There is no shortage of iconic professional athletes cherished by children in Hopedale, Mass., a small town about 25 miles southwest of Boston.

But when 9-year-old Grace Rojee was tasked with dressing up for school one day as someone she admired, she did not choose Tom Brady or David Ortiz or Paul Pierce.

She chose someone who looks like her. She chose Bri Frongillo.

“(Bri) was blown away,” said Jason Rojee, Grace’s father and Frongillo’s basketball coach at Hopedale High School.

Grace walked into school dressed like her hero, with a Hopedale No. 1 jersey over her chest and her brown hair tied up in a bun. She cut a similar image to Frongillo, the senior guard committed to Bryant University who recently scored her 2,000th career point. When Frongillo graduates this spring, she’ll no doubt leave behind a legacy remembered for years to come.

“She’s one of a kind,” Rojee said.

Last Friday morning, the day after Hopedale closed the regular season with a 56-28 thumping of Milford. Rojee was messaging Frongillo on Google Chat about her nomination form for Massachusetts Gatorade State Player of the Year. It was not a matter of searching for statistics and accomplishments, but paring them down.

The 5-foot-3 Frongillo is the 78th player in state history, girl or boy, to reach the 2,000-point club. And she’s done it by being ruthlessly efficient. In 18 regular season games this season, she averaged 27.4 points, five assists, three rebounds and three steals. She shot 90 percent from the foul line and 55 percent from long range. She is Hopedale’s heartbeat, and it has led to success: The Blue Raiders entered the Central Massachusetts postseason tournament with a 17-1 record, before falling to Sutton 37-34 in the first round.

Hopedale lost its second game of the season but has been a juggernaut ever since, with Frongillo playing a leading role. The season reached a peak on Feb. 15, when she hit the 2,000-point mark late in the first half against Milbury. Frongillo wheeled around a screen and caught a pass at the top of the perimeter, took one dribble to her left and pulled up from deep. She held her follow-through as the ball sank through the net. Her teammates mobbed her in celebration and the referee called for a stoppage in play. Frongillo posed for photos with her parents.

Bri Frongillo cracks 2,000 points on this triple with 3:39 left in the first half. Small ceremony to commemorate it pic.twitter.com/nLocSUL8BB

— Tom Mulherin (@T_Mulherin) February 16, 2022

Rojee is a first-year coach at Hopedale, after moving to the area five years ago from a nearby town where he coached basketball. His wife insisted he look to get back into the game. From afar, he watched Frongillo become one of the most dynamic players in the state, and when the Hopedale job opened ahead of this season, Rojee jumped at the opportunity.

He had been watching, after all, as Frongillo began her journey on Hopedale’s varsity team as an eighth grader. When she moves on to Bryant next season, the team will be without one of its most familiar faces, but the Milbury game hinted at a bright future. With the game knotted at 49, it was Phoebe Carroll, an eighth grader, who hit the go-ahead jumper with 1.4 seconds left to deliver the Blue Raiders the 51-49 win.

In that moment, Carroll, much like Rojee’s daughter, looked a lot like an athlete she admires.

“Everything (Frongillo) does,” Rojee said, “is at another level.”

Josh Needelman is the High School Sports Editor at Just Women’s Sports. Follow him on Twitter @JoshNeedelman.

Notre Dame standout Olivia Miles will forgo the 2025 WNBA Draft, instead opting to stay in the NCAA for her final year of college eligibility. But she reportedly will not for the Fighting Irish.

Miles is set to enter the transfer portal, posted ESPN’s Shams Chariana on Monday, moving on from Notre Dame after back-to-back Sweet 16 exits.

"Notre Dame's Olivia Miles — the projected No. 2 pick in the WNBA draft this month — will forgo the draft and enter NCAA's transfer portal, sources tell ESPN," the journalist posted on X. "The 22-year-old top prospect makes unprecedented decision to use her one year remaining of college instead of the draft."

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Miles shakes up the 2025 WNBA draft

Miles will certainly have her choice of top-ranked NCAA programs. But the projected No. 2 draft pick’s decision also has major implications on both the 2025 WNBA Draft and the 2026 draft lottery.

The junior started all 34 games this season for Notre Dame. She averaged a career-high 15.4 points per game while maintaining 48.3% effectiveness from the field.

"I love college. I think I've outgrown it a little bit, though, so that makes my decision tougher to stay. It's comfortable, a place where you have security," the star guard told ESPN after Saturday's loss.

With UConn’s Paige Bueckers sitting comfortably at No. 1, expected Top 5 pro recruits USC’s Kiki Iriafen, South Carolina’s Te-Hina Paopao, and fellow Irish Sonia Citron could all see a rankings boost.

As South Carolina women's basketball returns to the Final Four, the 2024 NCAA champions’ March Madness journey hasn’t exactly mirrored last year’s dominance. But their resilience has kept them very much in contention.

The Gamecocks bounced back from third-quarter deficits in their last two tournament games, relying on tight defense and smart positional rotations to wear opponents down.

“It is that type of year, that for us, there’s not any blowouts,” head coach Dawn Staley said after her team’s Elite Eight win over Duke. “We have to grind for every single win that we can get.”

South Carolina taps into depth after WNBA departures

After losing center Kamilla Cardoso to the 2024 WNBA Draft, the Gamecocks harnessed their depth, relying on strict minute restrictions to disrupt game flow and launch second-half runs.

Sophomore standout MiLaysia Fulwiley has popped off the bench, complementing leading scorer Joyce Edwards and inside show-runner Chloe Kitts.

One of the team’s key veteran leaders, senior Te-Hina PaoPao has been a grounding force as the only player averaging 25+ minutes per game.

Defense is key to Gamecocks victory

For the Gamecocks to become back-to-back champs, they’ll have to lean hard on their time-honored calling card: defense.

"Look, I mean, at this point it's not going to look pretty. Okay? It's not," Staley said after South Carolina narrowly escaped Sweet 16 opponent Duke. "There are stretches in each game that is not going to look pretty… Some of it's not going to look as smoothly as us coaches and players envision or how you practice, but you certainly have to get down and play the kind of game that's presented in front of you, and we'll do that."

“If we’re not scoring a whole lot of points, then we gotta up our defense,” she continued. “If we’re scoring a lot of points, we gotta up our defense.”

The USWNT announced their final match of the summer’s three-game international window yesterday, with the team set to take on northern neighbors Canada in Washington, DC on July 2nd.

The friendly rounds out a bill that also includes two previously announced clashes with the Republic of Ireland scheduled for June 26th (Commerce City, Colorado) and 29th (Cincinnati, Ohio).

Canada coach Casey Stoney has an edge on the US

With much of Europe focused on the 2025 Euros, July’s bout with Canada will mark the North American nations’ 67th meet-up — but the first under Canada’s new boss.

Coach Casey Stoney arrived in Canada after parting ways with the San Diego Wave last June, her two years of NWSL experience providing extra familiarity with many USWNT stars.

Stoney previously led WSL side Manchester United for four seasons, giving her further insight into current USWNT manager — and ex-Chelsea head coach — Emma Hayes’s style.

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USWNT faces Brazil without injured defender Tierna Davidson

Yesterday, the US posted a major roster change ahead of this month’s friendlies against Brazil, with Gotham center-back Tierna Davidson officially sidelined due to a knee injury suffered last weekend.

Davidson will be replaced by 19-year-old Angel City defender Gisele Thompson, who earned her first two senior caps during February’s SheBelieves Cup.

While Hayes’s USWNT is all about fierce competition and roster experimentation, mounting injuries could force the team into thinner lineups than expected — and up the competition across the board.

No. 1 seed Texas and No. 2 seed UConn punched their tickets to Tampa last night, joining No. 1 seeds UCLA and South Carolina in the Final Four after two tight matchups closed out the NCAA tournament’s fourth round.

Texas got the best of in-state foe TCU 58-47, behind a game-high 18-point performance from SEC Player of the Year Madison Booker.

UConn then handled USC 78-64, holding off the JuJu Watkins-less Trojans as superstar guard Paige Bueckers followed up her career-high 40-point Sweet 16 performance by dropping 31 points on the night.

"We're just so grateful, but we know like the journey isn't done," Bueckers said after the game. "We want our story to continue as long as possible, and we have business to finish."

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Texas books first Final Four appearance since 2003

After four Elite Eight appearances in five years, the Longhorns finally punched their ticket to the Final Four — their first time back since 2003 — behind a tenacious defense that forced 21 TCU turnovers.

“Anybody that watched that game today, when they turned the TV off, they had to go, ‘Wow, that freaking team plays their ass off,’” Texas head coach Vic Schaefer said after the game.

"I'm having fun with it now," Booker told reporters. "March Madness — you’re supposed to have fun."

"I’m so proud of myself and proud of my team to get to this moment," Harmon said after registering 13 points against TCU.

"Rori Harmon is still that girl," echoed Booker.

Bueckers leads UConn to the NCAA Final Four

The Huskies are headed to their fourth Final Four in the last five years. They advanced on a balanced scoring strategy that saw three different players put double-digit points on the board.

In addition to Bueckers’s 30-piece, freshman phenom Sarah Strong ran the frontcourt. Strong paired 22 points with 17 rebounds and four assists for her fifth postseason double-double. Additionally, Princeton transfer Kaitlyn Chen bolstered the backcourt with 15 points of her own.

"There's Disneyland, there's Disney World and then there's UConn World," Auriemma said. "These are fantasy numbers that make no sense. You couldn't predict this and you couldn't script this at all."

All four remaining teams have the potential to win a national championship. Now it’s a matter of who can deliver when the going gets tough.