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.

With just 16 teams remaining in this year's March Madness tournament, NCAA programs that have fallen from contention have athletes jumping into the transfer portal, which opened to all college basketball players on Monday.

Multiple players are now seeking to make an offseason move, including this season's Division I leading scorer, Florida State junior guard Ta'Niyah Latson.

After averaging 25.2 points per game throughout her 2024/25 campaign, the National Player of the Year semifinalist jumped into the portal on Thursday, three days after the No. 6-seed Seminoles fell 101-71 to No. 3-seed LSU in Monday's second round.

The All-ACC standout is exploring her transfer options — and the potential NIL windfall a move could bring her — though remaining at Florida State is reportedly still very much on the table.

Another top prospect eyeing an exit is Cotie McMahon, who joined the transfer race on Wednesday following her No. 4-seed Ohio State's 82-67 second-round March Madness loss to No. 5-seed Tennessee.

The 2023 Big Ten Freshman of the Year and two-time All-Big Ten First Team selectee looks to carry her career-best 16.5 points per game average elsewhere for her final year of collegiate eligibility.

More top teams see players take to the transfer portal

Other freshly eliminated programs have also seen portal movement, with players from No. 4-seed Kentucky, No. 7-seed Louisville, and No. 8-seed Georgia Tech all testing the transfer waters.

Notably, the program with the most athletes fleeing is No. 9-seed Indiana, who has seen five of their nine non-graduating players enter the portal in the last three days — including every Hoosier who earned minutes off the bench in the team's two March Madness matchups.

With athletes weighing everything from playing time to NIL paydays to postseason potential, the current NCAA landscape boasts multiple factors motivating decisions to either jump ship or weather the storm.

As the 2025 March Madness tournament rolls on, expect even bigger college basketball names to throw their hats into the transfer ring, as players seek out top programs ahead of the 2025/26 NCAA season.

After a planned seven-week break from the LPGA Tour, world No. 1 golfer Nelly Korda is back in action, with the US star beginning her 2024 title defense at the 2025 Ford Championship on Thursday afternoon.

While last year’s inaugural event saw Korda in the midst of a historic five-tournament winning streak, the 26-year-old has been more strategic with her participation this year, sitting out the tour’s recent Asia swing after kicking off her 2025 campaign with two Top 10 finishes.

"I mean, it’s always nice to take time off where you’re not injured and you're kind of trying to hopefully become better and catch up on maybe some lost time," she told Golfweek on Wednesday.

Incorporating rest is a strategy world No. 3 Lydia Ko is also employing this year, as the New Zealander travels to the Phoenix, Arizona, event after a three-week break of her own. Ko is also packing winning momentum in her golf bag this weekend, having snagged her 23rd career title at the 2025 HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore on March 2nd.

Joining Korda and Ko on this weekend's Ford Championship links are all 10 of the LPGA's top-ranked golfers, who will be competing together for the first time this year at the event.

That means Australia's world No. 5 Hannah Green, the US star No. 6 Lilia Vu, and South Korea standout No. 8 Jin Young Ko will all be competing for a chunk of the $2.25 million purse.

Top LPGA golfers take aim at low-scoring history

With Phoenix's warm climate known for producing low golf scores, this weekend's at the 2025 Ford Championship athletes will also take a swing at history by chasing the near-impossible single-round score of 59.

"That's kind of like the trend of golf here in Arizona," said Korda about the area's ideal setting for the sport. "I mean, the weather is usually perfect. The grass is usually perfect as well. So that all sets up for low scoring ability, and then it's hot, so it flies really far. So the par 5s are pretty reachable."

Korda once came close to the elusive score during her 2021 Olympic gold medal-winning run in Tokyo, though a few extra late swings saw her finish the round at 62.

"I came pretty close at the Olympics, then I doubled my last one," she explained. "It was like starting to creep into my head and I was like, yeah, I don't even think about it, no."

If any of this weekend's LPGA stars do snag a sub-60 round, they'll become just the second LPGA player to ever do so, joining former pro Annika Sörenstam, whose historic 59 came in Phoenix in 2001.

How to watch Nelly Korda at the 2025 Ford Championship

Running through Sunday's fourth and final round, the 2025 Ford Championship tees off on Thursday, with streaming coverage beginning at 6 PM ET and broadcast coverage airing at 7 PM ET.

All rounds of the tournament will air on the Golf Channel.

Viewership stats from March Madness are in, with the first two rounds of the 2024/25 NCAA women’s basketball tournament ranking as ESPN’s second most-watched on record across all platforms.

Trailing only 2024’s Caitlin Clark-fueled historic postseason, 2025’s slate of 32 first-round games averaged a 43% increase over 2023's edition, with ABC enjoying its second-highest first-round viewership ever.

ABC's first-round average of 1 million fans came in part because 1.1 million tuned into No. 2-seed UConn's 103-34 thrashing of No. 15-seed Arkansas State last Saturday, securing the network it's third-highest single-game first-round viewership on record.

In a non-championship round that saw the highest average margin of victory in March Madness history — a differential well over 26 points — last weekend's first round also gave ESPN its second-best viewership stats since 2008.

March Madness second round scores even higher

As the competition's temperature rose in last weekend's second round, so too did viewership, with ESPN's platforms snagging a 60% overall boost over the same round in 2023, earning an average of nearly 1 million viewers across the 16 games.

Yet again, the Huskies led the charge, with UConn's 91-57 blowout win over No. 10-seed South Dakota State drawing an average of 1.7 million fans to ESPN on Monday night — an audience large enough to rank as the fifth most-viewed second-round game in history.

Joining UConn's victory in the NCAA tournament's Top 10 most-watched second-round games are No. 1-seed South Carolina's 64-53 Sunday win over No. 9-seed Indiana and No. 1-seed USC's 96-59 defeat of No. 9-seed Mississippi State on Monday.

The defending national champion Gamecocks' second March Madness matchup jumped into that elite echelon by averaging 1.4 million viewers on ABC, with the Trojans's heartbreaking yet heroic win garnering 1.3 million average fans on ESPN.

All in all, while last year’s historic peaks won’t be easy to replicate, this year’s numbers indicate consistent year-after-year growth across a wider variety of teams — signaling that this season’s strength lies in its breadth of star power, as both superstars and unique storylines compete in every bracket quadrant.

Boston’s incoming NWSL club has a new name, with the 2026 expansion side rebranding to Boston Legacy FC on Wednesday in a pivot from last October’s initial controversy-sparking "BOS Nation" rollout.

The NWSL approved Boston’s expansion bid to become its 15th team in September 2023, returning the league to New England after the 2018 folding of the Boston Breakers.

In a press release, the team said it arrived at Boston Legacy FC after "five months of fan listening, research, and consultation," which began by surveying 1,500 fans and brand professionals before whittling the initial list of 500 suggested names down to 14 contenders.

While some cuts were clear due to trademarks or other legal barriers, other names were discarded as they did not align with the club's core values, including "a commitment to fierce competition with the ambition to establish a generational legacy of winning" as well as "the humility to understand that you make history through the grit of day by hardworking day, mile by unrelenting mile."

Other guiding criteria the team adhered to throughout the process included avoiding "colonial, Revolutionary War, and nautical themes" and choosing a timeless name that would not require any explanation.

Ultimately, the team's mission centers around creating "a club where everyone should feel welcome, where we embrace the whole city, where we build something bigger than ourselves."

After the organization's extensive research and consulting process, Boston Legacy FC won out as the "clear winner in every single category by a statistically significant margin."

Rebrand is the first step in Boston's NWSL plan

In addition to Wednesday's name announcement, Boston's NWSL club plans to release more branding, including a team crest, in the coming months.

Calling the new name "just the beginning," Boston Legacy FC majority owner Jennifer Epstein said in a statement that "it's what we build together, through dedication, commitment, and grit, that will give [the club] life."

"I look forward to watching the Boston Legacy build a club for a new generation while honoring those who helped build the game," said USWNT icon, former Boston Breaker attacker, and team brand advisor Kristine Lilly. "It is an exciting time for women’s soccer and I look forward to cheering on the Boston Legacy."