It wasn’t long after arriving in Texas at the end of June that Ebony Salmon learned her new team, the Houston Dash, had never made the NWSL playoffs.

Two and a half months later, with two weeks left in the regular season, Houston is on track to make club history. Currently fourth in the NWSL standings, they need just one win in their two remaining games against OL Reign on Saturday and the Washington Spirit on Oct. 1 to clinch a playoff berth.

Salmon has been a catalyst for the Dash’s success, putting together a standout season that seemed unlikely for her halfway through the season. With Racing Louisville for the first nine games, Salmon played a total of 70 minutes under head coach Kim Björkegren despite leading the team with six goals last season.

Since joining the Dash via a trade on June 27, the 21-year-old has scored nine goals — over a quarter of Houston’s total — in 909 minutes across through 11 matches. She’s also made back-to-back NWSL Teams of the Month in July and August, and as of July 16 she’s outscored two teams and every player in the league to skyrocket to fifth in the Golden Boot race.

One of the teams she’s outscored is Louisville.

“I’ve obviously had to prove people wrong, and having that weight on my shoulders makes me perform,” Salmon told Just Women’s Sports.

What a strike from Salmon @ebony_salmon | @HoustonDash pic.twitter.com/zRdvVSrOtX

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) September 18, 2022

What she’s learned about herself this year, as she’s balanced spending full games on Louisville’s bench to scoring at will with Houston, is that walking away isn’t an option. Her love of soccer will always motivate her to find a way back onto the field, even if at certain points this year she didn’t know when that time would come.

“If I wasn’t ready, I don’t think I would have had the start I did and scored the goals that I have, and the performances that I had,” Salmon said.

With the Dash, she’s also found confidence in playing with coaches and teammates who believe in her.

“Don’t let that one person make you think that you’re not good enough or you can’t do it because, as you’ve seen in my case, the next opportunity could be right around the corner,” she said. “One person might not think you’re the best player, and then the next person might think you’re the best in the world.”

.@ebony_salmon has outscored seven teams since July 16... we'll leave this one here #SDvHOU | #HoldItDown pic.twitter.com/M5ZGLsj2yT

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) August 21, 2022

Salmon’s success with the Dash has improved her case with the English women’s national team, for which she has one cap from February 2021. After being excluded from the 2022 Euro champions’ roster, she earned a call-up for friendlies against Austria and Luxembourg in early September.

At the end of a national team camp last September, England head coach Sarina Wiegman advised Salmon to work on her consistency. That became hard to do earlier this season when she wasn’t getting much playing time with Racing Louisville.

It didn’t take long into the 2022 season for Salmon to start considering a trade request. Before she could voice those thoughts, Louisville general manager James O’Connor, recognizing that Salmon wouldn’t be a part of their future plans, approached her with the same idea. On June 27, Louisville sent $150,000 in allocation money to Houston, with promises for more in 2023 as well as a performance-based incentive, in exchange for Salmon. That same day, Salmon signed a contract extension that will keep her in Houston through 2023.

With the Dash, Salmon not only exploded onto the scene, scoring a hat trick in just her third game, but she’s also maintained that level of play into the final stretch. In an open conversation at national team camp this month, Wiegman told Salmon she’s noticed improvements over the past year and gave her things to work on through the remainder of the season.

“The main thing was consistency,” Salmon said. “And I think I’m starting to find that now.”

Thinking about the Lionesses and the upcoming 2023 FIFA World Cup, however, will have to wait a few weeks.

“Within the next month and a half, I think my focus is completely on Houston and making playoffs, and then kind of going all the way in playoffs,” she said. “That’s what we want to do, that’s what everyone on the team wants to do, and I think we’ve seen that we’re capable of doing that.”

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.

UCLA-bound high school senior Sienna Betts led the West team to a decisive 104-82 victory over the East in the McDonald's All-American Girls Game held last night at New York's Barclays Center.

The 6'4" forward contributed 16 points, seven rebounds, and two assists, earning MVP honors for her performance. ​

Betts is currently the class of 2025's No. 2 overall recruit. Only Texas-based point guard Aaliyah Chavez, who recently committed to the Oklahoma Sooners, ranks above her.

Betts to join sister Lauren Betts at UCLA next year

Betts's performance is a good indicator of her potential impact at UCLA next year. There, she'll join forces with her sister Lauren Betts, the senior currently leading the Bruins to this season's NCAA Final Four after transferring in from Stanford.

The Betts sisters' arrival is highly anticipated, with Lauren opting to forgo the 2025 WNBA Draft in order to play out her final year of college eligibility alongside her little sister.

“For me, it [committing to UCLA] was a lot about how the coaches care about you off the court, and the coaches at UCLA, they really care about your mental health,” Betts told The Flagler College Gargoyle after committing last year. “Every team that I’ve ever been on, we’ve been a family… So, they really cared about that part of basketball for me, and they showed me that on my visits and when I called to talk to them.”

Betts in good company as McDonald's All-American Game MVP

In Brooklyn, Betts showcased her ability among the sport's best high school talent. Recent McDonald's All-American MVPs have all gone onto fuel prominent NCAA programs, including top-ranked recruits UConn's Sarah Strong, South Carolina's Joyce Edwards, USC's JuJu Watkins, Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo, and UCLA's own Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez.

The McDonald's All-American Game has a storied history of highlighting promising players, with past MVPs subsequently laying the foundation for future superstars.

Less than a day after Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles shocked the women’s basketball world by opting to enter the transfer portal rather than declare for the 2025 WNBA Draft, the Irish’s transfer fall-out has continued.

Sophomore guard Emma Risch and freshman forward Kate Koval have also entered the portal, with Koval — who started in 10 games this season — leading the Irish in blocks.

Between transfer moves and graduating seniors, sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo remains Notre Dame’s only returning starter — a sharp turn for an Irish squad ranked No. 1 in the country just six weeks ago.

Other top NCAA programs see transfer portal movement

Notre Dame isn’t the only top-tier program experiencing a roster shakeup after exiting the 2025 NCAA tournament.

LSU sophomore forward Sa'myah Smith entered the transfer portal after the Tigers’ season ended in Sunday’s Elite Eight. USC sophomore guard Aaliyah Gayles subsequently followed suit after the Trojans fell to UConn on Monday.

Schools like TCU have become national contenders via the transfer portal, with the Horned Frogs recruiting both Hailey Van Lith and Sedona Prince ahead of their first-ever Elite Eight run. Former Kentucky center Clara Silva is the latest transfer to commit to TCU, as the team comes off their best tournament finish in school history.

The modern era of NCAA roster-building is upon us, with top players taking the reigns as ambitious teams scramble to fill offseason gaps.

The NWSL is looking to sign a new Sunday night TV deal, according to a Sports Business Journal report published this week.

The league is targeting a two-year deal starting in 2026, with both new and existing TV partners interested in picking up additional NWSL games.

NWSL looks to build on multimillion dollar TV deal

The NWSL is currently two years into a four-year, $240 million TV partnership with ESPN, Prime, ION, and CBS Sports. However, the current contract doesn’t cover the entire schedule. And with league expansion planned for 2026, even more inventory is on the way.

SBJ notes that the market for this season’s lineup has been strong. In fact, all four media partners have already sold out all their 2025 advertising slots.

“You cannot find a place to spend right now,” IMG’s Hillary Mandel said at a recent Business of Soccer event hosted by SBJ. “We know what’s motivating interest is the fact that there’s no place to invest. That’s a phenomenal story in such a short period of time."

ESPN spotlighted for TV network-owned Sunday lineup

ESPN could be a prime candidate for a Sunday package, with the network set to move on from Sunday Night Baseball after the 2025 MLB season.

The NWSL has traditionally leaned into network-owned nights, with Prime airing Friday night matchups and ION running Saturday double-headers.

The NWSL’s most recent contract subsequently added serious value to the league. And the returns have networks coming back for more, setting up a potential bidding war and easing growing pains as new teams join the fold.

UCLA will hit the court for their first-ever NCAA Final Four on Friday, but as they extend the most successful season in program history, the Bruins have looked anything but green.

“We said talent was going to be our floor,” UCLA head coach Cori Close said after Sunday’s Elite Eight win over LSU. “Our character, our chemistry, our habits were going to be our ceiling.”

With just two losses on the season, UCLA’s status as a first-rate NCAA title contender has actually been years in the making.

Roster-building paves the way to the Final Four

In 2022, the Bruins signed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country, stacking their roster with top high school standouts Gabriela Jaquez, Kiki Rice, and Londynn Jones.

UCLA then upped their game even further last year, when 2022 No. 1 overall recruit Lauren Betts transferred in from Stanford — a move that fueled the Bruins all the way to the Sweet 16 with the promise of even greater success.

“Everyone came to UCLA for this reason: to do something we haven't done in a really long time,” Jaquez said on Sunday. “[I’m] just really proud of my teammates, the staff, the coaches, just continuing to get better every day and grow from each season prior.

With Lauren Betts at center, UCLA leans on depth

As one of the most dominant post players in college basketball, Betts is at the literal center of every UCLA performance. But that doesn’t mean the Bruins lack the depth it takes to handle a team like Final Four opponent UConn.

“When we have a deep team, I don’t have to be in the game at all times,” Betts said. “I have a team full of players who are just amazing and talented in their own right, and they put in the work.”

All in all, UCLA is coming into their own after developing much of its squad from the ground-up. Now it's time to make the case that patient roster-building can pay off on NCAA basketball’s biggest stage.