan 😳 Sidwell Friends completes the perfect season and takes home an SCI championship 🏆 @SFSQuakers pic.twitter.com/Jz5hNFYo02

— SportsCenter NEXT (@SCNext) April 9, 2022

That was the lone assist of the contest for Rice, who had some trouble getting into a rhythm offensively. In her stead, Dudley’s daughter, sophomore forward Kendall, poured in a game-high 18 points.

“The (defense) slept off Kendall,” the coach said. “I told Kendall she needed to take shots. … She attacked the basket and scored for us at all three levels.”

When the Quakers got back to D.C., one co-worker congratulated Dudley, but then offered a challenge: They wanted to see Sidwell Friends, which went 30-0, win another national championship next season, but to do so even “better.”

“I was like, ‘I don’t even know if we can do it better,’” Dudley said. “We checked every single box this season.”

The Quakers, of course, will be without Rice, the conductor of this championship orchestra. But Sidwell Friends has a couple of tantalizing incoming transfers, and the team will retain much of its core with Donovan, rising junior point guard Leah Harmon (who averaged a team-high 16 points per game) and Kendall Dudley.

Donovan trusts in the foundation Sidwell Friends laid this year, setting the team up for long-term success.

“We built this,” she said.

Josh Needelman is the High School Sports Editor at Just Women’s Sports. Follow him on Twitter @JoshNeedelman.

There's just one WNBA preseason game left on the 2025 calendar, as 12 of the league's 13 teams wrapped exhibition play over the weekend ahead of Friday's regular-season tip-off.

The Chicago Sky became the latest team to lock in their 12-player roster on Sunday, joining the likes of the Indiana Fever in making tough final cuts.

To reach league compliance, Chicago waived Australian guard Alex Wilson, 2024 second-round draft pick Jessika Carter (Mississippi State), and former Mercury forward Morgan Bertsch.

Earning their official spots in the Sky's lineup are 2025 rookies Hailey Van Lith (TCU) and Maddy Westbeld (Notre Dame), the overall No. 11 and No. 16 picks, respectively, in April's draft.

Overall, the class of 2025 is performing well so far, with all first-round picks avoiding early roster cuts — though many teams are still deciding who will suit up on opening day.

Some second-rounders are also showing significant promise, with the Atlanta Dream's 18th overall pick Te-Hina PaoPao (South Carolina) scoring a team-leading 14 points against Indiana on Saturday.

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How to watch the final 2025 WNBA preseason game

Capping the 2025 WNBA preseason are the reigning champion New York Liberty, who will take on Japan's Toyota Antelopes on Monday night.

The exhibition will see Liberty stars Sabrina Ionescu and Nyara Sabally — who notably saw her contract extended through 2026 by New York on Monday afternoon — return to their University of Oregon alma mater for the clash.

The Liberty will tip off against the Antelopes at 10 PM ET, with live coverage airing on WNBA League Pass.

The 2031 Women's World Cup will expand to 48 teams, with the 16-team increase announced among other landmark decisions by the FIFA Council on Friday.

The decision to expand the World Cup aims to "broaden representation, offering more nations and players access to elite competition and accelerating investment in women's football worldwide," according to the FIFA release.

"The FIFA Women's World Cup 2023, the first in which teams from all confederations won at least one game and teams from five confederations reached the knockout stage, among many other records, set a new standard for global competitiveness," said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

"This decision ensures we are maintaining the momentum in terms of growing women’s football globally."

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The expanded 2031 World Cup, hosted by the US, will adopt a 12-group format, increasing the total number of matches from 64 to 104 while extending the competition for an additional week.

The World Cup expansion announcement comes on the heels of last month's increased Olympic tournament news, with the IOC boosting the women's soccer field to 16 teams at the 2028 LA Games.

The decision also puts the women's competition in line with the men's World Cup, which will feature FIFA's first 48-team tournament in 2026.

FIFA approves Afghan women's refugee team

In the same Friday announcement, the FIFA Council also approved the creation of an Afghanistan women's refugee team, which would provide evacuated Afghan women players the ability to compete on an officially recognized FIFA team.

While FIFA requires that national federations sponsor teams, the Afghan Football Federation ceased acknowledging its women's team once the Taliban-controlled government banned women's sports.

Originally formed by the country's Olympic Committee in 2007, the Afghanistan women's national team has not played a FIFA-recognized match since 2018, and most of its athletes fled the country amidst the Taliban's second takeover in 2021.

Since then, players have petitioned FIFA for the opportunity to compete. Their efforts earned a one-year trial phase from the governing body on Friday, though the success of the program could see it expanded to refugees from other nations in the future.

"We are happy that FIFA has created a pathway for Afghan players to finally return to the field," team founder and former captain Khalida Popal told CNN on Friday, adding that the squad "remain[s] hopeful FIFA can amend its statutes to provide official recognition for our players as the Afghanistan Women's National Team."

Popal — who helped hundreds of Afghans, including the team, escape the Taliban — previously said the team "could show the world that Afghan women and girls belong in sport, in school and everywhere in society — and we will not be defeated."

Chelsea FC is the first team in Women's Super League (WSL) history to claim an unbeaten 22-game season, adding the undefeated moniker to their sixth-straight league title with Saturday's 1-0 win over Liverpool.

The Blues' perfect season joins the previous unbeaten campaigns of 2012's Arsenal, 2016's Manchester City, and Chelsea's own 2018 squad — though those three teams did so in 14, 16, and 18 games, respectively.

Chelsea finishes the 2024/25 campaign with an astounding 19 wins and three draws, missing just six possible points on the table en route to their new WSL record of 60 points in a single season.

"As a manager, players, and staff, you only live these moments maybe once in your life," said Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor following Saturday's history-making win. "You need to enjoy it because it is a great achievement."

Trailing Chelsea's impressive winning tally by a full 12 points, Arsenal secured second place with a 4-3 victory over third-place Manchester United in their Saturday season finale.

WSL standouts secure individual 2024/25 awards

Though they missed the WSL's team trophy, the Gunners did claim some individual hardware this weekend, as voters selected midfielder Mariona Caldentey as the inaugural winner of the WSL Player of the Season award.

The 29-year-old Spain international led the league in shot creation, and put up nine goals and five assists on the WSL stat sheet this season.

Caldentey's teammate Alessia Russo also walked away with a trophy, sharing the Golden Boot with fourth-place Manchester City's Khadija "Bunny" Shaw after both forwards scored 12 goals each on the season.

Also sharing a stat-sheet title is Chelsea's Hannah Hampton and Manchester United's Phallon Tullis-Joyce, who claimed the 2024/25 WSL Golden Glove award behind 13 clean sheets apiece.

Meanwhile, the season's WSL Rising Star award went to ninth-place West Ham striker Shekiera Martinez. After spending the first half of the 2024/25 season on loan to Bundesliga side SC Freiburg, the 23-year-old German international notched an astounding 10 goals in her 12 total WSL matches.

Speaking of impressive scoring, Manchester City forward Vivianne Miedema's stellar chip against Aston Villa in January earned the Dutch star the 2024/25 WSL Goal of the Season title.

For the first time in program history, Texas A&M is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA softball tournament, with the Aggies staving off four-time reigning champion Oklahoma for the honor in Sunday's 2025 bracket drop.

After adverse weather canceled their conference title game on Saturday, the Aggies and No. 2-seed Sooners became 2025 SEC tournament co-champions, leaving the NCAA selection committee to lean heavily on each team's strength of schedule in making their top-seed decision.

"What set apart Texas A&M is they have 19 Top 25 wins, which is number one in the country," said NCAA softball committee chair Kurt McGuffin on Sunday's ESPN2 broadcast, noting the Aggies' tough nonconference schedule.

Taking on a lighter nonconference slate than usual due to massive roster turnover following the 2023/24 season, Oklahoma relied heavily on their record in a stacked SEC, finishing one half-game ahead of A&M in regular-season play.

While the Sooners look to extend their championship streak, the Aggies will be hunting their third national title and first since 1987.

Standing in their way in the 64-team bracket are a record number of familiar foes, as the SEC boasts 14 teams in the 2025 NCAA competition — the most from any single conference in tournament history.

Even more, nine of the bracket's 16 seeded teams hail from the SEC, and a full seven of the Top 8.

Conference champs, at-large teams score NCAA bracket spots

SEC squads aren't the only teams looking to topple Texas A&M and Oklahoma, however, as conference champions and other elite squads learned their tournament fates on Selection Sunday.

No. 5 Florida State is the highest seeded non-SEC team, despite falling 2-1 to No. 11-seed Clemson in Saturday's ACC title game. Along with No. 14-seed Duke, the ACC will see nine teams in the 2025 tournament.

Behind 2024 National Player of the Year NiJaree Canady — the nation's top pitcher — Texas Tech leads a five-team contingent from the Big 12 after securing both their conference tournament trophy and the national No. 12-seed this weekend.

In the weekend's most upset-filled conference tournament, unseeded Michigan outlasted both No. 9-seed UCLA and No. 16-seed Oregon to score a second straight Big Ten tournament title on Saturday, becoming one of eight teams repping the conference in Sunday's bracket.

Notably, the Bruins — the winningest program in NCAA softball history with 12 titles — have not entered the tournament lower than a No. 6 seed since 2016.

How to watch the 2025 NCAA softball tournament

The road to the 2025 Women's College World Series begins with Regionals, in which each of the 16 seeded teams will host a four-team double-elimination mini-tournament this weekend.

With a minimum of 96 games — and a possibility of 112 — Regional play begins at 12 PM ET on Friday, with the 64-team field narrowing to 16 by Sunday night.

All games will air live across ESPN's networks.