The NWSL’s Challenge Cup tournament will run during the regular season for the first time in 2023, the league announced Thursday afternoon.

The tournament began in 2020 in replacement of the regular season, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021 and 2022, the tournament took place in the preseason.

During the 2022 Challenge Cup, though, players raised concerns about the packed scheduling and the potential for injuries as a result of the preseason event.

OL Reign star Jess Fishlock called out the NWSL via Twitter in April over her team’s scheduling woes.

As the top seed entering the Challenge Cup knockout stage, OL Reign earned home-field advantage for the semifinals. But instead the fourth-seeded Washington Spirit hosted the match, as the Seattle Sounders had a match already scheduled for Lumen Field on the date in question.

The winners of the semifinal matches — the Spirit and the North Carolina Courage — then played in the championship match three days later, during the first weekend of the regular season. As a result, their regular-season openers were bumped to later in the season.

Fishlock’s OL Reign teammate Bethany Balcer took to Twitter herself to call out the NWSL and CBS for the start time of the final, which was played at 1 p.m. ET.

“If you really cared about women’s sports you would actually put us at prime time,” Balcer tweeted at the NWSL and at CBS, which will televise the championship. “Thanks in advance!”

Balcer also expressed dismay that the Challenge Cup knockout stage overlaps with the regular season, which starts on April 29.

“Where is the COMMON SENSE,” Balcer tweeted. “Now your reward for making the Challenge Cup final is having to play three games in seven days… I cannot sit idly by as the well being of the player’s is put in jeopardy by bogus kickoff times and high physical demand. Let’s be better.”

In addition to the scheduling concerns, injuries hung over the 2022 Challenge Cup throughout its run.

Several high-profile stars, including the Kansas City Current’s Lynn Williams and the Orlando Pride’s Marta, went down with season-ending injuries. During the final, North Carolina’s Kerolin and Washington’s Jordan Baggett exited the game with injuries.

128 days 'til the new @NWSL season!

▪️ March 25 regular season kicks off
▪️ Challenge Cup played in-season
▪️ Limit reg season games amid WC
▪️ NWSL Championship set for Nov. 11

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

The 2023 Challenge Cup will kick off in April, after the start of the regular season on March 25, the NWSL announced Thursday.

The the tournament will take place across six weeks scattered across the regular season from April to September. Three groups of four teams will play double round-robin schedules, for a total of six games per team.

Then four group winners will then face off in the semifinal round on Sept. 6, and the final will take place on Sept. 9.

The 2023 Challenge Cup also stands out for achieving pay equity with the equivalent men’s tournament. As part of a three-year deal, title sponsor UKG will help the NWSL increase the prize pool available to teams, raising the bonuses to equal footing with the men’s U.S. Open Cup.

The 2025/26 PWHL season schedule arrived on Wednesday, with the pro hockey league preparing to hit the ice coast-to-coast for the first time ever when its third season begins on Friday, November 21st.

In celebration of the PWHL's two new West Coast teams, the season-opening doubleheader will feature the first-ever game between incoming expansion sides Seattle and Vancouver, who will face off after the back-to-back reigning champion Minnesota Frost takes on the Toronto Sceptres.

"We can't wait for puck drop to see the impact our new and returning players will make, and to deliver a competitive season with even more games for fans to enjoy," said PWHL EVP of hockey operations Jayna Hefford in a league statement.

While each team will again play 30 games on this season's schedule, the increase of the PWHL lineup from six to eight teams means that the 2025/26 campaign will span 120 total games — a 30-game increase over the league's second season.

The 2025/26 PWHL regular season will run through April 25th, though the league will pause play from January 29th to February 25th to allow for the 2026 Winter Olympics, with more than 50 PWHL players expected to compete for international glory in Italy.

How to buy tickets for the 2025/26 PWHL season

While season passes for each of the league's eight teams are available now, single-game tickets to all 120 PWHL clashes will go on sale on October 14th.

All tickets for the 2025/26 season will be available online.

Former San Diego Wave president Jill Ellis is back in the headlines, with the NWSL club's owners — private equity billionaire couple Lauren Leichtman and Arthur Levine — filing a lawsuit against Ellis on Monday for allegedly promising to stay on after the team's 2024 sale, only to resign days later in order to accept a new job as FIFA's Chief Football Officer.

According to the lawsuit, Ellis leveraged her longstanding friendship with Leichtman and Levine to convince them to purchase the San Diego Wave at a then-record price of $120 million, with the Levine Leichtman Family Office calling Ellis "a very attractive asset" that helped push the deal — and its nine-figure sticker price — across the line.

Though Ellis and other negotiators allegedly assured Leichtman and Levine that she would helm the NWSL club "for many years to come," Ellis resigned just two days after the sale closed, reportedly telling the new owners that she had "no intention of continuing any involvement with Wave FC."

Monday's court filing claims that Ellis and other unnamed defendants committed intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, concealment, and false promise, and requests damages as Ellis's departure allegedly resulted in an estimated $40 million in lost revenue.

Ellis's attorney deemed the suit "meritless," calling it retaliation for the former USWNT manager's ongoing pursuit of $1.2 million in deferred payments reportedly guaranteed by her original contract with the San Diego Wave.

As for the team, the NWSL club is staying out of it, releasing a statement saying, "This is a legal matter between the Levine Leichtman Family Office and Jill Ellis. San Diego Wave FC is not a party to this lawsuit."

World No. 3 tennis star Coco Gauff is through to the semifinals in Beijing, downing Germany's No. 66 Eva Lys in straight sets on Thursday to continue her title defense at the 2025 China Open.

With the quarterfinal win, Gauff booked her first WTA semifinals spot in nearly four months, last appearing the late rounds during her 2025 French Open championship run in June.

The 21-year-old overcame several obstacles in her current quest to become the first-ever back-to-back women's champion at the China Open, including a pair of heated three-set battles against Canada's No. 25 Leylah Fernandez and Switzerland's No. 16 Belinda Bencic in the Round of 32 and 16, respectively.

Not all top-ranked WTA stars were as lucky, however, as No. 2 Iga Świątek exited the Round of 16 after ceding a final-set bagel to No. 17 Emma Navarro on Wednesday.

Gauff and Navarro aren't the only US stars showing out on the 2025 China Open court, as No. 4 Amanda Anisimova punched her semis ticket by ousting Italy's No. 8 Jasmine Paolini on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Navarro will meet No. 7 Jessica Pegula in an all-US quarterfinal battle on Friday — guaranteeing that three of the four tournament semifinalists will hail from the US.

Along with her China Open success, Gauff also secured her spot in the 2025 WTA Finals this week, marking her return as the end-of-season tournament's reigning champion while also becoming the youngest player to qualify for the event in four straight years since Maria Sharapova in 2007.

Considered the most prestigious tennis event except for the four Grand Slams, the eight-player 2025 WTA Finals will kick off in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on November 1st, with Świątek and world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka also taking part.

How to watch the 2025 China Open

The 2025 China Open quarterfinals will wrap early Friday morning, with England's No. 81 Sonay Kartal facing Czechia's No. 27 Linda Noskova at 3 AM ET before Navarro takes on Pegula at 6 AM ET.

Friday's winners will contend with each other alongside Gauff and Anisimova in Saturday's semifinals.

All tournament matches will stream live on the Tennis Channel.

Indiana Fever star Kelsey Mitchell appears to be in the clear, with the 29-year-old guard posting an injury update following her early exit in the third quarter of Tuesday's Game 5 semifinal in Las Vegas.

After trainers and medical staff carried Mitchell off of Tuesday's court and sent her to the hospital, reports originally described her condition as extreme lower-body cramping.

Following the Fever star's hospital discharge, Mitchell revealed on Wednesday that doctors diagnosed her injury as a rare muscle condition called rhabdomyolysis.

"I went into sense of numbness/paralyzing feeling with no movement from my lower extremities for up to 5 to 7 seconds," she said. "It was an out of body experience for me and I thank God for covering me at a time like that."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

Often brought on by overexertion, rhabdomyolysis involves muscle tissue breaking down and releasing harmful proteins into the bloodstream, causing muscle stiffness and potentially leading to serious kidney damage.

"My muscles stopped producing positive blood to my bloodstream, my body locked up from a physical standpoint and from there fatigue and cramping settled in," Mitchell explained before relaying that she is now "moving at a slow pace" and expected to make a full recovery.

"I played literally til my wheels fell off," she added. "THANK you for the prayers, love, respect, and support throughout all of this."