Darian Jenkins is a forward for OL Reign of the NWSL. Below, she spoke with Just Women’s Sports about the ongoing protests against systemic racism, what allies can do to catalyze change, and her thoughts on the upcoming NWSL Challenge Cup. 

What are your reactions to all the events taking place in the last week?

This has been a really long time coming. Obviously, what’s happened to black people in this country has been terrible, and people are finally beginning to protest with us, and to see how wrong all of this is. And it’s not just the murders. People are starting to really reflect and realize that small and big injustices are committed against black Ameircans every day. They’re starting to understand the history of black people in this country. I think it’s great it’s happening, and I’m really proud that I can be part of it.

What should individuals do who want to make more of a difference? 

Every movement needs to have voices behind it, but really the biggest thing is people actually taking action. I know blackout Tuesday had 25 million black squares that were posted, but that’s the lowest, bare minimum of effort you could put into wanting change. Take whatever money you can and donate it to all of these great causes you can find on social media. That’s important. And vote, for your mayors and all the representatives and our president, most importantly.

What would be your message to white allies in America specifically? 

The biggest thing is that non people of color need to take time to educate themselves and those around them. A lot of people of color are very much over trying to explain things and feeling like they’re required to always share their story. There’s plenty of resources for people to go find out how they can help. There’s documentaries to watch and books to read, from Toni Morrison to James Baldwin. Interviews with a lot of people who can very eloquently spell it out and give you a good perspective. Ultimately, I just think everybody needs to really take initiative and put everything that they’re re-tweeting and posting into action.

How does the country move forward and what needs to change?

Well definitely police reform. I feel like that’s the biggest thing. Derek Chauvin had 17 misconduct complaints against him. It’s pretty sad that people are able to go on with their jobs after that. And there needs to be better education on when to use force. When is it ever necessary to knee on somebody’s neck while they’re handcuffed on the ground? Right now, a lot of conversations are opening up. And we need to be able to talk about these difficult things. I know it’s uncomfortable. Believe me, for the people that are the ones getting murdered, it’s extremely uncomfortable. But I think it’s important to ask yourself the tough questions and really reflect.

Shifting topics, what are your thoughts on the upcoming Challenge Cup?

We’re all excited. It’s been a long time coming and we’re happy to be able to get full games under our belt. Everybody’s really looking forward to it and there’s good energy. Everyone’s excited to be back in a team environment, even just to have somebody to pass the ball with. I know I can’t seem to find a cement wall where I won’t get yelled at.

There’s obviously been a lot of change. We’re all just focusing on the day by day and getting prepared, as it’s going to be a pretty heavy schedule once we all report to Utah. Games every three days, less than that for some teams even. The energy is good and everyone’s really looking forward to the tournament, but for now our focus is on the day by day and really just being as well prepared as we can.

Has your team moved into the next phase of group training at this point?

Yes, we have been playing 11 v 11. We are actually in Montana right now. We’re hosting pre-season here actually, because we were originally planning to go to Utah but they ended up changing it, just because we weren’t sure if housing was going to work out. We decided to go where it would be a little more calm and quiet and we could very much have our own space and time to go where we weren’t as restricted to go on the field.

How do you feel about playing without fans?

It’s a bummer, because it creates such a good atmosphere, but safety is first, and we want to protect not only ourselves and our staff, but everybody else that supports us. We’re really happy that CBS is streaming our games this year. It’s important to have a really good platform where games are easy to watch. I think streaming is huge for women’s sports in general. We never really get the media attention or any of that. So for us to be the first sport back when I know the world is hungry for sports and entertainment, I think it’s really going to be great for women’s sports. We’re all pretty happy about that.

What do you expect from players and from yourself too, after such a long layoff?

I think we’re all just really excited. Like I said before, I think all of the teams have really good energy and you can see that everybody’s really looking forward to getting back into team training. When we’re able to play in games, we know it’s going to move really quickly and have such a quick turnaround. I think everyone’s just stoked and preparing as well as they can. Because it’s such a short, condensed time, people are really going to bring their A game from the start. It’s going to be really good competition.

The biggest victors in the WNBA last weekend were the Seattle Storm, as the fifth-place contenders took down the last two league champions to record six wins in their last seven games.

The Storm first took down 2022 and 2023 champs Las Vegas 90-83 on Friday before toppling reigning title-winners New York 89-79 on Sunday.

Guard Skylar Diggins and forward Nneka Ogwumike powered Seattle's two games, putting up 44 and 51 points, respectively, over the weekend.

Forward Gabby Williams also helped fuel the Storm's weekend with two double-double performances.

Seattle is now just one game behind the similarly surging fourth-place Atlanta Dream, while trailing the red-hot No. 3 Phoenix Mercury by 1.5 games.

"Staying ready is what the group is," Storm head coach Noelle Quinn told reporters on Friday. "They're professionals, they're vets."

Teams at the top of the WNBA standings aren't the only squads that saw weekend success, as the No. 6 Golden State Valkyries snagged their second win in a row with Sunday's 87-63 thrashing of the last-place Connecticut Sun.

Despite registering Friday losses, both No. 7 Las Vegas and the No. 9 Washington Mystics finished the weekend on a high note, earning big Sunday wins over the No. 8 Indiana Fever and No. 12 Dallas Wings, respectively.

How to watch the Seattle Storm this week

The Storm will suit back up for another tricky WNBA test on Tuesday, when Seattle hosts the always-dangerous Indiana Fever at 10 PM ET.

The game will air live on NBA TV.

The reigning champion New York Liberty battled through injury and absences over the weekend, narrowly retaining their second-place spot in the WNBA standings despite seeing their losing streak extend to two games with Sunday's 89-79 stumble against the Seattle Storm.

Already missing starting guard Leonie Fiebich, who is overseas competing at the 2025 FIBA EuroBasket tournament, the Liberty also played without center Jonquel Jones and guard Sabrina Ionescu.

While Ionescu is day-to-day with a neck issue, Jones will miss four to six weeks of action due to an ankle injury, the team announced on Saturday.

Despite dropping three of their last four matchups, the champs appear to be taking their recent downturn in stride.

"This isn't going to be the hardest thing that we face all season," said forward Breanna Stewart after Sunday's loss. "We have to kind of embrace the adversity a little bit, whether it's we're down players or things happen in the middle of the game."

New York wasn't the only team in trouble this weekend, though, as the Indiana Fever followed up last Thursday's stumble against the Golden State Valkyries with an 89-81 Sunday loss to the Las Vegas Aces.

Fever guard Caitlin Clark is now one-for-17 from behind the arc in her last two games, as Indiana struggles to break out of their eighth-place standing.

How to watch the New York Liberty this week

New York will hope for added firepower in order to snap their losing streak on Wednesday, when they'll face a rising Golden State squad at 10 PM ET.

Coverage of the game will air live on WNBA League Pass.

The NWSL is officially taking a breather, with the league kicking off the 2025 extended summer break after a roller-coaster weekend slate.

With half the of the 26-match regular season in the books, the No. 1 Kansas City Current extended their lead on the NWSL table to a towering eight points after defeating No. 11 Angel City 1-0 on Friday.

Helping balloon Kansas City's lead was No. 7 Racing Louisville, who kept No. 2 Orlando from claiming any points by securing a 2-0 upset win over the Pride on Friday.

With wins in five of their last seven matches, Louisville's refreshed roster has Racing entering the 2025 summer break with a 6-5-2 NWSL record, as the 2021 expansion side zeros in on a franchise-first playoff run.

"It's all about us. We're not really focused on the other team like we did a little last year," said midfielder Taylor Flint. "What are we going to do — what's our identity? I think that's a huge part of how we've been winning all these games."

On the other end of the table, the bottom four NWSL teams — Angel City, the No. 12 Houston Dash, No. 13 Chicago Stars, and No. 14 Utah Royals — will be looking for a major midseason reboot, after none managed to register a single win in the last five matchdays.

"We go from here, we break now, recharge, and we will be a very difficult opponent for a lot of teams in the second part of the season. That is our target now," said Angel City head coach Alexander Straus after Friday's loss.

There's still a lot left in 2025 NWSL play, with skidding teams banking on fresh starts while surging squads prepare to hit the ground running as soon as the season picks back up in August.

Australian golfer Minjee Lee came out on top at the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship, lifting the third major tournament trophy of her career on Sunday.

Entering the final round atop the leaderboard, Lee never relinquished the lead, finishing the tournament a solid three strokes ahead of the competition.

"I definitely was nervous starting the day," the 29-year-old acknowledged following her win. "I looked calm, but not as calm as everybody thinks."

The win earned Lee both an 18-spot rankings boost to world No. 6 and a $1.8 million cut of the event's $12 million prize pool.

Finishing the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship just behind Lee in a second-place tie were 21-year-old Thai pro and new world No. 29 Chanettee Wannasaen and 24-year-old US standout and new No. 49 Auston Kim. Each took home $944,867 thanks to their four-day performances.

Kim, in particular, cobbled together a massive comeback run, chipping away at her nine-stroke deficit entering the competition's final round to claim the best finish of her young career.

"I'm very proud of what I did," the LPGA Tour sophomore said afterwards. "Obviously, the result was really good, but I'm really happy how I handled myself, my emotions, all the adversity. The course is playing really, really tough, but I feel like this week my team and I were very locked in."

Notably, the tournament's top three finishers were the only participants to finish below par, as the field struggled with a punishing week of both Texas heat and windier-than-usual conditions.