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Caitlin Clark hears Player of the Year talk but wants a title for Iowa

Caitlin Clark has been in the National Player of the Year conversation every year since she was a freshman. (G Fiume/Getty Images)

Caitlin Clark still has a sour taste in her mouth when she thinks about it.

With 12 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter of Iowa’s second-round game in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, Creighton (and former Iowa) guard Lauren Jensen hit a 3-pointer to put the Bluejays in front, 63-62. The game had been a physical slog from the start, and the Hawkeyes were spent. Still, there was plenty of time on the clock. All Iowa needed was a single bucket.

The ball was inbounded and passed over to Clark. She drove to the left side of the lane and put the ball up against the glass. But like so many of Iowa’s shots that night, it didn’t fall.

The Bluejays eventually walked away with a 64-62 win on the way to their first Elite Eight appearance in school history. Clark and the Hawkeyes just walked away.

“Obviously, being the Big Ten champion, being the regular season champion, which had never been done before in the history of our program, that’s certainly to be celebrated,” Clark says. “But when you end your season in that manner, I think it kind of gives you that fire.

“And maybe we didn’t have that last year, and that’s why it ended that way.”

Looking back, Clark points to more than a few things the Hawkeyes could have done better throughout the game, the most glaring being Creighton’s 52-37 rebounding advantage.

“When you get into the tournament, there’s going to be things that don’t go your way,” she says. “Shots aren’t going to fall, and you need to find another way to win. It’s focusing on everything else that you can do to get better and not let that happen again.”

Each summer, Clark usually commits to playing internationally with Team USA. This year, after wrapping up her sophomore spring semester, there wasn’t anything available in her age bracket. Plus, she wanted to be in Iowa City, spending the bulk of her time in the gym and on the court with her teammates.

Clark learned a lot about herself and her game last season. After fooling defenses in her first year with her pinpoint passing and long-range shooting touch, earning a couple of Co-Freshman of the Year honors with UConn guard Paige Bueckers, teams took a more physical approach to defending her in 2021-22. Going into the offseason, Clark felt she needed to add strength and muscle to be able to withstand the extra pressure and hold her own for the length of the season.

“I would say the biggest difference for me was the consistency in the weight room. Getting bigger, stronger, faster,” Clark says. “That’s something you have to be consistent with if you want it to get better.”

She wanted to be stronger in the lane as well and worked on a few post moves to be able to leverage her height against smaller guards.

“You’re not going to see me do it if I have a tall, athletic guard on me. There’s other things I can do to get open in that manner,” Clark laughs. “But if I have a [shorter] guard on me, why not?”

It’s hard to fathom Clark becoming more skilled than she already is as a player. Ever since her freshman season, she has been a part of the Player of the Year conversation. Bueckers won the award in 2021, and Aliyah Boston got the nod last season while leading South Carolina to a national championship.

Boston, a 6-foot-5 forward, and Clark are two distinct players who excel in different areas, making it hard to compare them head-to-head. But Clark has always been close in the race, and this year there’s little doubt she’ll be in the mix once again. She has learned that the comparisons come with the territory.

“I think it was Coach [Dawn] Staley that said this — I think that discussion is so great for women’s basketball. You want people to talk about who should be Player of the Year. That makes people excited about our game, makes people want to watch our game,” Clarks says.

“And that’s the most important thing. At the end of the day, you don’t play for those awards. That’s not why you play.”

With Bueckers out for the season with a torn ACL, Clark’s path to the top honor is clearer than ever. But that’s not what’s motivating her this season. After turning down multiple offers as the No. 4 recruit in 2020 to attend Iowa, winning an NCAA title for her hometown university is what matters most.

“When I committed here, that’s what I said and I believed it. Maybe at the time, not every girl in the locker room believed it,” she says. “But right now, every single person in our locker room and in our program believes that’s where we can be.”

“I think Caitlin, the way she handles herself allows that,” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder adds. “Everybody sees that she’s the hardest worker. Everybody sees all the extra time that she puts in.

“She’s a great teammate as far as crediting her teammates with success and building them up all the time. I think part of that is due to Caitlin, and I think part of it is the culture of our program and that we really stress that everyone is important on our team. Everyone matters.”

Over the past six months, Bluder hasn’t shied away from talking about Creighton, either. In fact, she brings it up almost daily — not so much the loss to Creighton, but the lessons that came out of it.

“Yeah, it was really crushing at the end, and it just is a great reminder to everybody that every possession counts. One basket counts, one rebound counts, one turnover counts. That’s all it really came down to,” Bluder says. “If you focus just on a loss, that’s a little depressing, right? And who wants to come to practice then? We really try to use it more as a fuel for fire than anything else.”

Bluder knows her team fell short of expectations despite putting together a historic season, and the pressure to exceed last year’s results only seems to have increased. Iowa is ranked fourth overall in the AP preseason poll, in a top five that also consists of No. 1 South Carolina, No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 Texas and No. 5 Tennessee.

The spotlight is brighter, but Bluder is confident.

She points to Clark, who led the nation with 27 points and eight assists per game last season and was unanimously voted the 2022-23 preseason Big Ten Player of the Year. And she talks about the return of Monika Czinano, who ranked first nationally with a 67.9 field-goal percentage, providing consistency and power in the paint.

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Clark celebrates Iowa's Big Ten tournament title last season with coach Lisa Bluder and teammate Monika Czinano. (Robert Goddin/USA TODAY Sports)

All of Iowa’s five starters are returning, but it’s the new wrinkles to the Hawkeyes’ lineup this year that could make the difference, particularly Central Michigan transfer Molly Davis. The guard led her team in scoring last year and left as the program’s all-time leader in scoring average, with 17.7 points per game.

When Bluder first approached Davis about joining the Hawkeyes, she was upfront about the situation: Davis would serve as the backup point guard to Clark and compete for off-guard minutes. But as the offseason unfolded, Davis showed the Iowa coaching staff just how well she plays off the ball.

“She’s crafty, she’s deceiving, she’s a smart basketball player,” Bluder says. “So I’m very, very excited. I think that’s going to be an X-factor that people haven’t figured out with our team yet.”

Clark agrees.

“I think it’s going to help us in a lot of ways — number one, handling the ball,” she says. “We’ve never really had a true backup point guard. When you’re in high-pressure games, I didn’t really get a chance to get a breather quick. So it’s a huge addition for us. But at the same time, we can play together, which I think is going to be a really interesting dynamic.”

For the past two seasons, Clark has had the ball in her hands the majority of the time, and for good reason. She’s the best player on the team and a dynamic shooter. But at times, the Hawkeyes became one-dimensional as teams focused primarily on Clark. Having another guard who can handle and distribute the ball will make them even harder to defend.

“Her basketball IQ is through the roof. So I think that’s going to help me off the ball,” Clark says of Davis. “She knows when to get me the ball, where. And obviously I only have a short window to catch the ball coming off screens, off cuts, because I am guarded so closely.”

“Having two point guards on the court allows for anyone to push in transition and get the ball up the floor quickly,” Davis adds. “It also takes some of the pressure off of Caitlin having to bring the ball up every time.”

Clark is equally as thrilled to have a familiar frontcourt presence in Czinano back for another season.

“I was probably the happiest person in the world when I knew that Monika was coming back,” she says. “Me and Monika probably have one of the best connections in the country. We just really understand each other’s game well, play off of each other super well. I don’t always think that Monika gets the recognition she deserves.”

When Clark and Czinano first started playing together in 2020, Clark says she hit Czinano in the head more than a few times when passing the ball inside. Now, they are so in sync that Czinano knows when the ball is coming, whether Clark is looking at her or not, and Czinano knew she wasn’t ready to give up on that on-court connection just yet.

“I think it took me three days to decide that I wanted to come back,” Czinano says. “I knew how special this team was going to be and would have felt weird not being a part of it knowing I had an opportunity to.”

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Clark led the nation in points and assists per game as a sophomore last season. (G Fiume/Getty Images)

Bluder knows it’s going to take a full-team effort for the Hawkeyes to achieve their goals this season. They have the talent to reach the first Final Four in program history and even bring home an NCAA championship. And she has said as much to her players.

“Billie Jean King told me that one time: ‘Pressure is a privilege.’ That’s what we are trying to use. She actually wrote that on a piece of paper and signed it for me, and we have it framed in our locker room. It’s something I want my players to see,” Bluder says.

“This is what you work for is to be ranked high in the country. Does it bring pressure? Yes. But man, you worked hard for it, so you’d better enjoy it, too.”

Clark is taking that pressure in stride, but she doesn’t want to relive another early exit in the NCAA Tournament. The sour taste it left behind still lingers.

As Clark looks ahead to this season, beginning with the Nov. 7 opener at home, she’s preparing for a different result. One that tastes much, much sweeter.

Lyndsey D’Arcangelo is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports, covering the WNBA and college basketball. She also contributes to The Athletic and is the co-author of “Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League.” Follow Lyndsey on Twitter @darcangel21.

WNBA Preseason Games End as Teams Make Final 2025 Roster Cuts

Atlanta rookie Te-Hina Paopao drives down the court during a 2025 WNBA preseason game.
Atlanta Dream rookie Te-Hina PaoPao scored 14 points against Indiana on Saturday. (Adam Hagy/NBAE via Getty Images)

There's just one WNBA preseason game left on the 2025 calendar, as 12 of the league's 13 teams wrapped exhibition play over the weekend ahead of Friday's regular-season tip-off.

The Chicago Sky became the latest team to lock in their 12-player roster on Sunday, joining the likes of the Indiana Fever in making tough final cuts.

To reach league compliance, Chicago waived Australian guard Alex Wilson, 2024 second-round draft pick Jessika Carter (Mississippi State), and former Mercury forward Morgan Bertsch.

Earning their official spots in the Sky's lineup are 2025 rookies Hailey Van Lith (TCU) and Maddy Westbeld (Notre Dame), the overall No. 11 and No. 16 picks, respectively, in April's draft.

Overall, the class of 2025 is performing well so far, with all first-round picks avoiding early roster cuts — though many teams are still deciding who will suit up on opening day.

Some second-rounders are also showing significant promise, with the Atlanta Dream's 18th overall pick Te-Hina PaoPao (South Carolina) scoring a team-leading 14 points against Indiana on Saturday.

How to watch the final 2025 WNBA preseason game

Capping the 2025 WNBA preseason are the reigning champion New York Liberty, who will take on Japan's Toyota Antelopes on Monday night.

The exhibition will see Liberty stars Sabrina Ionescu and Nyara Sabally — who notably saw her contract extended through 2026 by New York on Monday afternoon — return to their University of Oregon alma mater for the clash.

The Liberty will tip off against the Antelopes at 10 PM ET, with live coverage airing on WNBA League Pass.

FIFA Expands 2031 Women’s World Cup Field, Sanctions Afghan Refugee Team

The attendance of 75,784 is shown above the 2023 World Cup semifinal between Australia and England.
The World Cup field will expand to 48 teams in 2031. (Mark Metcalfe - FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

The 2031 Women's World Cup will expand to 48 teams, with the 16-team increase announced among other landmark decisions by the FIFA Council on Friday.

The decision to expand the World Cup aims to "broaden representation, offering more nations and players access to elite competition and accelerating investment in women's football worldwide," according to the FIFA release.

"The FIFA Women's World Cup 2023, the first in which teams from all confederations won at least one game and teams from five confederations reached the knockout stage, among many other records, set a new standard for global competitiveness," said FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

"This decision ensures we are maintaining the momentum in terms of growing women’s football globally."

The expanded 2031 World Cup, hosted by the US, will adopt a 12-group format, increasing the total number of matches from 64 to 104 while extending the competition for an additional week.

The World Cup expansion announcement comes on the heels of last month's increased Olympic tournament news, with the IOC boosting the women's soccer field to 16 teams at the 2028 LA Games.

The decision also puts the women's competition in line with the men's World Cup, which will feature FIFA's first 48-team tournament in 2026.

Afghan women's soccer team founder and director Khalida Popal speaks at a 2023 event surrounded by the squad in Australia.
FIFA is creating an official refugee team for evacuated Afghan women's players. (Kelly Defina/Getty Images)

FIFA approves Afghan women's refugee team

In the same Friday announcement, the FIFA Council also approved the creation of an Afghanistan women's refugee team, which would provide evacuated Afghan women players the ability to compete on an officially recognized FIFA team.

While FIFA requires that national federations sponsor teams, the Afghan Football Federation ceased acknowledging its women's team once the Taliban-controlled government banned women's sports.

Originally formed by the country's Olympic Committee in 2007, the Afghanistan women's national team has not played a FIFA-recognized match since 2018, and most of its athletes fled the country amidst the Taliban's second takeover in 2021.

Since then, players have petitioned FIFA for the opportunity to compete. Their efforts earned a one-year trial phase from the governing body on Friday, though the success of the program could see it expanded to refugees from other nations in the future.

"We are happy that FIFA has created a pathway for Afghan players to finally return to the field," team founder and former captain Khalida Popal told CNN on Friday, adding that the squad "remain[s] hopeful FIFA can amend its statutes to provide official recognition for our players as the Afghanistan Women's National Team."

Popal — who helped hundreds of Afghans, including the team, escape the Taliban — previously said the team "could show the world that Afghan women and girls belong in sport, in school and everywhere in society — and we will not be defeated."

Unbeaten Chelsea FC Wins 2024/25 WSL Season

Millie Bright raises Chelsea's 2024/25 WSL trophy and celebrates with her teammates.
Chelsea's undefeated 2024/25 season is the winningest in WSL history. (Harriet Lander - Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

Chelsea FC is the first team in Women's Super League (WSL) history to claim an unbeaten 22-game season, adding the undefeated moniker to their sixth-straight league title with Saturday's 1-0 win over Liverpool.

The Blues' perfect season joins the previous unbeaten campaigns of 2012's Arsenal, 2016's Manchester City, and Chelsea's own 2018 squad — though those three teams did so in 14, 16, and 18 games, respectively.

Chelsea finishes the 2024/25 campaign with an astounding 19 wins and three draws, missing just six possible points on the table en route to their new WSL record of 60 points in a single season.

"As a manager, players, and staff, you only live these moments maybe once in your life," said Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor following Saturday's history-making win. "You need to enjoy it because it is a great achievement."

Trailing Chelsea's impressive winning tally by a full 12 points, Arsenal secured second place with a 4-3 victory over third-place Manchester United in their Saturday season finale.

Arsenal midfielder Mariona Caldentey poses with her 2024/25 WSL Player of the Season award.
The first-ever WSL Player of the Season award went to Arsenal's Mariona Caldentey. (Paul Harding - The FA/The FA via Getty Images)

WSL standouts secure individual 2024/25 awards

Though they missed the WSL's team trophy, the Gunners did claim some individual hardware this weekend, as voters selected midfielder Mariona Caldentey as the inaugural winner of the WSL Player of the Season award.

The 29-year-old Spain international led the league in shot creation, and put up nine goals and five assists on the WSL stat sheet this season.

Caldentey's teammate Alessia Russo also walked away with a trophy, sharing the Golden Boot with fourth-place Manchester City's Khadija "Bunny" Shaw after both forwards scored 12 goals each on the season.

Also sharing a stat-sheet title is Chelsea's Hannah Hampton and Manchester United's Phallon Tullis-Joyce, who claimed the 2024/25 WSL Golden Glove award behind 13 clean sheets apiece.

Meanwhile, the season's WSL Rising Star award went to ninth-place West Ham striker Shekiera Martinez. After spending the first half of the 2024/25 season on loan to Bundesliga side SC Freiburg, the 23-year-old German international notched an astounding 10 goals in her 12 total WSL matches.

Speaking of impressive scoring, Manchester City forward Vivianne Miedema's stellar chip against Aston Villa in January earned the Dutch star the 2024/25 WSL Goal of the Season title.

No. 1 Seed Texas A&M Tops NCAA Softball Tournament Bracket

Texas A&M softball teammates greet KK Dement at the plate after a home run during the 2025 SEC tournament.
No. 1-seed Texas A&M leads a record 14 SEC teams in the 2025 NCAA softball tournament bracket. (David Buono/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

For the first time in program history, Texas A&M is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA softball tournament, with the Aggies staving off four-time reigning champion Oklahoma for the honor in Sunday's 2025 bracket drop.

After adverse weather canceled their conference title game on Saturday, the Aggies and No. 2-seed Sooners became 2025 SEC tournament co-champions, leaving the NCAA selection committee to lean heavily on each team's strength of schedule in making their top-seed decision.

"What set apart Texas A&M is they have 19 Top 25 wins, which is number one in the country," said NCAA softball committee chair Kurt McGuffin on Sunday's ESPN2 broadcast, noting the Aggies' tough nonconference schedule.

Taking on a lighter nonconference slate than usual due to massive roster turnover following the 2023/24 season, Oklahoma relied heavily on their record in a stacked SEC, finishing one half-game ahead of A&M in regular-season play.

While the Sooners look to extend their championship streak, the Aggies will be hunting their third national title and first since 1987.

Standing in their way in the 64-team bracket are a record number of familiar foes, as the SEC boasts 14 teams in the 2025 NCAA competition — the most from any single conference in tournament history.

Even more, nine of the bracket's 16 seeded teams hail from the SEC, and a full seven of the Top 8.

Florida State catcher Michaela Edenfield celebrates a home run while rounding second base during a 2023 Women's College World Series game.
Florida State returns to the NCAA tournament as the highest seeded non-SEC team. (SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN/USA TODAY NETWORK)

Conference champs, at-large teams score NCAA bracket spots

SEC squads aren't the only teams looking to topple Texas A&M and Oklahoma, however, as conference champions and other elite squads learned their tournament fates on Selection Sunday.

No. 5 Florida State is the highest seeded non-SEC team, despite falling 2-1 to No. 11-seed Clemson in Saturday's ACC title game. Along with No. 14-seed Duke, the ACC will see nine teams in the 2025 tournament.

Behind 2024 National Player of the Year NiJaree Canady — the nation's top pitcher — Texas Tech leads a five-team contingent from the Big 12 after securing both their conference tournament trophy and the national No. 12-seed this weekend.

In the weekend's most upset-filled conference tournament, unseeded Michigan outlasted both No. 9-seed UCLA and No. 16-seed Oregon to score a second straight Big Ten tournament title on Saturday, becoming one of eight teams repping the conference in Sunday's bracket.

Notably, the Bruins — the winningest program in NCAA softball history with 12 titles — have not entered the tournament lower than a No. 6 seed since 2016.

How to watch the 2025 NCAA softball tournament

The road to the 2025 Women's College World Series begins with Regionals, in which each of the 16 seeded teams will host a four-team double-elimination mini-tournament this weekend.

With a minimum of 96 games — and a possibility of 112 — Regional play begins at 12 PM ET on Friday, with the 64-team field narrowing to 16 by Sunday night.

All games will air live across ESPN's networks.

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