The North Carolina Courage have made an unlikely playoff push, surging from last place in the NWSL standings and into playoff position in just five weeks.

The stark turnaround has the Courage in sixth place and in control of their own destiny. With a win Friday against the San Diego Wave, they would clinch a spot in the six-team bracket.

🎶 Alexa, play “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus 🎶

In 5️⃣ weeks, the Courage have gone from bottom of the table to setting their own for the last day of the season 🍽 pic.twitter.com/A8FojKB0xE

— NC Courage (@TheNCCourage) September 26, 2022

Just Women’s Sports takes a look at three of the players who have helped power North Carolina’s playoff push as we enter the final weekend of the NWSL regular season.

Debinha

The 30-year-old Brazilian star has gone on a tear, scoring five goals in the last two games to help propel North Carolina to their current position.

Debinha would not be denied in Orlando on Sept. 21, scoring two of the Courage’s three goals. Then, against NJ/NY Gotham FC on Saturday, she scored all three of the goals in their 3-0 win to secure the hat trick and continue to rocket North Carolina up the standings.

Her hat trick was the first for the Courage since 2019.

IT'S THE DEBINHA SHOW!

SHE HAS HER HAT-TRICK. 💥 pic.twitter.com/ZeGH28thDf

— Attacking Third (@AttackingThird) September 25, 2022

Her performance has earned praise from the likes of Carli Lloyd, who called her “world class.” She also now sits tied for second in the race for the Golden Boot with 12 goals, just three behind San Diego’s Alex Morgan (15).

Diana Ordóñez

Diana Ordóñez has had a rookie season to remember. In August, she broke the NWSL rookie record for most goals in a season, and she has since added four more to bring her total to 11. The 21-year-old currently sits fourth behind Morgan, Debinha, and Sophia Smith.

All her goals have come from inside the penalty area, an impressive feat for a rookie. Yet just one has come from the penalty spot. Five of Morgan’s 15 have come from the spot — take those away, and she and Ordóñez are tied at 10.

MAKE THAT 10 ‼️ The rookie Diana Ordonez is 3rd in the golden boot race and is not slowing down pic.twitter.com/gzYX8vzwHy

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) August 21, 2022

After being selected sixth overall in the 2021 NWSL Draft, Ordóñez has put herself firmly in Rookie of the Year position.

“I think the response from the team this half of the season has been nothing short of extremely impressive,” Ordóñez told On Her Turf. “Everyone’s really bought in and wants to give ourselves the best chance to make the playoffs… At this point, we’re just worried about controlling what we can control.”

Carson Pickett

Defender Carson Pickett has been dangerous this season, providing a league-leading six assists while scoring a goal of her own. A key piece of the Courage’s resurgence, she’s earned three straight NWSL Best XI monthly honors while juggling time with the U.S. women’s national team.

During Sunday’s match, she provided a key assist on one of Debinha’s goals with a pass that proved just how skilled she is.

Debinha gets her goal!

She rounds the keeper and calmly finishes for 10th of the season. 💫 pic.twitter.com/EthW8Jm3mj

— Attacking Third (@AttackingThird) September 24, 2022

Her success rate on passes this season sits at 77.2 percent, with a 43.9 percent success rate on long passes. With a total of 153 crosses completed, Pickett leads the league.

Wisconsin volleyball is off to the attendance races, with the No. 7 college squad averaging 8,620 fans per match this season to become this NCAA's best-attended program — narrowly beating Big Ten rival No. 1 Nebraska's 8,602 current average.

Other than the Badgers and Cornhuskers, no other college volleyball team has surpassed 6,000 fans per match this year, but Wisconsin is well on track to surpass even their own dominant attendance history in the sport.

If they finish the season in the top attendance spot, the Badgers will snap a six season streak logging the second-best average crowds per year.

Even more, Wisconsin is on their way to blasting through their program-best mark, set when 7,761 fans per match filled the bleachers in 2022.

The growing demand for Badger volleyball is also translating into significant revenue boosts for school.

"We're really, really excited; we're going to exceed $2 million in volleyball ticket sales for the first time ever," Wisconsin deputy athletic director Mitchell Pinta told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this week. "And we're largely sold out for the rest of our matches at the Field House for the remainder of the season."

Should the Badgers reach that $2 million mark, they will see a massive 25% increase over the $1.6 million the team garnered just two seasons ago, and a near 18-fold growth from the $111,809 in volleyball ticket sales that Wisconsin logged in 2013.

Ultimately, the sky's the limit for both Wisconsin volleyball — and the sport at-large.

"If there's a saturation point on the demand for Wisconsin volleyball, we certainly have not seen it yet," said Pinta.

How to watch Wisconsin volleyball in action

With conference play kicking off this weekend, No. 7 Wisconsin will host unranked Big Ten foe Rutgers at 8 PM ET on Friday, before paying a visit to also-unranked Iowa at 3 PM ET on Sunday.

Both Big Ten battles will stream live on B1G+.

WSL side Liverpool opened their 2025/26 League Cup campaign with an emotional 5-0 win over WSL2 club Sunderland on Wednesday, dedicating the shutout victory to former manager Matt Beard after the 47-year-old's sudden passing last Saturday.

The match marked the Reds' return to the pitch following the postponement of their Sunday regular-season game against Aston Villa due to Beard's passing.

"It's a good win for Matt. We played with a lot of emotion," Liverpool defender Jenna Clark said afterwards, calling Wednesday "a really emotional night and an emotional few days for everyone involved with the club."

"We have pulled through together as a team the best we could and you saw that on the pitch tonight," Clark added.

Beard won back-to-back WSL titles with Liverpool in 2013 and 2014, departing the Reds in 2015 for a two-year stint with the NWSL's Boston Breakers.

He made his return to Liverpool in 2021, lifting the club back into the top-flight WSL by earning promotion his first season back at the helm.

"Matt will leave a huge void in the women's game," USWNT head coach and former Chelsea boss Emma Hayes said in a statement earlier this week. "He was one of a kind, and his loss will be felt by all. My heart goes out to his family, but I want to take the time to acknowledge what a special man he really was."​

How to watch Liverpool this weekend

Liverpool will continue their 2025/26 WSL campaign against Manchester United this Sunday, kicking off live at 7 AM ET on ESPN+.

The 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup culminates on Saturday, when host nation England battles for their first tournament title in more than a decade in a top-tier final against Canada, who are hunting their first-ever world championship trophy.

The Red Roses' long dominance on the Rugby World Cup pitch has led them to eight finals in the competition's nine editions, with England emerging victorious twice — in 1994 and 2014.

On the other hand, Canada will make just their second-ever appearance in the World Cup final this Saturday, as the Maple Leafs aim for a decidedly different outcome from their 21-9 loss to England in the 2014 championship game.

The top-ranked Red Roses will also be looking to avenge their narrow 34-31 loss to New Zealand in the tournament's most recent 2022 edition when they square off against No. 2 Canada in front of an sold-out crowd inside London's Twickenham Stadium — with another women's rugby attendance record on the line.

"You feed off of that energy, especially knowing what this game is going to be," England defense coach Sarah Hunter said. "It's a cliché, but [the crowd] almost becomes the 16th person in those moments where you need them."

How to watch the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup final

England and Canada will battle in the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup final at 11 AM ET on Saturday, with live coverage airing on Paramount+.

While the No. 1 Kansas City Current have officially run away with the 2025 NWSL Shield, the race for top playoff seeding rages on, as the No. 2 Washington Spirit fights to hold their ground against an unpredictable No. 9 Houston Dash this Sunday.

Bolstered by star Trinity Rodman's return from injury, the Spirit enter the weekend on a nine-game unbeaten streak, going up against a motivated Dash side sitting just two points outside of postseason contention.

"Every game we just need to be a lot more clinical in the final third," Rodman said after last weekend's 2-2 draw with No. 11 Angel City. "We're doing all the hard stuff and then it's [lacking] quality at the end."

Washington isn't without top-table challengers, with No. 3 Gotham FC riding their own five-game unbeaten streak into a Friday night match against the No. 4 Portland Thorns, who sit tied for points with both the Bats and the No. 5 San Diego Wave in the NWSL standings.

"At this stage, almost everyone still has a real chance to make the playoffs, which is great for the league," said Gotham manager Juan Carlos Amorós after the Bats' 1-1 draw with Bay FC last Sunday. "But it also means nothing can be taken for granted."

How to watch the Washington Spirit and Gotham FC this weekend

No. 3 Gotham FC kicks off this weekend's NWSL action when they host the No. 4 Portland Thorns at 8 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage on NWSL+.

Then in Sunday's NWSL action, the No. 9 Houston Dash will visit the No. 2 Washington Spirit at 1 PM ET, airing live on Paramount+.