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Sophia Smith and the 2020 draft class that reshaped the NWSL

Sophia Smith, the No. 1 pick of the Portland Thorns in 2020, won NWSL MVP last season. (Howard Smith/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

On Thursday, the NWSL will hold an in-person draft for the first time since January 2020. On that day, weeks before the world shut down amid a global pandemic, a chaotic flurry of activity only possible on a draft day floor ushered in the next generation of star talent and dramatically reshaped the current player pool in the NWSL.

Top 2022 draft picks Sophia Smith, Ashley Sanchez, Taylor Kornieck and Morgan Weaver have been at the center of some of the biggest league moments in the last two years. But their journeys, which began at the 2020 draft, showed that even the best-laid plans for young talent can go awry.

Draft day chaos sets the scene

From the very first week of January 2020, Portland had targeted the first overall pick in the draft. On Jan. 8, the Thorns acquired the No. 1 pick from the Pride in exchange for the rights to USWNT defender Emily Sonnett and Australian international Caitlin Foord, as well as other draft picks. The understanding across the league was that the Thorns intended to select Smith, a sophomore out of Stanford and a U.S. youth national team standout.

With allocation money in play for the first time, the draft-floor moves weren’t relegated to the No. 1 pick. As soon as the draft began, deals materialized across the league. The Red Stars traded their No. 4 and No. 5 picks for the No. 2 and No. 3 picks held by Sky Blue (now Gotham), and then immediately flipped the No. 2 pick to Portland for later-round picks and $70,000 in allocation money, as well as No. 3 to Orlando for forward Rachel Hill and future draft assets.

The Washington Spirit then traded up, sending Mallory Swanson (née Pugh) to Sky Blue for the No. 4 pick and other assets, which included Sky Blue’s 2021 natural first-round pick.

In retrospect, before a single selection had even been made, those moves redefined the distribution of talent across the league for years to come. Portland selected Smith and Morgan Weaver with the first two picks in the draft, Orlando took Taylor Kornieck at No. 3, and Washington drafted Ashley Sanchez at No. 4.

All four players have become league mainstays since then, with Smith, Kornieck (now with expansion side San Diego) and Sanchez all making the USWNT roster for World Cup and Olympic qualifying. Smith is the superstar she was promised to be, scoring 11 goals for the U.S. and 14 for the Thorns in 2022 on the way to winning NWSL MVP, NWSL Final MVP and USWNT Player of the Year.

Smith and Weaver just missed out on the NWSL Shield with the Thorns in 2022 before helping the team win a league-record third championship in October. Sanchez won the 2021 NWSL Championship (alongside Trinity Rodman, the player the Spirit selected with Sky Blue’s 2021 first-round pick acquired in the 2020 deal), while Kornieck had a breakout year with San Diego in 2022, contributing to the best finish ever for an NWSL expansion team in its inaugural season.

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Morgan Weaver followed Sophia Smith to the Thorns as the No. 2 pick of the 2020 draft. (Jose Argueta/ISI Photos/Getty Images)

The impact of the 2020 draft class also hasn’t been limited to the top four picks. Zoe Morse, Chicago’s third-round selection, blossomed into a cornerstone of the Red Stars’ defense two years later. Sam Hiatt, taken in the fourth round by OL Reign, is now a starting center-back for the 2022 Shield winners. Kate Del Fava and Addisyn Merrick, drafted in the second and fourth rounds, respectively, represented Kansas City against Smith and Weaver’s Thorns in the 2022 championship game.

The fourth round of the 2020 draft also produced Kaiya McCullough, who spoke out about the verbal abuse she experienced while playing for former Spirit coach Richie Burke and was a key voice in the NWSL’s recent reckoning over misconduct.

The rookie season that wasn’t

While the strength of the 2020 draft class is now obvious, their rookie year that followed was anything but expected. The pandemic suspended NWSL regular-season play for an entire year, replacing it with a one-month Challenge Cup in Utah.

“My first season was a little more just getting a feel for the league, like how I need to play, what I need to get better at,” Smith told Just Women’s Sports in October. “And now I feel like I can just be myself.”

“I actually was still in school at the time,” Weaver told Just Women’s Sports this summer about the early months of 2020. “I was doing all online classes so I could be here early to train.”

Soon, word spread that NWSL training had been suspended — first for a weekend, then a week, and finally indefinitely.

Smith, Weaver and company can be forgiven for needing a little extra time to find their feet in the pros. The 2020 rookies didn’t actually get to experience a full season until 2021, instead quarantining with each other while playing a 23-game tournament at the facilities of the then-Utah Royals.

“I think uncertainty is the right word to characterize that whole year, honestly, for everyone,” said Morse, who has since left the Red Stars to sign with WSL club Brighton & Hove Albion through 2024.

For Weaver and Morse, the twists and turns of the 2020 preseason mirrored the uncertainty of their first years as professionals.

“Whenever I’m asked about that year, I always say that I think it was honestly maybe easier for us rookies,” Morse said. “Because we had no idea what to expect compared to everyone else on the team.”

“I just wanted to know what was going on, and no one knew,” Weaver said. “And that’s the thing that I think helped me get through it, was no one knew what was going on.”

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Chicago's Zoe Morse and Washington's Ashley Sanchez, both 2020 draft picks, go head-to-head in the Challenge Cup. (Randy Litzinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

In Utah, playing time came fast and furious, as did a lot of downtime. The pressures of making it through a month-long quarantine while playing high-level soccer, as the country reckoned with issues of racial injustice after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, forged quick bonds that had a ripple effect off the field.

“Once we got to Utah, we were essentially quarantined with our team for 34 days, or however long it was,” Morse said. “So I really got to make some connections with my teammates that I probably wouldn’t have in a typical season, just because we were literally eating every single meal together. We were with each other all the time.”

“I feel like in general, going somewhere and living there for a month in a bubble in a hotel, I think it made our team closer,” Weaver said. “Now looking back at it, I did enjoy the time that I was there, even though I also did not.”

The 2020 campaign delayed the beginning of what has become a dangerous partnership between Smith and Weaver. During last year’s championship run, Weaver took on more responsibility out wide to feed Smith centrally, contributing three assists and seven goals on top of Smith’s MVP campaign.

That summer, however, Smith missed the entire Challenge Cup with a knee injury, though she did play four games in the 2020 Fall Series.

“We never actually played with each other much in 2020,” Weaver said, noting it also took time to build chemistry with longtime Thorns captain and forward Christine Sinclair.

Smith credits Sinclair for helping her through her first two years with the Thorns. The No. 1 pick felt the pressure to perform, both internally and externally, but she found ways to stay patient.

“I feel like I found my place in Portland and within the team,” she said. “That goes to show a lot about my teammates and my coaching staff, who just allow me to do that to find myself and to really just be myself.”

Not every 2020 draftee progressed at the same rate, but many of them arrived in similar places in 2022 after getting a full season’s worth of experience. The short spurts of playing time in a Challenge Cup or a Fall Series contrast with the rigors of a regular season, and finding consistency in performance can be key to development.

Kornieck didn’t get the benefit of the 2020 Challenge Cup at all after the Pride had to bow out due to a COVID-19 outbreak, but she recognized how far she’s come during her second full season in the league.

“I think this is the first year where I was really starting to understand the concepts,” Kornieck told reporters after a match with San Diego last June. “I can see my growth from the past two years in the league now, [and] I owe it all to the team.”

Looking ahead to the 2023 season, the true rookies of 2020 are now closer to veteran status themselves, with hard-earned lessons informing the way they approach the game.

For Smith, even with all her accolades this past year, the pressures haven’t changed.

“I try not to change the way I look at things with the more success I have,” she said. “I still want to be Sophie and carry myself the same way.”

Morse, too, embraces the bigger picture.

“I think it shows on the field that [the 2020 draft class has] a bit of a different approach to the game, because we saw it get taken away in our first year,” she said. “Veteran players have similar situations when the leagues were folding and that sort of stuff. So this was kind of our iteration of seeing what we love doing being taken away, and just knowing that we are so grateful to be out here doing what we do.”

Smith was one of the first underclassmen to be drafted into the NWSL, but she will be far from the last. As the next wave of players hear their own names called on Thursday, they’ll have a chance to learn from the ones before them, whose rookie experiences were unlike anything seen before.

Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

2024 NWSL Playoffs Kick Off Friday

Orlando attacker Marta battles Chicago midfielder Julia Grosso for the ball in an NWSL game.
Soccer legend Marta hopes to lead Orlando past Chicago in Friday's NWSL quarterfinal. (Daniel Bartel/Imagn Images)

After a record-setting season, the 2024 NWSL Playoffs have landed, with the expanded eight-team lineup kicking off the weekend's do-or-die quarterfinals with a clean slate.

No. 1 Orlando, whose Shield-winning year ended in a skid, begins the postseason action on Friday, hosting a No. 8 Chicago side that just barely made the postseason cut. The Pride will notably do so without defender Rafaelle, who landed on the season-ending injury list with a partial quad tendon tear on Tuesday.

Adding another hurdle to Chicago's gargantuan Orlando task is the fact that the Red Stars will be without some key firepower. Striker Ludmila, the club's third-most prolific goal scorer on the season, is serving an extended red card suspension that will keep her sidelined through the semifinals, should the Red Stars advance.

After finishing last season second-to-last on the NWSL table, No. 4 Kansas City earned quarterfinal hosting rights this year. The Current, who scored a league-record 57 goals this season, haven't lost since September 1st, when they fell to the No. 5 North Carolina Courage — the same team they'll face on Saturday.

The biggest question-mark for the Current, however, is the status of 2024 Golden Boot winner Temwa Chawinga, who was sidelined last weekend after a knock to the knee.

"She’s progressing well," KC coach Vlatko Andonovski said of Chawinga's status on Wednesday. "Hopefully, we have more answers closer to the game."

That said, Andonovski made it clear that expectations won't change regardless of Chawinga's availability. Pointed to KC’s 3-1 win over Chicago last Sunday, he noted that while "the success that this team has enjoyed this season is a team success, and it’s not just the 20 goals that Temwa scored."

Gotham's Rose Lavelle dribbles past Portland center back Becky Sauerbrunn in an NWSL game.
2023 champs Gotham will host Portland in the NWSL Playoffs' last quarterfinal on Sunday. (Rich Barnes/Imagn Images)

Sunday doubleheader will finalize NWSL semis

This Sunday afternoon is all about the NWSL, beginning when No. 7 Bay FC, the winningest expansion team in league history, head to DC to play a No. 2 Spirit squad still bouncing back from injuries.

While Washington has star forward Trinity Rodman and defender Casey Krueger back on the pitch, they'll be without midfielder Andi Sullivan, who suffered a season-ending ACL tear last month. Also missing will be forward Rosemonde Kouassi as she finishes serving her extended red card suspension.

To cap things off, defending champs No. 3 Gotham FC will host perennial contenders Portland. The Thorns snagged their lowest postseason seeding ever at No. 6 after a shaky season put their now eight-straight playoffs streak at risk.

Even so, Portland could be poised to surprise a Gotham side that boasts one of the best defenses in the league. The Thorns' final regular-season match displayed their best attacking performance in NWSL play since May, with prolific scorers Christine Sinclair, Sophia Smith, and Morgan Weaver all finding the back of the net.

Washington rookie Croix Bethune leaps into the air for a header in an NWSL match.
Despite missing the last third of the season, Spirit midfielder Croix Bethune is the likely Rookie of the Year. (Soobum Im/Getty Images)

NWSL MVP, Rookie of the Year awards come into focus

As the season ends, the NWSL's individual award frontrunners are emerging — and none more so than KC's Chawinga. The Kansas City striker is poised to run away with the league's MVP honors thanks to her speed, technical skill, and record-breaking 20 goals on the season.

Though Orlando’s Barbra Banda made her MVP case by keeping pace with Chawinga in the season's first half, she quieted after the Olympics while Chawinga upheld her unbelievable consistency, blasting eight more goals across nine post-break matches.

Instead, the Pride could likely see Coach of the Year honors after Seb Hines led the Shield-winners​ on a record-breaking 23-match unbeaten streak this season.

In the Rookie of the Year race, the NWSL’s 2024 class impressed, from Louisville ringer Emma Sears to KC defensive midfielder Claire Hutton to Washington’s absolutely stacked group of six debutants.

That said, Spirit midfielder Croix Bethune tops the competition with five goals and a record-tying 10 assists, despite playing in just 17 matches before a torn meniscus ended her season.

How to watch the 2024 NWSL Playoffs this weekend

Orlando and Chicago kick off at 8 PM ET on Friday, live on Prime, with KC battling NC on Saturday at 12 PM ET on CBS.

On Sunday, Washington hosts Bay FC at 12:30 PM ET before Portland visits Gotham at 3 PM ET, with live coverage on ABC.

“JuJu’s Gonna Have to Trust Her Teammates,” says Lisa Leslie on ‘Fast Friends’

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley behind the 'Fast Friends' logo
Head coach Dawn Staley hopes to lead South Carolina to back-to-back championships this season. (Just Women's Sports)

Welcome back to Fast Friends with Kelley O'Hara and Lisa Leslie!

O'Hara and Leslie kick off today's episode discussing the NYC marathon, with O'Hara sharing that her secret way to cheer on runners is to lap them on her bike.

When it comes to running marathons, however, Leslie cited her three-mile max, saying "This body's not made for that type of distance, you know?"

Defense wins NWSL championships

Our hosts then preview the 2024 NWSL Playoffs, questioning whether or not Shield-winners Orlando can complete their "beat everybody season" before exploring 2024 expansion team Bay FC's dark horse status. They later wind down the NWSL chat by diving into the elite defensive qualities that former defender NWSL and USWNT O'Hara says could propel either the Pride or defending champs Gotham FC all the way to the title.

"I really do think, when it comes to playoffs, defense wins championships," O'Hara says on Fast Friends. "I think you can have a potent offense, but the reality is, if you don't let the other team score, you got a chance of winning."

Fast Friends tackles college basketball's season-openers

Afterwards, the duo pivot to the hardcourt where they dig into the beginning of the NCAA basketball season, starting with Leslie's alma mater: No. 3-ranked USC. Behind All-American sophomore phenom JuJu Watkins's 27 point performance, the Trojans narrowly beat No. 20 Ole Miss in their season opener in Paris — despite committing 26 turnovers.

The key to unlock USC's title-winning potential? Building trust and chemistry, Leslie says.

"JuJu's gonna have to trust her teammates more, her teammates are gonna have to trust her," explains the eight-time WNBA All Star. "You've gotta make other players around you better, and let them hit some shots, and it'll open it back up more for her."

Speaking of chemistry, that's something Leslie says defending NCAA champions No. 1 South Carolina have in spades thanks to head coach Dawn Staley.

"[Staley] makes people want to be better and brings the best out of others," Leslie says of former teammate. "The will that she brings is making each individual want to be at their best, and you feel like you let her down when you're not giving your all... That's the sign of a great leader."

About Fast Friends with Kelley O'Hara and Lisa Leslie

O'Hara and Leslie wrap things up with a visit to the WNBA, where former Connecticut Sun head coach Stephanie White is returning to her Indiana roots to lead the Fever. According to White, she joins the team as they enter their "championship or bust" era. The Fast Friends hosts also hit on how the coaching carousel and the WNBA's CBA negotiations could impact free agency moves this offseason.

Coming off the success of JWS's Olympic commentary show The Gold Standard, Fast Friends features two legendary athletes serving up insider insights and unique takes on the biggest stories in women's sports every week.

Subscribe to Just Women's Sports on YouTube to never miss an episode.

Georgia Softball Unveils New Facilities

The new Georgia softball locker room
Georgia softball's new training facility is now open. (Tony Walsh/UGAAA)

The University of Georgia announced the completion of a new $38.5 million softball training facility late last month.

With more than 20,000 square feet of athlete development space, the facility boasts a four-lane batting cage with a full practice turf infield, weight room, locker room, team lounge and nutrition space, video room, athletic training room, plus a mud room and an equipment room.

Calling it "unparalleled in collegiate softball," the school's Athletic Director Josh Brooks said, "this space will be crucial in nearly every phase of student-athlete development and well-being during their time at Georgia."

Head coach Tony Baldwin also weighed in, stating, "From the state-of-the-art player development aspects to the amazing recovery features to time management to simply feeling like home, the facility is all about our student-athletes."

"We're thankful for all the players that have come before to help build this program and we're so happy our current and future Bulldogs will reap the benefits of their work while also continuing the proud tradition that is Georgia Softball."

Georgia softball's new batting cage room has four lanes for hitting practice.
Georgia's new softball facility has four lanes of batting cages. (Tony Walsh/UGAAA)

Final phase of Georgia softball project starts now

With the training facility officially complete, the next step in Georgia's softball investment begins now. The project's final phase will see stadium renovations of existing space to create gameday support areas and new coaches' offices.

These steps and other touchups will be completed by the time the 2025 NCAA season takes the field in February.

The refreshed Jack Turner Stadium will also host the 2025 SEC softball championship, Georgia's first time hosting the tournament since 2006.

Last season, the Bulldogs finished seventh in the SEC with a 12-12 record. After hosting and winning one of the 2024 NCAA tournament's 16 regionals, Georgia's season ended in two straight losses to UCLA in the postseason's super regional round.

Coco Gauff Stuns Iga Świątek at 2024 WTA Finals

World No. 3 Coco Gauff celebrates her victory over No. 2 Iga Świątek at the 2024 WTA Finals
Tuesday's win is only Gauff's second against Świątek in her career. (Robert Prange/Getty Images)

For only the second time in 13 career tries, 20-year-old US tennis star Coco Gauff defeated former World No. 1 Iga Świątek in straight sets at the 2024 WTA Finals on Tuesday, guaranteeing Gauff a spot in Saturday's semifinals.

No. 3 Gauff clinched the 6-3, 6-4 result in one hour and 48 minutes on Riyadh’s Center Court to join Aryna Sabalenka as the first two players to book tickets to the semifinals.

"I knew going into the match, despite our head-to-head [history], I had a lot of confidence and I felt like I was playing great tennis," Gauff said after the match.

The first and only other time Gauff defeated Świątek was at the 2023 Cincinnati Open, when the pair battled to a 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4 finish. Gauff went on to win that tournament, just weeks before earning her first Grand Slam championship by winning the 2023 US Open.

Gauff's Tuesday win also guarantees that Sabalenka will finish the calendar year as World No. 1, bolstered by her 2024 US Open win and her strong performances this week.

World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka tosses a serve at the 2024 WTA Finals.
Despite falling to Elena Rybakina on Wednesday, Aryna Sabalenka advanced to the WTA Finals semis. (Robert Prange/Getty Images)

Semifinals take shape

While Sabalenka and No. 7 Qinwen Zheng both advanced from the Purple Group on Wednesday, ending No. 4 Jasmine Paolini's and No. 5 Elena Rybakina's WTA Finals runs, Gauff and Świątek each have one more group match on the tournament's docket.

Gauff will aim to win the Orange Group outright by defeating No. 8 Barbora Krejčíková on Thursday. As for Krejčíková, she'll be competing for a shot at advancing over Świątek, who will look to defeat alternate Daria Kasatkina to claim the final semifinals spot.

No. 6 Jessica Pegula walks away on the 2024 WTA Finals court.
US star Jessica Pegula's ongoing knee injury forced her to withdraw from the WTA Finals. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Pegula withdraws with injury

Kasatkina is stepping in at the eleventh hour after Gauff's compatriot, No. 6 Jessica Pegula, withdrew from the competition with a left knee injury on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old Pegula, who was already eliminated from advancing after falling 6-3, 6-3 to Krejčíková on Tuesday, has nursed the injury since before the WTA Finals began.

"What started as a really small issue flared over the last two matches and I just can’t continue tomorrow," Pegula tweeted. "I’m sorry to the fans and tournament. I really had a great week of prep and had high hopes here but it just wasn’t meant to be."

How to watch Coco Gauff at Thursday's WTA Finals

Świątek and Kasatkina will kick off the final group-stage day at the 2024 WTA Finals at 7:30 AM ET, with Gauff taking on Krejčíková at 10 AM ET. Both matches will air live on the Tennis Channel.

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