Now that the NWSL playoffs are underway — with Kansas City and San Diego winning Sunday’s quarterfinals to move onto semifinal matchups with OL Reign and the Portland Thorns, respectively — Just Women’s Sports is handing out 2022 end-of-season awards.

Based on the list of award nominees individual performances from the end of April to the beginning of October, here are our picks for the NWSL’s Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Goalkeeper of the Year and Coach of the Year.

Drum roll, please …

MVP

Mallory Pugh, Chicago Red Stars

Mallory Pugh can do it all. Finishing the regular season just four goals behind Golden Boot winner Alex Morgan, she was the league’s fifth-top scorer with 11 goals, tied for the lead in assists with six, and in the upper ranks with an 80 percent tackle success rate. The chemistry she built with her Red Stars teammates was integral to their success, as they claimed the last playoff spot on the final day of the regular season and went toe-to-toe with the San Diego Wave in the quarterfinals.

In addition to setting up her teammates, Pugh showed that she could single-handedly carry the ball through walls of defenders and create scoring chances for herself when she needed to. Nominated for NWSL MVP last year as well, Pugh is continuing to play the best soccer of her career.

Defensive Player of the Year

Carson Pickett, North Carolina Courage

Named to four NWSL Teams of the Month this season, Carson Pickett has been the best fullback in the league. She finished the year tied for first in with six assists and in first with 52 chances created. Defensively, Pickett had a tackle success rate of 71 percent and registered 36 interceptions, six blocks and 32 clearances. She also scored a goal and helped the Courage emerge as one the most improved teams this season, rising to seventh place and one spot from a playoff berth after spending the first half of the year at the bottom of the standings.

Goalkeeper of the Year

AD Franch, Kansas City Current

AD Franch has been on her A game through all 1,800 minutes of the 20 matches she’s played this year. The highest-ranked goalkeeper in career playoff saves with 66, she recorded a league second-best five shutouts and a 72.5 percent save percentage in the regular season. Her ability to come up big in important moments, including penalty saves, helped Kansas City go on a 13-game unbeaten streak and reach the playoffs for the first time. After another dazzling performance in the quarterfinals on Sunday, Franch and the Current head to Seattle to play OL Reign in the semifinals.

Rookie of the Year

Naomi Girma, San Diego Wave FC

The talent in the 2022 rookie pool runs deep, but leading the pack is Naomi Girma, one of the most consistent and reliable defenders in the league. Starting all 19 games for the Wave this season, she won 71 percent of her duels and registered 14 blocks and 24 interceptions. Her 95 clearances contributed to San Diego ranking second in the league in clearances per match. In possession, the No. 1 draft pick had an 83 percent passing accuracy and a 41 percent long-ball success rate, in addition to six key passes. She was named to four NWSL Teams of the Month and honored as Rookie of the Month twice, in May and September.

Coach of the Year

Laura Harvey, OL Reign

There’s not a lot the OL Reign haven’t accomplished this year under Laura Harvey, most notably coming from behind to win their third NWSL Shield and tie the North Carolina Courage for the most in the league. Their defense recorded the most clean sheets in the league (nine) and the fewest number of goals against (19). On the attack, the Reign ranked second in shots (265) and shots on goal (129), and third in big chances created (38). Not only has Harvey created a successful product on the field, but she has also fostered a team culture in which players of all ages and levels can thrive.

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

The biggest victors in the WNBA last weekend were the Seattle Storm, as the fifth-place contenders took down the last two league champions to record six wins in their last seven games.

The Storm first took down 2022 and 2023 champs Las Vegas 90-83 on Friday before toppling reigning title-winners New York 89-79 on Sunday.

Guard Skylar Diggins and forward Nneka Ogwumike powered Seattle's two games, putting up 44 and 51 points, respectively, over the weekend.

Forward Gabby Williams also helped fuel the Storm's weekend with two double-double performances.

Seattle is now just one game behind the similarly surging fourth-place Atlanta Dream, while trailing the red-hot No. 3 Phoenix Mercury by 1.5 games.

"Staying ready is what the group is," Storm head coach Noelle Quinn told reporters on Friday. "They're professionals, they're vets."

Teams at the top of the WNBA standings aren't the only squads that saw weekend success, as the No. 6 Golden State Valkyries snagged their second win in a row with Sunday's 87-63 thrashing of the last-place Connecticut Sun.

Despite registering Friday losses, both No. 7 Las Vegas and the No. 9 Washington Mystics finished the weekend on a high note, earning big Sunday wins over the No. 8 Indiana Fever and No. 12 Dallas Wings, respectively.

How to watch the Seattle Storm this week

The Storm will suit back up for another tricky WNBA test on Tuesday, when Seattle hosts the always-dangerous Indiana Fever at 10 PM ET.

The game will air live on NBA TV.

The reigning champion New York Liberty battled through injury and absences over the weekend, narrowly retaining their second-place spot in the WNBA standings despite seeing their losing streak extend to two games with Sunday's 89-79 stumble against the Seattle Storm.

Already missing starting guard Leonie Fiebich, who is overseas competing at the 2025 FIBA EuroBasket tournament, the Liberty also played without center Jonquel Jones and guard Sabrina Ionescu.

While Ionescu is day-to-day with a neck issue, Jones will miss four to six weeks of action due to an ankle injury, the team announced on Saturday.

Despite dropping three of their last four matchups, the champs appear to be taking their recent downturn in stride.

"This isn't going to be the hardest thing that we face all season," said forward Breanna Stewart after Sunday's loss. "We have to kind of embrace the adversity a little bit, whether it's we're down players or things happen in the middle of the game."

New York wasn't the only team in trouble this weekend, though, as the Indiana Fever followed up last Thursday's stumble against the Golden State Valkyries with an 89-81 Sunday loss to the Las Vegas Aces.

Fever guard Caitlin Clark is now one-for-17 from behind the arc in her last two games, as Indiana struggles to break out of their eighth-place standing.

How to watch the New York Liberty this week

New York will hope for added firepower in order to snap their losing streak on Wednesday, when they'll face a rising Golden State squad at 10 PM ET.

Coverage of the game will air live on WNBA League Pass.

The NWSL is officially taking a breather, with the league kicking off the 2025 extended summer break after a roller-coaster weekend slate.

With half the of the 26-match regular season in the books, the No. 1 Kansas City Current extended their lead on the NWSL table to a towering eight points after defeating No. 11 Angel City 1-0 on Friday.

Helping balloon Kansas City's lead was No. 7 Racing Louisville, who kept No. 2 Orlando from claiming any points by securing a 2-0 upset win over the Pride on Friday.

With wins in five of their last seven matches, Louisville's refreshed roster has Racing entering the 2025 summer break with a 6-5-2 NWSL record, as the 2021 expansion side zeros in on a franchise-first playoff run.

"It's all about us. We're not really focused on the other team like we did a little last year," said midfielder Taylor Flint. "What are we going to do — what's our identity? I think that's a huge part of how we've been winning all these games."

On the other end of the table, the bottom four NWSL teams — Angel City, the No. 12 Houston Dash, No. 13 Chicago Stars, and No. 14 Utah Royals — will be looking for a major midseason reboot, after none managed to register a single win in the last five matchdays.

"We go from here, we break now, recharge, and we will be a very difficult opponent for a lot of teams in the second part of the season. That is our target now," said Angel City head coach Alexander Straus after Friday's loss.

There's still a lot left in 2025 NWSL play, with skidding teams banking on fresh starts while surging squads prepare to hit the ground running as soon as the season picks back up in August.

Australian golfer Minjee Lee came out on top at the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship, lifting the third major tournament trophy of her career on Sunday.

Entering the final round atop the leaderboard, Lee never relinquished the lead, finishing the tournament a solid three strokes ahead of the competition.

"I definitely was nervous starting the day," the 29-year-old acknowledged following her win. "I looked calm, but not as calm as everybody thinks."

The win earned Lee both an 18-spot rankings boost to world No. 6 and a $1.8 million cut of the event's $12 million prize pool.

Finishing the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship just behind Lee in a second-place tie were 21-year-old Thai pro and new world No. 29 Chanettee Wannasaen and 24-year-old US standout and new No. 49 Auston Kim. Each took home $944,867 thanks to their four-day performances.

Kim, in particular, cobbled together a massive comeback run, chipping away at her nine-stroke deficit entering the competition's final round to claim the best finish of her young career.

"I'm very proud of what I did," the LPGA Tour sophomore said afterwards. "Obviously, the result was really good, but I'm really happy how I handled myself, my emotions, all the adversity. The course is playing really, really tough, but I feel like this week my team and I were very locked in."

Notably, the tournament's top three finishers were the only participants to finish below par, as the field struggled with a punishing week of both Texas heat and windier-than-usual conditions.