No. 7 USC took down No. 4 UConn on Saturday, winning 72-70 in a battle between two bonafide NCAA basketball championship contenders still figuring out a consistent flow of play.
USC led by as many as 18 in the first half. However UConn came storming back, briefly pulling ahead in the fourth quarter before the Trojans outlasted the Huskies to secure the narrow victory.
JuJu holds on to secure USC win
With UConn superstar Paige Bueckers tight on her heels, USC standout JuJu Watkins registered a game-leading 25 points, alongside six rebounds, five assists, and three blocks.
Bueckers and Huskies freshman Sarah Strong split scoring duties for UConn, notching 22 points each with Strong adding 11 rebounds.
After opening the season at No. 2, this highly touted UConn squad has dropped pivotal games against Notre Dame and now USC to go 0-2 in Top 10 matchups. It's a pattern legendary coach Auriemma will hope to correct before the Huskies face their next ranked opponent in early February.
"I thought the execution part in the first half was just as bad as I've seen in a few years here in Connecticut," Huskies boss Geno Auriemma said after the loss.
"This is a really significant win, and it's a really significant win because of the stature of UConn's program and what Geno Auriemma has done for our sport," commented USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb.
Weekend upsets shake top-ranked NCAA basketball teams
Elsewhere, upsets dominated the NCAA basketball conversation this weekend, with Top 25 contenders falling short as this season's undefeated list continues to shrink.
No. 15 Michigan State saw their first loss on Friday, falling to unranked Alabama 82-67 in a low scoring matchup. Afterwards, No. 9 Duke suffered their own unranked loss on Saturday, ceding a tough defensive battle to USF 65-56.
Seventeenth-ranked Georgia Tech remains undefeated with Saturday's ranked win over No. 23 Nebraska, while No. 14 West Virginia lost to unranked Colorado later that day.
Parity is the name of the game this season, with conference realignment, the transfer portal, and other recent shifts impacting a number of programs across the NCAA. And with conference play looming, teams will rely on regional rivalries and schedule strength to prepare them for heightened competition in the new year.
Penn State won the 2024 NCAA Volleyball Championship on Sunday, rising above Louisville's hometown advantage and a monster second set by the Cardinals to claim the program's eighth all-time title and first in 10 years.
In the victory, Penn State head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley became the first woman head coach in NCAA tournament history to win the championship — all while battling breast cancer.
Penn State tops Louisville in a back-and-forth matchup
Sunday's championship game drew a sell-out crowd of 21,860 to the KFC Yum Center in downtown Louisville, setting a new NCAA volleyball championship record. It was Louisville's second-ever title match, after finishing second to Texas in 2022.
After suffering an ankle injury in Thursday's semifinal upset against Pitt, however, Louisville entered the match without senior outside hitter Anna DeBeer. The absence ultimately proved too great to overcome.
The Nittany Lions won the first set 25-23, before Louisville saved 10 set points to dramatically take the second set 34-32.
But the Nittany Lions roared back, overwhelming the Cardinals to win the third set 25-20 before closing out the deciding set 25-17.
A moving win for Penn State's women's volleyball coach
Penn State coach Schumacher-Cawley, who was diagnosed with cancer last fall, stayed with her team throughout the 2024 season.
"I'm very happy for Katie, and it's a big deal for this sport," Louisville head coach Dani Busboom Kelly said. "I'm thankful… that we can move on and that more women will be in this position in the future."
As for Schumacher-Cawley, she remained ever humble.
"I'm inspired by the young kids that are sick," she said after the win. "If I can be an inspiration, then I take that. But I feel good. I'm fortunate to be surrounded by so many great people."
The new-look New York Sirens continue to impress in the early stages of the 2024/25 PWHL season, most recently notching a big 4-2 win over Toronto in the the team home opener on Wednesday.
All four of New York's goals came in the second period — the most in a single period all season — and all were the first goals of the season by each scorer.
Finland international Noora Tulus opened the game's scoring with her first PWHL goal, with teammates Emmy Fecteau, Micah Zandee-Hart, and Jaime Bourbonnais following suit. Both Fecteau's goal and team captain Zandee-Hart's were the first of their PWHL careers.
Sirens rookie Sarah Fillier and teammate Alex Carpenter both assisted on Tulus's game-opening goal, with each booking a point in their fourth straight contest. Fillier remains in the PWHL's lead with two goals and five assists for a total of seven points, while Carpenter is just behind with six points — though her three goals make her the league's scoring leader.
As for the Sceptres, forwards Hannah Miller and former Siren Emma Woods each made a dent in the scoresheet with goals of their own in the third period, but it wasn't quite enough as Toronto failed to complete the comeback.
Last-place Toronto has now allowed their opponents to breach the scoresheet first in each of their 2024/25 matchups, ultimately losing their last three games in regulation.
New York Sirens to face Minnesota Frost in top matchup
New York's shifting fortune highlights the second-season league's rapidly growing parity. With only one loss through their first four games, the Sirens sit in second place to stake an early season claim on "most improved" after finishing last in the PWHL's inaugural season.
Just above New York on the league's table are the Minnesota Frost. The reigning Walter Cup champions are holding strong as the team to beat, but New York has already proved that it's possible after handing Minnesota an overtime 4-3 season-opening loss on December 1st.
The Sirens' will officially take aim at the top of the PWHL table on Sunday, when New York will try to gift Minnesota a second season loss in the league's pre-Christmas closer. This time, the Sirens will have the crowd on their side as the Frost visit New York's home ice.
How to watch New York Sirens vs. Minnesota Frost in PWHL action
The puck is set to drop on New York vs. Minnesota at 12 PM ET on Sunday, with live streaming coverage on YouTube.
Despite being populated by all four No. 1 seeds, Thursday's 2024 NCAA volleyball semifinals served up the bracket's biggest upsets, as heavily favored Nebraska and overall top seed Pitt were sent packing by their conference foes.
In front of 21,726 fans — a new record for college volleyball's postseason — Louisville shocked Pitt with a 3-1 victory before Penn State ousted Nebraska in a five-set instant classic.
Louisville books second national championship ticket
After dropping their first set to Pitt on Thursday night, it seemed the deck was stacked against the Cards, who had already lost twice to the Panthers in the regular season.
However, buoyed by their raucous home crowd, Louisville surged back, sweeping the next three sets to book their first trip to the national championship match since 2022, when they became the first and only ACC team to ever compete in the collegiate final.
As for Pitt, Thursday's loss was just their second all season, and not even 2024 AVCA Player of the Year Olivia Babcock's astounding 33 kills could extend their title chase. Notably, their national semifinal curse continues, with the Panthers now falling in the NCAA tournament's penultimate round for four straight years.
On the other hand, Louisville's victory was a true team effort, with three senior outside hitters — Anna DeBeer, Charitie Luper, and Sofia Maldonado Diaz — leading the offensive charge with 14 kills each.
The Cardinals' roster was also required to step up in unexpected ways. Just two points into the fourth set, Louisville star DeBeer crumbled to the court with an ankle injury and did not return to the match. The visibly shocked Cards looked to freshman Payton Petersen, who made a massive statement by recording two kills and four clutch digs to help seal the win.
"I wanted to do this for her," Petersen said of DeBeer. "She's meant so much to me."
Penn State roars back to top Nebraska
In Thursday's battle between two Big Ten titans, the message was clear: Never count out the Nittany Lions.
After falling behind the Cornhuskers 2-0 in what increasingly looked like an inevitable Nebraska victory, Penn State emerged from the brink of defeat to pull off the first reverse sweep of the Huskers in the NCAA tournament since 1982.
Following a 5-0 run that helped the Nittany Lions stay alive with a third set win, they flipped a 22-16 deficit into a match-point battle that ended the fourth set 28-26 in Penn State's favor. With the match now equalized, Penn State took control in the fifth, holding off Nebraska 15-13 to clinch their first championship trip since winning their seventh title in 2014.
Star Jess Mruzik led the Nittany Lions' charge with a 26-kill, 12-dig double-double, putting together what Nebraska head coach John Cook called "one of the best performances [he's] ever seen by an outside hitter."
Like Louisville's Petersen, freshmen also stepped up for Penn State, with Izzy Starck recording six key blocks and redshirt freshman Caroline Jurevicius hammering 20 kills against her former team, having transferred from Nebraska in December 2023.
As for the Huskers, their stacked roster showed out, with outside hitter Harper Murray leading the charge with a 20-kill, 15-dig double-double, plus three aces — the most by any player in either match on Thursday. Middle blocker Andi Jackson also had a standout night, putting together a near-errorless performance to finish with 19 kills.
Four-time All-American libero Lexi Rodriguez added program history to Thursday's mix, closing out her NCAA career as the Huskers' all-time digs leader with 1,896.
Sunday's court will make NCAA history
Louisville and Penn State's semifinal victories have guaranteed that Sunday's 44th NCAA volleyball championship match will go down in the history books.
With Dani Busboom Kelly leading the Cardinals and Katie Schumacher-Cawley coaching the Nittany Lions, a woman head coach will lift the national championship trophy for the first time.
Only two women have ever coached their teams into the college volleyball final, with Florida's Mary Wise doing so in 2003 and 2017 before Busboom Kelly followed in 2022.
For context, the last seven Division I basketball trophies came under women head coaches.
The fact that this glass ceiling still exists is partially due to volleyball having less women in head coaching positions than other NCAA sports. Less than half of Division I's 334 teams are led by a woman, while basketball boasts nearly 68% female leadership and softball claims almost 74%.
Busboom Kelly's ACC exceeds that 50% stat, but the Schumacher-Cawley remains one of only six women leading the Big Ten's 18 teams.
Both of Sunday's sideline leaders know what it takes to win the national championship, with Schumacher-Cawley taking the 1999 title while playing for Penn State and Busboom Kelly doing the same with Nebraska in 2006.
Even so, in some ways, this year's title will mean even more, as the coaches pave the way for future generations of volleyball leaders.
"[There’s] just honestly no better feeling than being led by a female because that could be me someday, that could be one of my teammates someday," Mruzik noted.
How to watch the 2024 NCAA volleyball championship match
Sunday's final won't just make women's coaching history, it could see Louisville earn the ACC's first-ever NCAA volleyball title. But to do so, the Cardinals, who fell to Penn State 3-0 in early September, will have to deny the Nittany Lions an eighth national championship.
NCAA volleyball will crown its Division I champion in Sunday's 3 PM ET match, with live coverage on ABC.
For the first time, USWNT and Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman is opening up in unprecedented detail about her famous father, NBA legend Dennis Rodman, discussing him on Wednesday’s episode of the popular podcast "Call Your Daddy."
While having previously discussed their estranged relationship in brief, the 22-year-old enters "new territory" in sharing this amount of detail.
Speaking to host Alex Cooper, Rodman described a financially controlling, partying alcoholic who was mostly absent after her parents’ divorce, and at one time left his children and their mother to briefly live in their car.
"I think he's an extremely selfish human being," Rodman told Cooper. "I think everything has always been about him."
An NWSL breaking point
In 2021, Dennis unexpectedly showed up to Rodman’s NWSL quarterfinal match — the first and only he ever attended — causing the then-19-year-old to become emotional.
"I was so mad. I was like 'You took this happy moment from me. You f***ed with my head again,'" Rodman said. "I’m walking over [to him] so mad... he grabs my head and I just start bawling into his arms as if it’s a daddy-daughter [moment]."
That embrace was captured in a viral photo that was misconstrued as familial joy, rather than anger and overwhelm.
After Dennis expressed that he wanted to see her more in what Rodman calls a "wholesome" post-match catchup, she once again grew optimistic about building a relationship, but instead received total "radio silence" that lasted until late 2023.
"I think after that was when I lost hope in ever getting him back," she said. "Even at that game, I don’t think that was for me. I think he wanted to have a good conscience and then be like, headline, Dennis Rodman showed up to his daughter's game."
Today, Rodman has almost no relationship with her father, though she does answer when he calls.
"If something does happen, God forbid, I want to know that I did that. Or if he needed to hear my voice," she said. "That’s why I answer the phone, not for me."
"He's not a dad. Maybe by blood but nothing else. Hearing his voice is painful."
Gotham FC and USWNT forward Lynn Williams is being traded to the Seattle Reign, according to multiple reports late Wednesday.
Sports Illustrated reports that Williams and goalkeeper Cassie Miller will join the Reign in exchange for midfielder Jaelin Howell and an undisclosed transfer fee.
Though still unconfirmed, the move reportedly comes at Williams’s request, with the 31-year-old Olympic gold medalist hoping to close out her club career on the West Coast, closer to her California home.
In her two seasons at Gotham, Williams scored 11 goals and tallied four assists en route to back-to-back NWSL Playoff runs.
Williams is a major score for Seattle
The addition of Williams — the NWSL’s all-time leading scorer and third on the career assists list — would be a massive win for the Reign, who are in desperate need of firepower after posting the league’s fourth-worst goal count and finishing in 13th place last season.
Plus, Williams knows how to win, arguably more than nearly any other player in the league.
Since entering the NWSL in 2015, Williams has lifted trophies with all three of her clubs, earning championships with the Western New York Flash (2016), the NC Courage (2018, 2019), and Gotham FC (2023). Those four titles surpass every other NWSL athlete except McCall Zerboni, who coincidentally was Williams's teammate for all of those championships.
That title-winning aptitude would be clutch for Seattle, who are still hunting a franchise-first NWSL championship despite competing in three league finals.
Howell, Miller on the move again
Both Howell and Miller will exit their respective clubs after short tenures.
Miller joined Gotham from Kansas City in January as a replacement for starting goalkeeper Abby Smith, who suffered a season-ending injury in August 2023. In April, however, the NJ/NY club snagged German international Ann-Katrin Berger — one of the best keepers in the world and the NWSL's 2024 Goalkeeper of the Year — leaving Miller in a backup role.
Logging an even shorter time at Seattle than Miller's 11-month Gotham stretch is Howell, who will join her third club in five months with this trade. The midfielder began her NWSL career with Racing Louisville in 2022, but was sent to Seattle in August in exchange for striker Bethany Balcer and $50,000.
The 25-year-old, who captained her Louisville team, has struggled to stay in form. That said, if Gotham can help Howell unlock consistency in her top-level play, her on-pitch potential and off-pitch leadership could be a boon for the NJ/NY side.
Ultimately, trading Williams for a player with more potential than top form reads as a possible rebuild for a club who entered a so-called superteam era just one year ago — particularly in light of Gotham's flood of defectors this offseason, which includes star midfielder Delanie Sheehan.
Thursday's 2024 NCAA volleyball semifinals aren’t just an all-No. 1 seed affair, they also pit conference rivals against each other on the sport’s biggest stage.
With one all-ACC and one all-Big Ten semifinal on deck, the sport's top conferences are poised to face off in Sunday's championship game. But while the Big Ten will look to add another piece of hardware to its deep volleyball trophy case, the ACC is aiming to snag their first-ever NCAA title in the sport.
The ACC teams hunting history
Thursday's first match features Pitt against Louisville, as each looks to become the ACC's first national volleyball champion. Both rivals have been knocking on the door of NCAA glory in recent years, with the Panthers falling in the last three national semifinals, while Louisville advanced to the Final Four in 2021 and became the conference's first-ever finalist in 2022.
Notably, this will be the third straight year that the ACC rivals have met in the tournament. The Cardinals took down Pitt 3-2 in their 2022 semifinal, while the Panthers ousted Louisville with a reverse sweep in last year's Regional final.
Both squads have been Top-5 teams all season, led by some of the country's top players. Pitt sophomore Olivia Babcock's service aces and kills rates topped the ACC this year, earning her the conference's Player of the Year award. Babcock shifted into an even higher gear in the postseason, setting an NCAA tournament record with her 31 kills against Oregon in the Panther's Regional semifinal.
Veteran outside hitter Anna DeBeer continues to be Louisville's workhorse, leading the Cardinals on their Regional stat sheet after a season in which the grad student crossed the 1,000 mark in both career kills and digs.
With the Final Four set in Louisville, the Cardinals have already won the home-court advantage lottery entering Thursday's semifinal. That said, for a chance at earning a national championship in front of their fans, Louisville will need to survive this year's overall top team — a Pitt squad who've already taken down the Cards twice this season.
The Big Ten's perennial contenders
Boasting 32 semifinal appearances and 21 championship matches resulting in 12 national titles between them, Big Ten rivals Penn State and Nebraska will put their deep Final Four experience to the test against each other in Thursday's nightcap.
Nebraska has been near-perfect all tournament, dropping just one set, while Penn State has lost four — the most of any of the semifinalists.
The Nittany Lions, however, had the Huskers' number in the regular season, handing Nebraska their only conference loss all year and snapping their 25-match win streak in the process.
To again humble the Huskers, Penn State will need a repeat of their November block party that stifled Nebraska's offense, all while continuing their own attack, led by outside hitter Jess Mruzik. The grad student is on a postseason hot streak, coming in clutch by hammering at least 20 kills per match over Penn State's last three contests.
Nebraska, who didn't have a single senior on last year's roster, returned nearly all of their 2023 superstar team. Outside hitters Merritt Beason and Harper Murray fuel a relentless Cornhusker attack, while Nebraska's defense thrives behind libero Lexi Rodriguez — one of the four 2024 AVCA Player of the Year finalists.
Both Nebraska and Penn State will take Thursday's court with redemption on their minds. The Huskers are hungry to finish the job after being swept by Texas in last year's final. Penn State, on the other hand, are seeking a return to the mountaintop in their first semifinal appearance since 2017, when they fell to eventual champions Nebraska.
How to watch the 2024 NCAA volleyball Final Four
Pitt and Louisville will kick off Thursday's NCAA semifinal action in an all-ACC battle at 6:30 PM ET, with Nebraska and Penn State’s Big Ten dual set to start 30 minutes after the first match ends. Both matches will air live on ESPN.
The guaranteed ACC vs. Big Ten national championship match is set for 3 PM ET on Sunday, with live coverage on ABC.
Three-time WNBA MVP and Las Vegas Aces star A'ja Wilson has agreed to a historic six-year contract extension with Nike, ESPN first reported on Tuesday.
The two-time WNBA champion already announced a forthcoming apparel line and signature shoe with the sportswear giant this year.
The first edition of the "A'One" shoe is expected to be released this spring, shortly before the 2025 WNBA season tips off on May 16th.
Wilson joins top tier of Nike athletes
Wilson's new deal is reportedly one of the highest-paid shoe endorsement contracts in women's basketball. The contract now places the 28-year-old alongside 2024 WNBA champion and NY Liberty sharpshooter Sabrina Ionescu, 2024 Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark, and USC sophomore phenom JuJu Watkins in Nike's lineup of basketball stars.
While the exact details of Wilson's contract are still to come, the $28 million eight-year deal that Clark inked was, as of its April signing, the richest sponsorship contract in the sport.
Though Wilson's May sneaker drop will mark the beginning of her signature shoe journey, there's hope she could see similar early success as that garnered by Ionescu. The Liberty guard debuted her second shoe in June, with both editions earning significant playing time on the feet of both WNBA and NBA stars.
A no-brainer signing for Nike
The fact that Nike is going all in on Wilson is no surprise, as the Las Vegas superstar dominated the league with an historic 2024 season. Wilson set the WNBA's single-season rebounding and scoring records this year, becoming the first and only player to ever break 1,000 points in a season.
She tore up the stat sheet en route to becoming just the fourth player to ever earn three MVP nods — and the first to snag it by unanimous vote since legend Cynthia Cooper in the WNBA's inaugural 1997 season.
Even more, Wilson led Team USA to an eighth-straight Olympic gold medal this summer, snagging MVP honors in Paris in the process.
As of Tuesday, the NWSL is reportedly in exclusive talks to make Denver the home of the league's 16th team, with the Colorado city beating out bids from Cincinnati and Cleveland, the other two finalists previously announced by the league.
While the NWSL has yet to offer any details or timeline or even confirm the move, if true, Denver will join fellow expansion franchise Boston in making a 2026 season debut.
Led by IMA Financial Group CEO Robert Cohen, who will function as the team's control owner, the Denver NWSL bid group intends to build a soccer-specific stadium for their club. But with the runway to 2026 shortening, the group intends to secure temporary facilities while planning, designing, and constructing a permanent home.
NWSL growth leads to ballooning expansion fees
The growing league is also expected to claim a record expansion fee from its 16th team, with insiders reporting that Denver's buy-in will likely come at a $105 million to $120 million price-tag.
That sum doubles the $53 million fees that 2024 expansion team Bay FC and the incoming Boston franchise shelled out in the last round of NWSL bids from new markets.
The swelling of expansion fees also mirrors the league's exploding valuations in recent years. According to Sportico, the average NWSL club is now worth $104 million, an increase of 57% over the 2023 average. Plus, this fall's sales of both Angel City FC and the San Diego Wave saw the clubs garner purchase prices of $250 million and $113 million, respectively.
Though further expansion is not currently on the books, the NWSL's increasing value and the additional markets hungry to enter the league signal that, sooner or later, even more cities will boast NWSL clubs of their own.
Two-time World Cup champion, Olympic gold medalist, and three-time NWSL champion Becky Sauerbrunn announced her retirement from professional soccer on Tuesday.
"This isn't the end. I'll be around. I love this game too much to leave it for good," the 39-year-old legendary USWNT center back wrote. "But for the first time in sixteen years I'm going to find a quiet moment and close my eyes for a bit."
Leading from the back
A titan on and off the field, Sauerbrunn's 16-year professional career is littered with trophies earned for club and country.
Sauerbrunn, who notably opened her senior national team account with a broken nose in her January 2008 first cap, leaves the international pitch with 219 appearances, making her the USWNT's 10th all-time most-capped player.
Across the three World Cups and three Olympic Games in which she competed, Sauerbrunn helped the USWNT to a runners-up finish in the 2011 World Cup before snagging back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2019. In addition to 2012 Olympic gold and 2021 Olympic bronze, her US resume boasts eight straight Concacaf championships.
As part of a generation of players that founded the league, there has never been an NWSL season without Sauerbrunn logging minutes. The four-time NWSL Defender of the Year also earned annual Best XI selection seven times, more than any other player in league history.
Sauerbrunn began her 11 NWSL seasons with FC Kansas City, snagging a pair of championships in 2014 and 2015. She later spent two seasons with the Utah Royals before spending the last five on Portland's pitch, helping the Thorns to both the 2021 NWSL Shield and 2022 championship.
While executing her role as a fierce defender, the backline behemoth also served as captain of both the USWNT and Portland Thorns. A quiet leader, Sauerbrunn's calm, steady presence grounded her teams, anchoring them to trophy-lifting success.
A legacy of activism and equal pay
Though her on-field prowess is impressive, Sauerbrunn's true legacy can be found off the pitch, where the defender consistently tackles social justice issues. Along with combatting racial and gender inequities, Sauerbrunn's activism includes fighting legislation that bans transgender girls and women from competing in women's sports.
Most tangibly, however, is how she helped change the game for current and future USWNT players. In 2016, Sauerbrunn and four other USWNT athletes kicked off the fight for equal pay by filing a federal complaint against US Soccer.
One 2019 class-action gender discrimination lawsuit and years of litigation later, Sauerbrunn and her teammates secured a landmark settlement with the federation in 2022, cementing equal compensation for both the USWNT and USMNT as a contractual rule. As the president of the player's association, Sauerbrunn was one of the athletes to physically sign the historic agreement — a document that sparked similar battles for equality worldwide.
The end of an era
With her Tuesday announcement, Sauerbrunn adds to the wave of soccer stars officially exiting the professional game in 2024. She follows Portland teammate and Canadian legend Christine Sinclair in hanging up her boots, and joins USWNT standouts Alex Morgan, Kelley O'Hara, and Alyssa Naeher in retirement.
Still offering sage reflections, the captain told US Soccer, "I learned early on that we were all just renting our jerseys. That I got to wear the US Soccer crest once was an honor and privilege for which I’m forever grateful. The fact that I got to do it over 200 times is truly humbling."
Ultimately, Sauerbrunn leaves the game better than she found it, stepping off the field with no regrets.
"Of course I’d do it all again," she writes. "In a heartbeat.”