A simmering rivalry turned a new page on Wednesday, as the No. 5 Las Vegas Aces punctuated their current rise by defeating a short-staffed New York Liberty 83-77, knocking the reigning champs down to No. 3 in the WNBA standings.

"You can't rush a cake to be baked," Las Vegas head coach Becky Hammon said about her team following their fifth straight win.

"We're just steady and poised in the locker room," added Aces guard Chelsea Gray. "In the uncomfortable situations, you figure out who you are as a team."

Las Vegas made key midseason changes after finding themselves teetering on the postseason bubble, moving 2025 addition Jewell Loyd to the bench while shifting to a small-ball starting lineup centered around 2024 MVP A'ja Wilson and recent pick-up NaLyssa Smith.

"She likes it, I guess," Hammon said of Loyd's new role after the guard posted a team-leading 21-point performance on Wednesday. "Anytime you have the threat of 20-plus coming in off the bench, that's a huge advantage."

"That's the beauty of this team," echoed Loyd. "We're very unselfish in that way — we want to see people get going and I just got hot."

While the Las Vegas Aces are gaining momentum, the Liberty are now scrambling, losing their second-place grip on the WNBA table with injured star Breanna Stewart still watching from the sideline.

How to watch the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA this week

The No. 5 Aces are in for another tough assignment on Friday, when they travel to Phoenix to take on the No. 4 Mercury at 10 PM ET.

Live coverage of the clash will air on ION.

After the signature Nike A'One shoe designed by Las Vegas Aces center A'ja Wilson flew off the shelves in May, sneaker site Sole Retriever reported Monday that the sportswear giant plans to drop a second edition with the WNBA star next year.

Dubbed the A'Two, Nike expects to release the next Wilson signature shoe in the summer of 2026.

While the updated design is still under wraps, the retail price will reportedly rise from $115 to $145 to accommodate an overhaul in the sneaker's technology.

The three-time WNBA MVP followed up her original "Pink A'ura" A'One design with 11 additional colorways, including the white "OG Pearl," the blue-hued "Indigo Girl," and a black, gold, red, and orange "All-Star" version that dropped just in time for the 2025 All-Star Weekend.

The initial A'One drop sold out in less than five minutes, underlining the growing market demand for signature apparel in women's sports.

Wilson's signature sneakers have proved popular among fans as well as WNBA players, with the shoes logging the the fifth-most minutes on the league's courts so far this season.

Though the A'Two drop is almost a full year away, Nike will continue releasing additional A'One colorways in the interim.

How to buy the A'ja Wilson signature Nike A'One sneakers

All currently available colorways of the A'One signature shoes can be purchase at Nike.com.

The 2025 NCAA soccer season kicks off with a full slate on Thursday, as longstanding powerhouses look to repeat last year's successes amid a continually shifting landscape.

Following a strong 2024 showing, the ACC is once again poised to house college soccer's upper echelon, with all eight of their preseason ranked teams cracking the Top 15 in the United Soccer Coaches poll.

Even more, the conference boasts all of Division I's top four programs, with No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 3 Florida State, and No. 4 Duke trailing reigning national champions UNC, who enter the 2025 season as the NCAA's No. 1 team behind senior scoring leader and 2024 MAC Hermann winner Kate Faasse.

While the ACC leads the charge, the rest of the Power Four will attempt to make their own waves with a roster of their own ranked teams.

Matching the ACC with eight preseason nods, the Big Ten is again ruled by Southern California's No. 5 USC and No. 8 UCLA for the second straight season.

As for the five SEC and three Big 12 teams on the list, only two cracked the poll's Top 15, with No. 6 Arkansas leading the SEC charge while No. 9 TCU is the Big 12's best prospect.

Perennial contender Santa Clara scored the only non-Power Four spot in the ranks, with the West Coast Conference titan siding in at No. 16.

How to watch Thursday's ranked NCAA soccer matches

The NCAA is wasting no time in putting top-tier soccer matches on the pitch, with Thursday's 2025 season opener set to feature two ranked matchups.

No. 11 Penn State will visit No. 4 Duke, with the Blue Devils hunting their first win over the Nittany Lions in 26 years. The 7 PM ET match will air live on ACCNX.

Elsewhere, No. 6 Arkansas will host No. 13 Iowa in the pair's first-ever meeting, as the Hawkeyes hope to hand the Razorbacks just their second home loss since 2021. The clash will kick off at 7:30 PM ET on SECN+.

The 2025 NCAA soccer preseason rankings

1. North Carolina (ACC)
2. Notre Dame (ACC)
3. Florida State (ACC)
4. Duke (ACC)
5. USC (Big Ten)
6. Arkansas (SEC)
7. Stanford (ACC)
8. UCLA (Big Ten)
9. TCU (Big 12)
10. Wake Forest (ACC)
11. Penn State (Big Ten)
12. Michigan State (Big Ten)
13. Iowa (Big Ten)
14. Virginia Tech (ACC)
15. Virginia (ACC)
16. Santa Clara (WCC)
17. Vanderbilt (SEC)
18. Ohio State (Big Ten)
19. Texas (SEC)
20. Mississippi State (SEC)
21. South Carolina (SEC)
22. Oklahoma State (Big 12)
23. Wisconsin (Big Ten)
24. Minnesota (Big Ten)
25. Texas Tech (Big 12)

The roller-coaster sale of the Connecticut Sun has taken another turn, with Front Office Sports reporting Wednesday that three different buyers are currently in play to take over the WNBA team.

Alongside former Celtics owner Steve Pagliuca's previous $325 million bid to take the team to Boston, ex-Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry recently offered a matching bid to keep the squad closer to their Uncasville home with a move to nearby Hartford.

The NBA's Houston Rockets ownership has also entered the mix, with reports indicating that WNBA leadership would prefer the franchise relocate from New England to the Texas city.

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Topping the sale price with an additional relocation fee could be the best way for a potential owner to separate themselves from the pack, as the relocation fee directly benefits the WNBA's front office.

Should the Rockets' ownership at least match the Boston and Hartford bids — plus ante up a relocation fee — a move to Houston could be a lock, particularly considering WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert dubbed the Texas hub as "up next" in the league's ongoing expansion process.

Ultimately, all signs point to the WNBA looking to align the sale of the Connecticut Sun with the league's overarching goals, leaving multiple fanbases — both existing and potential — stuck in limbo.

The No. 12 Chicago Sky are facing another failure to launch, as the 2021 WNBA champions struggle to navigate the second half of 2025 without injured star forward Angel Reese.

Reese has missed eight of the last nine Sky games due to a lingering back injury — and the WNBA sophomore will be out for the foreseeable future, with the Chicago Tribune reporting Wednesday that doctors have yet to clear her for basketball activities.

"For Angel, if she's healthy, she wants to play," said Chicago head coach Tyler Marsh. "We just don't want to put her in harm's way to further any existing injury."

Prior to injury, Reese was a bright spot on the Chicago lineup, averaging 14.2 points and 12.7 rebounds per game while notching her first career triple-double in June.

With veteran guard Courtney Vandersloot out with a season-ending ACL tear and Reese unavailable in the home stretch for the second season in a row, Chicago suffered their ninth loss in 10 games on Wednesday, falling 71-62 to the last-place Connecticut Sun in a heated matchup that saw three players ejected.

Now riding an 8-24 record into the last month of regular-season play, the Sky are shifting to focus on the future with their 2025 campaign all but over.

The Sky swapped 2026 first-round draft picks with the Sun back in July 2024, giving them likely lottery positioning entering next season's WNBA draft.

However, Chicago then traded away their natural 2026 first-round pick to the No. 1 Minnesota Lynx in order to secure TCU alum Hailey Van Lith in the 2025 WNBA Draft, creating a non-zero chance that the league's top team will tip off next season with that year's No. 1 draft pick.