The UConn women’s basketball team will look different without Azzi Fudd.

The star sophomore guard will miss the next three to six weeks with a knee injury, the latest in a seemingly never-ending string of hardships for the Huskies. The woes for the iconic program started ahead of the season, when Paige Bueckers tore her ACL in August, and reached their lowest point Sunday, when Fudd went down in a loss to Notre Dame.

Injuries have plagued not just UConn but Fudd herself, dating back to her high school career.

Her first major injury came following her sophomore season at St. John’s College High School (D.C.), in which she became the first sophomore to earn the Gatorade Player of the Year award for basketball. While participating in a USA Basketball under-18 3-on-3 tournament in Colorado Springs, she tore the ACL and MCL in her right knee, which kept her out for much of her junior year.

Big news in D.C. today as @SJCHSBBALL G Azzi Fudd was given the Gatorade National Girls' Player of the Year award.

Fudd had already won the state POY award for D.C. but this is an even bigger honor for the sophomore, who helped lead the No. 1 Cadets to two titles this season pic.twitter.com/6JSzAgkGsp

— Michael Errigo (@M_Errigo) March 12, 2019

The Arlington, Virginia, native came back from the injury to become a McDonald’s All-American during her senior season at St. John’s before heading to UConn as the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2021.

Fudd got off to a fast — and expected — start with the Huskies, recording 18 points on 6-9 shooting from beyond the arc in her third game. She then sat out for two months due to a foot injury, one that coach Geno Auriemma said had been bothering her since the summer before her freshman year.

Still, the guard played her best basketball of the season when she came back from the foot injury. She recorded a breakout game against Tennessee on Feb. 6, in which she scored 25 points and went 7-9 from beyond the arc. Fudd followed that up with 29 points against Villanova and then 24 against Marquette.

She finished an impressive freshman campaign averaging 12.1 points per game and shooting 43% from beyond the arc. Her play earned Fudd a spot on the 2022 Big East All-Freshman Team.

Heading into her sophomore season, expectations were high for Fudd, given her talent, accolades, and the absence of junior guard Bueckers.

Fudd delivered, opening the season with 26 points, 6 steals and 4 assists against Northeastern. Fudd scored 32 points in her next two games, highly-anticipated contests against top-25 teams Texas and NC State.

Career-high 32 points
22 second-half points
17 fourth-quarter points

AZZI. FUDD. pic.twitter.com/0Jm3lSLCfv

— UConn Women’s Basketball (@UConnWBB) November 15, 2022

With injuries ravaging the UConn roster – Ice Brady was ruled out for the year, Caroline Ducharme was limited due to neck stiffness, Dorka Juhasz broke her thumb, and of course, Bueckers remained out – Fudd was the guiding force that kept the Huskies on track, and undefeated, until they played Notre Dame on Dec. 4.

In the second quarter, Fudd was setting up a play behind Aaliyah Edwards. The forward fell back and made contact with Fudd’s knee. In visible pain, Fudd went to the bench and then to the locker room. UConn announced Tuesday that the sophomore guard would miss three to six weeks, putting her on pace for a mid-January return.

Fudd’s setback is the latest in a string of bad-luck injuries for UConn.

Without the sophomore, the Huskies have three healthy guards available to play in Nika Muhl, Lou Lopez Senechal and Ines Bettencourt. Muhl and Lopez Senechal have played significant minutes this season, but Bettencourt has not, averaging just 5.5 per game.

After those three, there is Ducharme, whose neck stiffness has been a constant issue, limiting her production.

While the team must contend with the lack of depth at guard, UConn should be getting one of their forwards back soon. Juhasz, who played just two games before breaking her thumb, is day-to-day and could play as soon as Thursday, when the Huskies take on Princeton. That will be a “game-time decision,” associate head coach Chris Dailey said.

Fudd is UConn’s leading scorer this season (20.6 points per game), but their next top three scores are still available – Lopez Senechal (17.4), Edwards (15.7) and Aubrey Griffin (11.7). Juhasz is fifth on the list, averaging 10 points and 10 rebounds in UConn’s opening two contests.

With a slew of injuries dominating all UConn-related headlines, it’s easy to think that the sky is falling for the program. But, with last season as evidence, that is not necessarily the case.

Winning games in the present does get more difficult, but the season is played for March. In 2021-22, Bueckers missed a significant chunk of the season, then Fudd was hurt, then Muhl. At one point, UConn had just seven players available.

The Huskies lost an unprecedented five games in the regular-season, including a 72-69 home loss to unranked Villanova. But in the end, all the questions about UConn didn’t matter. Bueckers and Fudd returned and the Huskies made a run to the national title game, where they fell to South Carolina.

The same could happen this year. Bueckers won’t return, but Fudd is expected back in mid-January at the latest, so the team will have more than a month to get her reacclimated before the postseason. With Fudd, the Huskies were No. 3 in the country, so when she returns, there is no reason they can’t reach the same heights.

In her absence, other players will get more opportunities to hone their skills for the postseason. And even if UConn has a losing skid without Fudd, they’ve already notched enough high-caliber wins that their résumé for March will remain strong.

If Fudd comes back when the timeline says she will, then all the concerns raised in her absence may not mean anything.

The first two rounds of the 2025 NCAA volleyball tournament saw a lot of chalk last week, as the four No. 1-seeds — Nebraska, Texas, Pitt, and Kentucky — all rolled to spots in this week's Sweet Sixteen.

The Longhorns ousted reigning national champion No. 8-seed Penn State with a second-round sweep last Saturday, while Kentucky became the only top seed to drop a single set through the first two matches when the Wildcats defeated No. UCLA 3-1 on Friday.

"I think what I liked is the concentration throughout the entire match. There were no letdowns," said Texas head coach Jerritt Elliott following his team's win over the Nittany Lions. "There's so many good teams right now. The sport continues to grow and continues to be dominant. I told them we don't need to play perfect, but we need to be good enough to win each night, and so that's what we did."

Along with the No. 1 squads, nearly every Top-4 seed advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, with the only Cinderella story coming from the unseeded Cal Poly Mustangs.

The 2025 Big West champions stunned their Power Four opponents last week, taking down No. 5-seed BYU and No. 4-seed USC in five-set thrillers to book a third-round matchup against No. 1 Kentucky — the Mustangs' first Sweet Sixteen berth since 2007 and second since the 1980s.

How to watch the 2025 NCAA volleyball tournament this week

The 2025 NCAA volleyball tournament resumes when No. 2-seed Arizona State and No. 3-seed Creighton face off in the first of the two-day Sweet Sixteen slate at 1 PM ET on Thursday, with the Elite Eight then set to compete in the Regional finals on Saturday and Sunday.

All games in the Regional finales of the 2025 Division I tournament will air live on either ESPN2 or ESPN.

Canada women's hockey will have revenge on their minds this week, as the 2025 Rivalry Series between the reigning Olympic champions and Team USA resumes on Wednesday.

After dropping two consecutive results against the US by a combined score of 10-2 to open the sixth annual showdown in November, the series now heads to Canada — with both of this week's games taking the ice in Edmonton, Alberta.

"They had a great start, they have a great team, but so do we," said Canada legend and team captain Marie-Philip Poulin after the first two rivalry tilts. "It's going to be a battle."

With the 2026 Winter Olympics looming less than two months away, both PWHL and NCAA standouts will be using this week's final international window of the year to make their cases for roster spots in Milan, Italy.

With both teams stacked with talent, those who make the final cut are likely to come home with hardware this winter, as five-time champions Canada and the two-time title-winning USA remain the only nations to ever win Olympic gold in women's hockey.

How to watch the 2025 Canada vs. USA Rivalry Series

The puck drops on Game 3 of the annual hockey Rivalry Series on Wednesday before Team USA and Team Canada face-off for the final time in 2025 on Saturday.

Both games will begin at 9 PM ET, with live coverage airing on the NHL Network.

The Big Ten showed off its depth in women's basketball this week, as a record-tying nine teams from the conference made Monday's AP Top 25 poll.

With three teams — No. 4 UCLA, No. 6 Michigan, and No. 7 Maryland — still in the Top 10, the Big Ten has tied its own record for ranked squads set in December 2024, as No. 24 Nebraska joined this week's list following a 9-0 start to the 2025/26 NCAA basketball season.

"I've been honored to be a part of this league for the last 13 seasons, working on year 14, where I've watched the [Big Ten] just get better and better," said Michigan head coach Kim Barnes Arico after Monday's poll drop.

No Big Ten team had a more dramatic weekend than Maryland, who kept their season's unbeaten streak alive with a furious comeback to defeat unranked Minnesota 100-99 in double overtime on Sunday.

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Despite falling behind by nine points in the second overtime period, the Terrapins executed an 8-0 run in just nine seconds to put the game within reach, before guard Saylor Poffenbarger hit the game-winner with just 11 seconds remaining.

"Maryland has a standard," Poffenbarger said after her team-leading 30-point, 10-rebound double-double performance on Sunday. "When you come to Maryland, you know the things that come with it."

2025/26 AP Top 25 Women's College Basketball Poll: Week 6

1. UConn (9-0, Big East)
2. Texas (10-0, SEC)
3. South Carolina (9-1, SEC)
4. UCLA (9-1, Big Ten)
5. LSU (10-0, SEC)
6. Michigan (8-1, Big Ten)
7. Maryland (11-0, Big Ten)
8. TCU (10-0, Big 12)
9. Oklahoma (9-1, SEC)
10. Iowa State (10-0, Big 12)
11. Iowa (9-0, Big Ten)
12. UNC (9-2, ACC)
13. Baylor (9-1, Big 12)
14. Vanderbilt (9-0, SEC)
15. Kentucky (10-1, SEC)
16. USC (7-2, Big Ten)
17. Ole Miss (8-1, SEC)
18. Tennessee (6-2, SEC)
19. Notre Dame (6-2, ACC)
20. Washington (8-1, Big Ten)
21. Ohio State (7-1, Big Ten)
22. Louisville (8-3, ACC)
23. Oklahoma State (10-1, Big 12)
24. Nebraska (9-0, Big Ten)
25. Michigan State (8-1, Big Ten)

Florida State sits on top of the world of NCAA soccer once again, as the No. 3-seed Seminoles staged a 1-0 upset of overall No. 1-seed Stanford in Monday night's 2025 College Cup final to secure FSU's fifth national championship.

For the second time in two matches, sophomore forward Wrianna Hudson played hero by netting the Seminoles' lone goal, breaking Monday's deadlock in the 87th minute to snag the national title — and this year's Offensive Most Outstanding Player award.

"I'm honestly just so grateful. My team worked so hard and I'm so glad we got the [winning] outcome, because we really went through it this game," Hudson said after the match.

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Hudson's game-winner capped an impressive team-wide defensive performance that snapped the Cardinal's 17-game unbeaten streak, with goalkeeper and Defensive Most Outstanding Player Kate Ockene staging nine saves to keep Stanford — and their NCAA tournament record-breaking offense —— scoreless in Monday's rematch of the 2023 College Cup final.

The Seminoles now own five of the last 12 NCAA trophies, with their 2025 College Cup title marking FSU's third championship in the last five years, proving they haven't slowed down since legendary head coach Mark Krikorian left the program to join the Washington Spirit's front office in 2022.

As for the Cardinal, Stanford will rue missed chances after outshooting Florida State 18-8 in Monday's title game.

With a now 3-4 overall record in College Cup finals, Stanford's focus shifts to next season, when they will again aim to secure their first NCAA soccer championship since 2019.