OL Reign captain Lauren “Lu” Barnes is the first player to make 200 regular season appearances in NWSL history, playing all 90 minutes in the Reign’s 2-1 win over the visiting Kansas City Current on Saturday.

During her 11-season tenure with the Reign, Barnes has only missed 14 of the club’s 214 regular season games. The 34-year-old also holds the league record for most games started (196) and minutes played (17,328).

Reign head coach Laura Harvey, who also recently hit her 200th regular season NWSL game coached, struggled to find words to describe Barnes’ feat.

“It’s really hard to put in perspective how big of an achievement that is for her,” Harvey said. “To have done it for the same club, in a league that’s set up for that not to happen, is phenomenal.”

Despite her longevity in the league, Barnes isn’t exactly the biggest NWSL — or even OL Reign — name, something Harvey called out on Saturday.

“She’s willing to put her body on the line for the team and she does it without needing to be the star,” the head coach said. “She’s humble and wants everyone else to get the limelight instead of it being her.”

True to form, Barnes played down the accomplishment in her post-game remarks.

“For me, it’s another game,” she said. “We’ve been focused on what’s ahead of us, game by game. So, I’m proud of the team, we put up a good performance together, today, and yeah, 200 with one club, I couldn’t be more proud.”

Barnes, a UCLA alum who played in the Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) league before it folded, was selected by the Reign — then Seattle Reign FC — as the 10th overall pick in the NWSL’s Supplemental Draft in 2013. She is one of just five players to have played with the same club since the NWSL’s launch, joining Reign teammates Megan Rapinoe and Jess Fishlock, plus Christine Sinclair (Portland Thorns) and Tori Huster (Washington Spirit).

“If I thought I was gonna still be here 11 years ago, I would probably say no,” Barnes told the Associated Press earlier this season. “The way the league started off, there’s been huge improvements. There’s definitely a life and an opportunity to make this a lifestyle and a job — the last probably three to five years or so. So that’s really promising for the next generations to come and it’s been really fun to be a part of that and build that.”

NJ/NY Gotham FC’s McCall Zerboni (198) is the next NWSL player in line to hit 200 regular season appearances.

The WNBA will be lighting up the NBA’s biggest arena this summer, with the Chicago Sky announcing on Friday that the United Center will host their 2025 home matchups against regional rival Indiana Fever.

With room for nearly 21,000 fans, the world-famous home to the NBA's Chicago Bulls will hold its first-ever WNBA game on June 7th, with the Fever returning for the second United Center clash on July 27th.

"Chicago Sky fans have consistently shown up for the team and the city, and we want to reward their passion and dedication by bringing this excitement to an expanded capacity," said Sky president and CEO Adam Fox in a team statement.

An upgrade from their usual 10,387-capacity Wintrust Arena, the move provides the Sky an opportunity to break the all-time attendance records for both the team and the league.

Chicago's current record-setting game was a 77-67 loss to the LA Sparks in 2016, when 16,444 fans broke the franchise mark at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois.

The overall WNBA record belongs to the Washington Mystics, who narrowly defeated Indiana 92-91 in front of 20,711 fans inside the larger Capital One Arena last September.

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Clark's Fever crowds fuel 2025 WNBA venue boosts

The upcoming upgraded Chicago games will be the second and third meetings between the Sky and Fever on deck for the 2025 WNBA season. Buoyed by NCAA rivals-turned-2024 WNBA All-Stars Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, the pair will clash five times across this year's campaign, with Indiana hosting three of the matchups.

In addition to the aforementioned record-setting clash with the Mystics, Indiana helped an impressive two other 2024 WNBA games break through the 20,000 attendance barrier. Even more, last season saw the Fever shatter the league's single-season home attendance mark with nearly 341,000 fans — a 36% boost over the previous record of 250,565 set by the NY Liberty in 2001.

In anticipation of the Indiana faithful again showing out in 2025, both the Mystics and the Sun — like the Sky — have moved their upcoming home matchups against the Fever to larger venues.

Washington shifted those games to the 14,000-seat CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore, Maryland, while Connecticut will meet Indiana at the NBA's Boston Celtics home of TD Garden.

How to see the Fever vs. Sky WNBA game at the United Center

Fans hoping to catch the Fever and the Sky at Chicago's United Center this summer — and potentially be a part of a WNBA record-breaking crowd — can snag tickets to the upgraded games beginning at 12 PM ET on March 11th.

Tickets will be available both online and via the United Center Box Office.

USWNT standout Naomi Girma made her long-awaited WSL debut on Sunday, featuring in a 2-2 Chelsea draw with Brighton before exiting in the game's 59th minute with a lingering leg injury.

The 24-year-old defender became the first women's soccer player to garner a transfer fee of over $1 million in January, with top-flight UK club Chelsea reportedly handing over a record-shattering $1.1 million to NWSL side San Diego in order to ink the star center back.

After a calf issue caused Girma to miss the USWNT’s February international break at the 2025 SheBelieves Cup and also delayed her introduction in London, she finally took the pitch for the Blues on Sunday. Swedish teammate Nathalie Björn replaced Girma after her second-half knock.

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"She's learning about the league, the team and her teammates. As you could see, the first game is never easy because it's a competitive league" said Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor after the match. "It was good for us to have her start this game, building minutes and being able to play with the team."

"We’ll need to assess her tomorrow, but it doesn’t look too bad, but we will see," Bompastor added.

Chelsea stays at No. 1 in the 2024/25 WSL standings

Two-thirds of the way through the 2024/25 WSL campaign, Chelsea remains the lone undefeated club in the league, with Sunday's draw seeing the Blues drop points for just the second time all season.

Chelsea now sits five points ahead of Manchester United in the standings, as the elite team hunts a sixth-straight WSL title this season.

As for the Red Devils, a seven-game winning streak has Man U leapfrogging both third-place Arsenal and fourth-place Manchester City to sit in second with six weeks left to play.

More WSL shakeups could be coming, as reports of Man U entering talks to loan Brazil forward Geyse to 2023 NWSL champion Gotham FC also surfaced on Sunday.

With seven WSL matchdays left, the 2024/25 league title is still Chelsea’s for the taking, but as injuries mount and rosters fluctuate, there’s still plenty of time to dethrone the reigning UK champs.

No. 4 USC is taking over the Big Ten, claiming both the regular-season conference title and the Big Ten tournament’s No. 1 seed after Saturday's dominant 80-67 win over No. 2 UCLA.

To book their first conference title since 1994, the Trojans looked to star sophomore JuJu Watkins, who posted 30 points against the Bruins — 23 of them in the first half alone.

Meanwhile, the Trojan defense stifled UCLA standouts like guard Kiki Rice and center Lauren Betts, limiting them to just 16 and 11 points, respectively.

For most of the 2024/25 NCAA basketball campaign, UCLA has outranked USC. However, the Trojans have comfortably owned the pair's head-to-head competition, handing the Bruins their only two losses on the season.

USC's four-game winning streak against UCLA dates back to last season. Subsequently, Watkins has scored at least 30 points in each of those Trojan victories. She finishes the 2024/25 regular season with an impressive 68 points in USC's two wins over the Bruins.

"I think I would be remiss to say playing UCLA doesn't motivate me extra," a smiling Watkins said after Saturday's regular-season finale.

"She's 19 years old. Her talent is off the charts," USC head coach Lindsey Gottlieb said about the likely National Player of the Year frontrunner. "But it's her humility and the stuff you can't teach, the inner drive."

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Watkins helps USC book Big Ten tournament bye

The Trojans are riding high into this week's Big Ten basketball tournament, which tips off in Indianapolis on Wednesday and will ultimately determine the team who'll book the conference's lone automatic bid into March Madness.

As the conference's top seeds, both USC and UCLA earned byes through the 15-team competition's first two rounds, meaning they will begin their tournament campaigns in Friday's quarterfinals.

Should both live up to their seedings, the duo will meet again in Sunday's championship game, where both Big Ten hardware and the NCAA tournament's top seeds will be on the line.

How to watch USC in the Big Ten basketball tournament

The Big Ten basketball tournament's 14 games will air across three broadcasters, with Peacock covering Wednesday's opening round.

Rounds will air live on BTN Thursday through Saturday, before CBS hosts Sunday's 4:30 PM ET Big Ten championship game.

The weekend’s NCAA basketball action saw the field settle into their conference tournament seeds — and pick up some 2024/25 regular-season hardware along the way.

With Sunday wins over unranked Florida and No. 15 Kentucky, respectively, No. 1 Texas and No. 6 South Carolina finished regular-season play tied atop the SEC table, prompting a coin flip that saw the Gamecocks claim the conference tournament’s No. 1 seed.

No. 3 Notre Dame and No. 9 NC State similarly split regular-season honors in the ACC after Sunday victories over No. 25 Louisville and unranked SMU. With a head-to-head victory over the Irish last month, however, NC State exits the regular season as the conference’s No. 1 seed.

Upsets shake up projected 2024/25 NCAA tournament seeds

Buoyed by this season's surging parity, half of the teams featured in the NCAA’s most recent Top 16 seeding projections have lost at least one game since last week’s rankings update.

Following the trend this weekend were six AP Top 25 teams, as Big Ten standouts No. 2 UCLA and No. 12 Ohio State fell to lower-ranked conference foes, while No. 7 LSU, No. 8 UNC, No. 11 Tennessee, and No. 14 Kansas State all stumbled at the regular-season finish line with Sunday losses against unranked opponents.

Last week's setbacks could put top teams like UCLA and Notre Dame in jeopardy of losing their projected NCAA tournament No. 1 seeds.

As a result, elite squads must now bank on strong conference tournament performances to bolster their regular-season records.

Boosted by their first-ever Big 12 regular-season championship, No. 10 TCU could now push past the SEC's Flau’jae Johnson-less LSU in the NCAA tournament committee's rankings, thanks in part to the Tigers’ Sunday upset loss to unranked Ole Miss on Sunday.

Similarly, Big Ten No. 3-seed Ohio State will have to use the conference tournament to bolster their prospects after Sunday’s overtime loss to No. 19 Maryland.

With parity-fueled upsets raising this week's stakes, most major Division I tournaments will tip off on Wednesday, as both conference hardware and national tournament odds hang in the balance.