Megan and Nicole McNamara are 22-year-old professional beach volleyball players from Vancouver, British Columbia. The identical twins played together at UCLA, where they won two NCAA Beach Volleyball Championships. After graduating last year, the twins are now members of Team Canada and are working to pursue their Olympic dreams. 

What inspired the two of you to first pick up the sport?

Megan: In sixth grade, we started passing the ball around during a beach vacation and we really loved it. And when we came home we joined our middle school indoor volleyball team because that was what was available at the time. And then a couple years later we found out that Vancouver had a beach volleyball camp, so we signed up. It all took off from there.

Have you two always been partners?

Nicole: Yes. Ever since we first started playing beach volleyball when we were 12, we have always played together, and that’s a big part of why we love it. I was injured at one point during our UCLA offseason, and Megan had to play with different partners. But in every competition, we have always played together.

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Do you two spend most of your time together even outside of volleyball? 

Nicole: Yeah, we live together and we have a lot of the same friends, so we do spend a lot of time together. But as we’ve gotten older, we’ve tried to carve out time in our schedules that’s dedicated to being alone, because it can be a lot when you work together and train together. But we’re best friends and we love doing things together. We have a lot of the same hobbies, including travel, which is great because our sport brings us to beautiful places around the world, and we also love cooking. We started a website where we post tournament updates and share our favorite recipes. Just fun little things we like to do outside of sports.

Beach volleyball probably isn’t the first sport people think about when they think about Canada. Is it popular in Vancouver?

Megan: It’s growing a lot. When we first started, they had a lot of local tournaments. There was a big professional adult scene, but it was mostly just playing for fun on the side. But it’s really growing in the younger ages now, especially since it became an NCAA sport in 2015, which was also our first year in college. Before that it was just part of the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). Now, so many up and coming young girls want to get scholarships to play down in the States.

Was UCLA always a dream school for both of you? Did you know from the outset of the recruiting process that you both wanted to go to the same school and remain partners? 

Nicole: California was always the dream. It’s the biggest hub of beach volleyball in North America. As soon as we heard that there was beach volleyball in college, we knew that we wanted to be recruited together and use that as a stepping stone for our professional careers and Olympic dreams. It was important for our parents, too, for us to go to university and get degrees. We were recruited by a few other schools, but as soon as we stepped foot on the UCLA campus, we were both just wide-eyed. We fell in love right away, and we immediately knew that was where we wanted to go.

Megan: Heading into the recruiting process, we knew we wanted to stay as a pair. It was actually pretty hard for us to sell to coaches because we are an undersized pair. A lot of coaches wanted to split us up because of that, because a pair usually consists of a tall blocker who is six feet plus and a “smaller” defender who is under six feet. Megan and I are both around five-nine, so we fall on that smaller side. But our UCLA coach thought it was great that we wanted to stay partners, and she let us prove to her that we could play together in college.

What was the transition to college competition like for you? 

Megan: We started out as the number one pair on the team as freshmen, so we felt a lot of pressure. We were going up against all of the best pairs from every other school. So the transition was definitely hard at first, but we had such a supportive and awesome team surrounding us.

Nicole: Starting at the ones was a huge honor. Especially as sisters, we had a lot of media coverage and a lot of the eyes were on us. People wanted to know who these “freshman Canadian twins at the one pair” were. There was pressure, but it also allowed us to mature. We wanted to represent UCLA well, and as we got older, younger players started looking up to us as role models, which definitely forced us to take the role very seriously. We knew we always had to be focused at practice and looked for ways to succeed.

What do you think was the key to your success at UCLA?

Megan: I think the fact that we had just been playing together for so long. A lot of the partnerships in the NCAA were only formed that year, or maybe they had a couple years together, but we’d been playing together already for so many years before we arrived on campus. And being sisters we’re just so comfortable with each other. We can hold each other to a high standard and say the difficult things.

Nicole: I mean, we would pass the ball back and forth in our front yard for hours and hours growing up, so our ball control is one of our biggest assets. Being undersized, we needed that in order to win games. And we definitely had an underdog mentality just because we are smaller players. We went out every game playing our hearts out. Our coach called us “Team Fearless.”

When did you start to have Olympic aspirations? 

Nicole: When we first started playing the sport at 12 years old was when we knew we wanted to go as far as we could go. We loved it that much. And at around the age of 15, we started to play internationally for Team Canada in the Underage World Championship. That was when we realized that it could be realistic for us, too.

What has the last year been like after graduating college? 

Megan: Right after graduation in 2019, we moved to Toronto and started training with the Canadian national team. We’re the third-ranked Canadian team right now, so the 2020 Olympics would have been out of the picture for us because only the top two teams per country compete, and the other two pairs had already confirmed their spots. So our main focus is the 2024 Olympics. And this year we just really wanted to play in as many professional tournaments as we could to gain more experience and to get more comfortable playing at that level, because it’s definitely a big jump from the NCAA.

What does a typical professional beach volleyball season look like for you? 

Nicole: First, the FIVB posts all of the information about the tournaments that are happening for the upcoming year, ranging from one star to five stars with five stars being the highest level. In all these tournaments you get points that go towards Olympic ranking. So ahead of the season, Megan and I sit down with our personal coach and go over the schedule to see what tournaments make sense for us to compete in based on location, level, expenses, etc. For example, we already had our plan for what tournaments we were going to play in from March till August of this year, and all of those tournaments were three to five stars. But obviously that plan has been put on hold indefinitely.
Megan: We can pick which tournaments we want to attend, but it’s ultimately based on entry points. You get points based on your performance at a tournament, and then, a few weeks before a given tournament, they’ll tell you if you have enough points to play in that tournament. It’s pretty late notice, so even when we have a plan for the season, it sometimes changes.

The Coronavirus has obviously impacted your spring/summer season, with cancelations left and right. How has it impacted your training? 

Megan: We’re in Vancouver with our parents right now. We were actually at a tournament in Sydney, Australia when the virus began to get serious. This was mid-March, and the tournament was cancelled at the very last minute. So we were in Sydney for a total of 48 hours and then had to get on a plane to come back. We decided to go home to be with our parents in Vancouver rather than back to our apartment where we normally train and live, because there’s no training in Toronto right now.

We’ve been lucky to have pretty nice weather so we are able to go pass the ball around in our yard. This allows us to keep our skills sharp. But it’s definitely hard because we have no sand, no net, and no structured practices. It is hard to simulate the same type of training that you normally would do. But we’re just trying to stay in shape with at-home body workouts and yoga.

How much do you think time away from being in the sand will affect your game and your chemistry as a pair? 

Megan: It is definitely tough to maintain a peak. And we felt like we were nearing a peak for upcoming tournaments. We were training all the time, lifting really heavy, practicing five to six days a week. It’s hard to maintain that at home. But regardless, we’re just trying to keep the cardio up and stay in the best physical shape that we can, so if things do ramp up really fast, the skills might come back a little bit faster if we’re already in peak physical shape.

Nicole: And we know everyone else is in the same boat. So when we do get stressed about our limited training, we try to remind ourselves that everyone else is living it too. This is a global situation, so we’re trying to stay positive and control what we can control.

For the first time in the NWSL's 12-year history, fans can now buy their own goalkeeper jerseys. And while replica goalkeeper jerseys representing all 14 NWSL teams hit the market on Wednesday, some didn't stick around for long. 

Fans across women's soccer have long vocalized their discontent over the position's lack of availability on social media, often comparing the shortcoming to the widespread availability of men’s goalkeeper jerseys. And as the NWSL has grown, so has demand — and not just from those in the stands. 

"To have goalkeeper kits available for fans in the women’s game as they have been for so long in the men’s game is not only a long-awaited move in the right direction, it’s just good business," said Washington Spirit goalie Aubrey Kingsbury in an team press release. "I can’t wait to see fans representing me, Barnie [Barnhart], and Lyza in the stands at Audi!"

just went looking at #nwsl goalkeeper kit stock out of curiosity — Alyssa Naeher's $145 kit already sold out S-XL (league announced GK jerseys on sale 3 hours ago)https://t.co/8bYA7tlwcx

— Meg Linehan (@itsmeglinehan) April 17, 2024

Business does, in fact, appear to be booming. Alyssa Naeher’s Chicago Red Stars kit sold out less than three hours after the league's announcement. Jerseys for other keepers like DiDi Haračić, Abby Smith, Michelle Betos, Katelyn Rowland, and Bella Bixby aren’t currently available via the Official NWSL Shop, though blank goalkeeper jerseys can be customized through some individual team sites. Jerseys start at $110 each.

"This should be the benchmark," said Spirit Chief Operations Officer Theresa McDonnell. "The expectation is that all players’ jerseys are available to fans. Keepers are inspiring leaders and mentors with their own unique fan base who want to represent them... I can’t wait to see them all over the city."

Decorated gymnast Simone Biles took to the popular Call Her Daddy podcast this week to open up about her experience at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, revealing she thought she was going to be "banned from America" for her performance.

After Biles botched her vault routine due to a bout of the "twisties," she withdrew from the team final as well as the all-around final in order to focus on her mental health. She later reentered the competition to win bronze in the individual balance beam final.

In her interview with podcast host Alex Cooper, Biles admitted to feeling like she let the entire country down by failing her vault attempt.

"As soon as I landed I was like 'Oh, America hates me. The world is going to hate me. I can only see what they’re saying on Twitter right now,'" she recalled thinking. "I was like, ‘Holy s---, what are they gonna say about me?'"

"I thought I was going to be banned from America," she continued. "That’s what they tell you: Don’t come back if not gold. Gold or bust. Don’t come back."

Widely regarded as the greatest gymnast of all time, Biles has hinted at a desire to join her third Olympic team in Paris, though her participation won't be confirmed until after the gymnastics trials in late June. She holds over 30 medals from the Olympic Games and World Artistic Gymnastics Championships combined, and if qualified, would be a sure favorite heading into this summer’s games.

Caitlin Clark is reportedly close to cementing a hefty endorsement deal with Nike.

The Athletic was the first to break the news Wednesday evening, commenting that the deal would be worth "eight figures" and include her own signature shoe. On Thursday afternoon, the publication tweeted that the deal would top $20 million, according to lead NBA Insider Shams Charania. Both Under Armour and Adidas are said to have also made sizable offers to the college phenom and expected future WNBA star.

The new agreement comes after Clark's previous Nike partnership ended with the conclusion of the college basketball season. She was one of five NCAA athletes to sign an NIL deal with the brand back in October, 2022. 

Considering Clark's overwhelming popularity and Nike's deep pockets, the signing's purported value doesn't exactly come as a shock. New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu’s deal with the brand is reportedly worth $24 million, while NBA rookie and No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama’s deal is rumored to weigh in at $100 million. And in 2003, LeBron James famously earned $90 million off his own Nike deal. 

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Clark’s star power continues to skyrocket, with the NCAA championship averaging 18.9 million viewers and the 2024 WNBA Draft more than doubling its previous viewership record. Following the draft, Fanatics stated that Clark's Indiana Fever jersey — which sold out within an hour — was the top seller for any draft night pick in the company’s history, with droves of unlucky fans now being forced to wait until August to get their hands on some official No. 22 gear.

In Wednesday's Indiana Fever introductory press conference, the unfailingly cool, calm, and collected Clark said that turning pro hasn’t made a huge impact on how she’s conducting her deals.

"If I’m being completely honest, I feel like it doesn’t change a ton from how I lived my life over the course of the last year," she said. "Sponsorships stay the same. The people around me, agents and whatnot, have been able to help me and guide me through the course of the last year. I don’t know if I would be in this moment if it wasn’t for a lot of them."

Former Oklahoma slugger Jocelyn Alo has signed on with Athletes Unlimited and will compete in the AU Pro Softball AUX this June.

The NCAA record holder in career home runs (122), total bases (761), and slugging percentage (.987), Alo was originally drafted by the league in 2022 but opted instead to join the newly debuted Women’s Professional Fastpitch. 

Alo currently plays for independent pro softball team Oklahoma City Spark, with team owner Tina Floyd reportedly on board with her recent AUX signing. AUX games are scheduled for June 10-25, while the Spark's season will kick off June 19th. Alo will play for both. 

Among those joining Alo on the AUX roster are former James Madison ace pitcher Odicci Alexander and former Wichita State standout middle infielder Sydney McKinney.

According to Alo, the decision to play in the Athletes Unlimited league was fueled by her desire to propel women's sports forward as well as provide more exposure to a sport that's given her "so many opportunities."

"Not only to challenge myself more, but just for the growth of the game," Alo said, explaining her reasoning to The Oklahoman. "I genuinely believe that professional softball can be a career for girls."

Joining AUX is also one more step in her plan toward representing Team USA at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

"I’m constantly thinking about how can I do these little things right in these four years to prepare me for the biggest stage of softball," she told The Oklahoman. "I definitely want to play in the Olympics, for sure."

Alo further expressed enthusiasm in the hope that the rise of other women’s sports, like women’s basketball and the NWSL, will push softball’s professional viability even higher.

"We’re seeing the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League) get their stuff going, I see the WNBA starting to get hot," she continued. "I feel like the softball community is like, 'All right, it’s our turn and it’s our turn to just demand more.'"