While Athletes Unlimited basketball is making an impact on its own, the new domestic league also gives players a platform to showcase themselves for WNBA coaches. Some have yet to crack a roster in the competitive WNBA, and others might be trying to get back into the league’s ranks.

Through three weeks of the inaugural AU basketball season, two players have already benefited from the arrangement. Guard Taj Cole signed a training camp contract with the Connecticut Sun early in the season, and on Tuesday, Kalani Brown did the same with the Las Vegas Aces.

As Week 4 gets underway Wednesday night, here are three players making their case for a WNBA contract of their own.

Essence Carson

Carson, a 13-year WNBA veteran, signed on with AU after taking a year off from basketball. During her career with five WNBA teams, she’s averaged 7.2 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists and won a championship with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2016. The former No. 7 overall pick is currently a free agent, having last played for Connecticut in 2020.

Despite the year off, Carson made a seamless transition into AU basketball. Through nine games, she’s averaging 10.7 points, four rebounds and 2.3 assists and is currently 14th on the AU leaderboard with 2,350 points. The guard shined in Week 2, accumulating a season-high 573 points against Team Harrison on Feb. 2 and helping Team Brown to a 3-0 record.

Carson will be on Team Hawkins this week, reuniting with Tianna Hawkins for the first time since her standout performance in Week 2.

Lauren Manis

The Week 3 draft produced some fireworks when Lexie Brown picked Lauren Manis ahead of Natasha Cloud, who protested the selection over the live stream. Cloud had reason to do so: Through nine games this season, Manis is averaging 9.3 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 22.2 minutes per game, earning MVP 3 honors in Game 13.

“She’s a dog,” Cloud said. “Her motor constantly goes. She does all the little things that won’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet.”

At Holy Cross, Manis was the first player, male or female, to reach 2,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds. She holds the Patriot League record with 1,188 rebounds for her college career.

The Las Vegas Aces selected Manis 33rd overall in the 2020 WNBA Draft and invited her to training camp last year, but she was waived and wound up overseas, playing for Cegledi in Hungary. While there, she averaged 16 points, 10.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists in eight games.

To back up the production, she has one key WNBA player in her corner.

“Someone’s gonna pick her up, and if they don’t, that’s a huge mistake,” said Cloud, a 2019 champion with the Washington Mystics. “I think that she can come in. Clearly, she is ready to play in the W. She spent that year overseas, she got better, she came back and she’s proving herself in this league.”

Destinee Walker

Walker has come into her own over the past four games and risen steeply up the AU leaderboard as a result. After scoring 22 points for Team Cloud at the end of Week 2, Tianna Hawkins picked her up in Week 3 and she flourished, averaging 14 points, three assists and 2.7 rebounds. In the six games prior to that, Walker averaged 6.8 points, 1.5 rebounds and one assist.

In the final game of the week against Team Brown, Walker recorded 21 points (on 3-for-4 shooting from 3-point range), six rebounds and five assists, vaulting up the leaderboard with an additional 592 points. She’s currently in 16th place on the AU leaderboard with 2,277 total points.

After transferring from North Carolina and playing her fifth and sixth years at Notre Dame, Walker went undrafted in 2021 and was picked up by the Dallas Wings on a training camp contract. She was later cut and made her way overseas, where she played for Niki Lefkadas in Greece.

Walker will be back on Team Hawkins this week, with the potential to make an even greater impact.

Others to watch

• Ty Young (13th on AU leaderboard): 8.7 points, 3.8 assists, 62.7% field goal shooting
• Jessica Kuster (15th): 7.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 44.4% 3-point shooting
• Sydney Colson (18th): 11.3 points, 5.8 assists, 2.2 rebounds

Emma Hruby is an associate editor at Just Women’s Sports.

With half of the Elite Eight now set, a few Big Ten underdogs still have a shot at disrupting the No. 1 seed stronghold at the 2025 NCAA volleyball tournament this weekend.

The No. 3-seed Purdue Boilermakers are through to the quarterfinals after defeating No. 2-seed SMU 3-1 on Thursday, while the No. 4-seed Indiana Hoosiers, No. 3 seed-Wisconsin Badgers, and the still-undefeated overall No. 1 seed Nebraska Cornhuskers all face stiff Sweet Sixteen competition on Friday afternoon.

Coming off a strong regular season, the Big Ten could still field half of the quarterfinal round — though that would require the first No. 1-seed upset of the 2025 national tournament in the form of an Indiana victory over top-seeded Texas.

Bolstered by their defensive leader, senior middle blocker Madi Sell, the Hoosiers booked just their second-ever Sweet Sixteen trip with last week's win over No. 5 Colorado, with Indiana now hoping their lucky run continues against the 2022 and 2023 champion Longhorns.

Meanwhile, the No. 1 Huskers will look to keep rolling against No. 4-seed Kansas while the No. 3 Badgers aim to snag another Big Ten spot in the Elite Eight by ousting No. 2-seed Stanford on Friday.

How to watch the 2025 NCAA volleyball tournament this weekend

The NCAA volleyball tournament's Sweet Sixteen action will wrap with four games on Friday, starting with No. 1 Texas vs. No. 4 Indiana at 12 PM ET.

The Elite Eight will then meet at the net on Saturday and Sunday to determine the last-standing teams heading to next week's Final Four in Kansas City.

All of this weekend's NCAA tournament games will air live across ESPN platforms.

Team USA is on a roll, officially taking the four-game 2025 Rivalry Series against Canada before the slate of friendlies is even over, with the US collecting three consecutive wins so far — and one shot left at making it a clean sweep.

The US downed their northern neighbors by a commanding 10-4 scoreline in Edmonton on Wednesday, marking Team USA's first-ever 10-goal victory against the reigning Olympic champs — all while upping the 2025 series' goal tally to 20-6.

While each team fine-tunes rosters ahead of the 2026 Olympics, one test remains for both international hockey titans before the Winter Games take the ice in February.

"The work doesn't stop. Our Olympic team is not named. There's still one more game to go," said USA captain Kendall Coyne Schofield, acknowledging that her squad is not taking their foot off the gas despite the recent lopsided results.

"We have one more game against them before the Olympics," echoed Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin. "We're all aware of that."

How to watch Team USA vs. Canada in the 2025 Rivalry Series

The puck drops on the final match of the sixth annual hockey Rivalry Series between the USA and Canada in Edmonton, Alberta, on Saturday.

Live coverage of the clash will begin at 9 PM ET on the NHL Network.

The latest FIFA women's soccer rankings dropped on Thursday, with Spain widening their lead at No. 1 after winning a second consecutive UEFA Nations League title earlier this month.

The USWNT held steady at No. 2, ceding 7.48 points after losing an October friendly to No. 22 Portugal before going on to secure four straight wins over Portugal, No. 35 New Zealand, and No. 13 Italy to close out 2025.

Elsewhere in the FIFA Top 10, No. 3 Germany and No. 6 Brazil both saw boosts after successful fall runs, while Canada skidded to No. 10 amid a recent five-match winless streak, with Les Rouges's last victory coming against No. 43 Costa Rica last June.

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The biggest changes, however, occurred outside the top ranks, as No. 96 Nicaragua, No. 118 Burkina Faso, and No. 137 American Samoa all rose by 16 spots.

Notably, upcoming USWNT opponent Paraguay saw the largest drop in this month's Top 50, sliding five spots to No. 46.

Ultimately, as the USWNT battled to keep pace in a year of roster experimentation — and without a major competition on the team's 2025 docket — the many international competitions in Europe benefitted victors and challenged losers in this week's FIFA rankings update.

The No. 16 USC Trojans are gearing up for another top-ranked test, hosting the reigning national champion No. 1 UConn Huskies in the weekend's flashiest NCAA women's basketball matchup on Saturday.

Coming off their second ranked win of the season, USC topped No. 20 Washington 59-50 last Sunday, with 22 points and 12 rebounds from freshman Jazzy Davidson helping pull the Trojans to a 7-2 record.

"I saw a resolve in our team," said head coach Lindsay Gottlieb afterwards. "I knew we could get the next stop, I knew we could get the next play."

USC will face a particularly familiar foe against the Huskies — this time without sidelined star junior JuJu Watkins — after UConn knocked the Trojans out of the NCAA tournament two years in a row.

Notably, sophomore guard Kayleigh Heckel departed USC over the summer for the Huskies, with the former Trojan averaging 7.7 points per game entering Saturday's clash with her old team.

"I just try to take one game at a time, but I'm excited to go back," Heckel said ahead of her first trip back to LA since transferring. "I had a great freshman year there, and I learned a lot, and it was a great experience, a lot of fond memories. So I'm looking forward to it."

How to watch No. 1 UConn vs. No. 16 USC on Saturday

The Trojans will host the Huskies with tip-off set for 5:30 PM ET on Saturday.

Live coverage of the clash will air on FOX.