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AU Volleyball in Week 3: Sheilla Castro having a breakout season

Sheilla Castro rises to block a shot for Team De La Cruz. (Jade Hewitt/Athletes Unlimited)

Two weeks into Athletes Unlimited’s Volleyball season, the action is delivering on its promise. Week 3 begins Wednesday night amid continued shifts atop the leaderboard.

Bethania De La Cruz moved into first place with 1,779 total points, while last week’s leader, Dani Drews, fell to third wth 1,413 points. In between them is Karsta Lowe, who finished fifth last season, with 1,455 points. Sheilla Castro has moved into fourth with 1,319 points.

The competition remains tight atop the leaderboard, albeit a little less so than in Week 2. A few new faces have moved into the top 10, and others have simply shifted or remained in place. While De La Cruz holds a firm lead of 324 points, a mere 212 points separates fifth and 10th place.

Just Women’s Sports has a few storylines to follow as the competition resumes Wednesday.

Bethania De La Cruz secures the top spot

Bethania De La Cruz took command of the leaderboard in Week 2, though her lead is by no means safe.

De La Cruz showcased her draft savvy in Week 2, as her team helped her set the single-match kills record during their loss Friday to Team Stivrins. With 27 kills in that game, De La Cruz is now third in the league with 87 through the first two weeks of the season. Karsta Lowe is first with 94. The outside hitter also has 66 digs on the season.

Can anyone catch De La Cruz in Week 3? While it seems unlikely that she would surrender her lead given how dominant she’s looked through two weeks of play, a bad game or two could put any one of the league’s top players right back in the mix.

De La Cruz also has extra motivation on her side, looking to take care of unfinished business after finishing as runner-up to AU champion Jordan Larson last season.

The Sheilla Castro show

For the first time in her Athletes Unlimited career, Sheilla Castro is a captain.

Through just two weeks, Castro has made major improvements over last season. On Saturday, the opposite hitter posted a career-high 17 kills against Team Drews for a season-high 329 points in a single game. She added to her 654 total points in Week 1 with 653 more in Week 2.

Castro’s surge should not come as a surprise. A member of the Brazilian national team, she is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and has won eight championships while playing overseas in Brazil, Turkey and Italy.

Castro is on pace to improve upon last season’s performance by nearly 1,000 points, and if she keeps it up, she could accomplish even more than that.

Into the top 10

Two of the biggest stars in Week 2, Leah Edmond and Nomaris Vélez Agosto also entered the top 10.

Edmond recorded 200-plus points in the final two games of the week. Her best performance came Saturday, when she posted a career-high 19 kills against Team Valentin-Anderson. As she steadily climbs, Edmond already has amassed nearly half of her point total from last year. The outside hitter currently sits in eighth place, 25 points behind seventh place and fewer than 200 points behind fourth-place captain Sheilla Castro.

Vélez Agosto, the 2021 Defensive Player of the Year, has also shown improvements from last season. On Wednesday against Team Valentin-Anderson, she recorded a career-high 18 digs for Team De La Cruz.

Vélez Agosto began last season on a tear and tapered off toward the end. Her consistency will be an X-factor in the last three weeks of this AU season.

Emma Hruby is an associate editor at Just Women’s Sports.

USC’s Aaliyah Gayles Opens Up About Her Journey Back to Basketball

USC Basketball - Aaliyah Gayles

As part of our 1-v-1 video series, USC’s India Otto sat down to interview her teammate Aaliyah Gayles. Here are five things to know from our conversation with the redshirt freshman guard from Las Vegas.

#1 Aaliyah suffered from a near-death act of violence in 2022.

The incident taught her a lot about herself and the support around her. “[USC] Coach Lindsay [Gottlieb] was one of the first people to fly out there and come see me. That means a lot to me off the court.” 

#2 Her favorite USC memory is when she surprised her teammates after getting out of the hospital.

She left her walker at the door to show she was on the road to returning to the court. “That was my favorite memory because it was family. It was my first time being able to walk to you guys and see you practice.”

#3 There's a reason she wears #3.

#3 was her grandpa’s favorite number and a golden number in her life. Plus, AG3 has a nice ring to it. 

#4 She has a list of basketball GOAT’s:

Candace Parker, Magic Johnson, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, and Cason Wallace.

#5 There have been many celebrity appearances at USC’s games over the years, especially this season.

Aaliyah’s favorites include Will Ferrell, Kehlani, and Saweetie. And she hopes Lil Durk will come to watch a game soon.

Watch the full conversation on the Just Women’s Sports YouTube channel.

Gotham, USWNT forward Midge Purce out with ACL tear

(Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports)

Midge Purce announced on Wednesday that she has torn her ACL. 

The Gotham FC and USWNT forward went down with the injury on Sunday during Gotham’s 1-0 win after tweaking it earlier in the game. Gotham coach Juan Carlos Amorós did not have any immediate updates following the match, with further evaluation revealing the tear. 

“It’s a reality I’m still struggling with and has left me with not too much to say,” Purce wrote in a statement on social media. “I’m heartbroken to no longer be available for my season with Gotham FC or for Olympic selection with the USWNT – know I’m rooting for you both all year long. 

“Though you may not see it, I’ll be doing everything I can to get back on the field.”

Purce is just the latest women's soccer star to tear her ACL, and joins USWNT teammate Mia Fishel in having torn her ACL in the last couple of months. Other notable players include Catarina Macario and Christen Press, with Macario only just returning to the USWNT lineup after tearing hers in 2022. 

International stars such as Alexia Putellas, Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema and Leah Williamson have also suffered ACL tears. 

Purce’s injury caused Amorós to call out the international schedule, which has been a growing point of concern as more players fall victim to injuries and the playing schedule becomes more packed. Kansas City’s Debinha suffered a hamstring injury in the team’s opening game, while both Lynn Williams and Rose Lavelle have yet to play for Gotham due to injuries picked up during the W Gold Cup. 

“We lost Midge during the game which for me is a bittersweet flavor,” Amorós told reporters after Sunday’s game. “By the way, it’s another player that came from the Gold Cup. Last week, it was Debinha. We are paying the consequences of a tournament that shouldn’t have happened.”

“We’re talking about protecting the players, [who shouldn’t] go to play an international competition after one week of preseason,” Amorós continued. “We’ve seen the consequences now. We’ve got Rose, Lynn, last week it was Debinha in Kansas [City] and now we have Midge. From my experience, the clubs are going to keep paying for that competition."

In her statement, Purce said that “so many friends, teammates and even players I’ve only ever competed against” reached out to offer support. 

“I am so blessed,” she wrote. “Your messages have meant so much to me throughout this process, you have consoled what, for a moment, felt inconsolable. Thank you for reminding me that our football world is not only full with incredibly talent but also, incredible kindness.”

Lauren Jackson included on Australia Olympics roster

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - OCTOBER 01: Lauren Jackson of Australia celebrates with team mates after playing her final Opals game during the 2022 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 3rd place match between Canada and Australia at Sydney Superdome, on October 01, 2022, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)

Lauren Jackson has come out of retirement once again to compete for a spot on Australia’s Olympic roster. 

Jackson was included on the 26-player roster named by coach Sandy Brondello on Tuesday that will take part in training camps, tours and games in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics. The roster will eventually be whittled down to just 12 players selected from the 26 named on Tuesday.

Jackson helped Australia qualify for the Olympics with a win over Germany in February. After that, she announced her retirement, revealing that she struggled to spend so much time away from her two young children. 

The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported that Jackson and the basketball federation had come to an agreement in which they would help cover costs for her children to travel with the team for training camps and the Olympics. 

She’s largely expected to make the Opals’ Olympic roster. 

"It's always an exciting time to announce an Olympic squad and I congratulate all the athletes," Opals coach Sandy Brondello said. "They all know what it means to play for Australia and they all want the opportunity to represent their country at an Olympics. Our squad is full of exceptional talent and they will make the decision to pick a final 12 very difficult."

At the 2022 FIBA World Cup, Jackson helped Australia win a bronze medal with 30 points against Canada. She had previously retired in 2016 due to knee injuries, but slowly made a return in a domestic Australian league the last few years.

Jackson has won four Olympic medals, including three consecutive silver medals starting with Sydney in 2000 when she was a teenager. 

First two rounds of NCAA tournament boast record attendance, viewership

(David K Purdy/Getty Images)

The first two rounds of the women’s NCAA tournament broke attendance and viewership records set just last year – and it wasn’t even close. 

The NCAA announced on Tuesday that attendance for the first two rounds of the tournament was more than 292,000 – up from last year’s record, when almost 232,000 fans attended the first two rounds.

Among the host sites, Iowa had the biggest crowds with nearly 29,000 fans packing Carver-Hawkeye Arena in the first and second rounds. 

"We expected the historic success and quality of play and high level of competition from the regular season would carry through into March Madness. Our championship is again delivering," NCAA vice president of women's basketball Lynn Holzman said in a statement. "Record crowds, ratings, incredible performances and evolving storylines will continue to make the next two weeks a must-see for fans across the world."

And for those that couldn’t attend the sold-out Iowa games, they watched on television. Monday’s matchup between Iowa and West Virginia drew 4.9 million viewers, setting a record for a women’s D-I tournament game prior to the Final Four. 

It is also the third most watched tournament game in the last 20 years, behind last year’s national championship between LSU and Iowa (9.92 million) and Iowa’s Final Four win over South Carolina (5.6 million).

Iowa’s game against Holy Cross in the first round drew 3.23 million viewers. 

But it wasn’t just Iowa drawing big viewership. ESPN’s five games on Monday averaged 2.25 million viewers. UConn and Syracuse drew 2.05 million viewers while LSU and Middle Tennessee on ABC drew 2.01 million viewers on Sunday. 

The full, 16-game slate for the second round averaged 1.4 million viewers – a 121% increase from last year and the highest average ever for the second round.

The full tournament so far is averaging 812,000 viewers per game, a 108% increase from last year.

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