Most of the NWSL community has been waiting for the start of the 2022 season since the Washington Spirit walked away with the 2021 trophy on Nov. 20. For San Diego Wave FC forward Kelsey Turnbow, the countdown began last January when the Chicago Red Stars selected her No. 18 overall in the 2021 college draft.

Instead of playing for the Red Stars last year, Turnbow opted to return to Santa Clara for the spring 2021 season, rescheduled from 2020, and stay with the team last fall for her final NCAA season.

Toward the very end of that season, Turnbow learned she wouldn’t suit up for the Red Stars after all. The day before her last game with the Broncos, a shootout loss to BYU in the College Cup semifinals, Chicago traded her rights to San Diego, along with those of Katie Johnson and Makenzy Doniak, in exchange for immunity in the 2022 expansion draft and allocation money.

At that point, Turnbow was ready. The 23-year-old had two goals she wanted to reach before turning pro: earn her MBA and win a national championship. By the end of her college career, she had both. And for good measure, she finished the 2021 fall season as a MAC Hermann Trophy finalist, First Team All-West Region honoree, All-WCC for the fifth time and a First Team All-American.

“It just felt right for me to stay another year,” the former Broncos captain told Just Women’s Sports. “I am a goal-setter and I like to challenge myself and I felt like I hadn’t done what I came there to do yet,  that was really motivating. … I just felt like I wanted to be a part of something special for as long as I could, and that year gave me that.”

Santa Clara won the 2020 NCAA title in a shootout against No. 1 Florida State last May, thanks Turnbow’s equalizer in the final seven minutes of regulation that sent the match to overtime. The attacker also converted her penalty kick to seal the upset victory.

“To win a national championship with my best friends, I will never forget that moment and I will always cherish the friendships I’ve made with those girls,” she said. “Those are my friends for life.”

The thought of capping her college career on the high note of a national championship was tempting, but with an MBA to complete and surrounded by friends she’d become even closer to after the title-winning season, Turnbow made the natural decision to stay for the fall.

The lessons she picked up during her last year at Santa Clara have served her in well in her first NWSL training camp. With San Diego, Turnbow has focused on contributing to a strong team culture, checking in on her teammates and picking them up when they’re down.

“Literally my teammates are my family and I’ve always considered them as such,” she said. “So however I can contribute to make this environment a winning culture and a really healthy environment for people to grow, I want to do that.”

Get to know #6, @KelseyTurnbow ⚽️🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/T5SBbVuZF4

— San Diego Wave FC (@sandiegowavefc) February 17, 2022

In their first month and a half as a team, the Wave have created a culture built on authenticity, transparency and vulnerability, values that resonate deeply with Turnbow.

“It’s an environment where I feel like I can be myself and I can thrive and they expect so much out of me,” she said. “I love goal-setting and I like challenging myself, and I feel like this is a place where I can do that and I can really grow and be my best self both on and off the field.”

A naturally social person, Turnbow lived in a house with 13 teammates for one year at Santa Clara. So far with the Wave, she has found her relationships to be fulfilling.

Turnbow and roommate Naomi Girma, the Wave’s first overall pick in the 2022 college draft, live in the same apartment building as other San Diego teammates. They spend much of their downtime sitting by the pool of the complex or relaxing at the beach. Turnbow has enjoyed her conversations with the coaches and veterans about both soccer and life experiences.

“I just feel like they hand-picked such a great group of people and I could not be more blessed to have this experience because the people matter,” Turnbow said. “You can be somewhere so cool in the world, but if you’re not with the right people, it’s not going to be as memorable. And I just feel so grateful that the people here are awesome. It’s really contributing to my growth here.”

The team-building efforts have made preseason pass by in a flash, as Turnbow described it, but they’ve also set the Wave up to come out strong in their Challenge Cup opener Saturday against Angel City FC.

“I’ve just been thinking about this game — like, it’s my very first professional game — for so long,” she said. “To finally be here, it’s so surreal, it’s exciting, it’s a little bit nerve-wracking in all the best ways. But I feel blessed to be in this position, to where I have the opportunity to play with so many incredible players. To just step on the pitch as a professional for the first time, it’s going to be really special day.”

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

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