To have to play a soccer game on Wednesday night while the country still reeled from the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday was a conflicting feeling for Kansas City Current midfielder Victoria Pickett.

“Although soccer is such a huge part of our lives, it seems a little bit insignificant when the lives of little kids and teachers are at stake, when really they should just be in a learning environment,” she said.

The Current and OL Reign held a moment of silence for the victims of the tragedy before their match Wednesday night, the only one on the NWSL calendar. After the Reign’s 1-0 win, their first of the season, players and coaches shared their thoughts on the tragedy at Robb Elementary, which left 19 children and two adults dead after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire inside a classroom.

“Honestly, at a loss of words,” Pickett said. “It’s very hard to understand when something like that is very preventable, but I guess people just need to start going to the governors and supporting more strict gun laws.”

“We’re living in an insane country when it comes to gun control and gun laws,” OL Reign forward Megan Rapinoe said. “I mean, there’s literally a mass shooting every day. It actually struck me when we went to do a moment of silence today because we just did one three f–king days ago for a different mass shooting in a different city. It’s literally the definition of insanity. The entire country is being completely held hostage in a hostile environment where you can go to church, you can go to the grocery store, you can go to school and end up dead.”

Kansas City acting head coach Lloyd Yaxley, stepping in for Matt Potter as COVID-19 protocols left him and four Current players sidelined, urged the players before the match to call their parents and tell them they love them, then go on the field and do their families proud.

In his opening statement after the game, Yaxley said that wearing the black armband and offering condolences to the families wasn’t enough. Echoing the pleas of the players and Reign coach Laura Harvey, he called on U.S. politicians to tighten gun legislation.

With a 7-year-old second-grader at home, Yaxley said he couldn’t imagine getting a phone call on the other side of the country to learn that his child had been shot.

“For me, it’s just wild that these incidents keep happening and no change happens,” he said. “If it was any other walk of life — if it was the car manufacturers and the wheel kept falling off — that legislation would happen and change would happen. But when it’s gun laws, and the power that the NRA has and some of the greed that some of the politicians have, it’s hard for me to really understand.”

“It’s mind-blowing to me that this continues to happen,” Harvey said. “I’ve got a 3-year-old nephew who I just thought about immediately when I saw the news, and I’m sure everyone does that. And to think that he may go to preschool and never go home is heartbreaking. To think of all the families that are being affected every day by this craziness. It needs to change, it needs to stop. There’s no excuse. And we want that to change immediately.”

In a statement on their Twitter account Wednesday, the Reign advised fans to reach out to their U.S. representatives and encourage them to support legislation requiring background checks on all gun sales.

Rapinoe added after the game: “I urge people to use their voice and vote or to call their representatives or to badger their representatives, or to vote them out if they don’t change this, because we’re quite literally being held hostage in this country for no reason whatsoever. The only reason that an AR-15 exists is to murder human beings. It’s not used for anything else. And it’s obviously very effective and it’s just heartbreaking.”

We believe it is important to reflect on how we, as a country, can make a change.

We urge you to act immediately by sending your U.S. Representatives an email advising them to support legislation to require background checks on all gun sales.

➡️ https://t.co/6RYReD8YCX pic.twitter.com/az3TJqN71T

— OL Reign (@OLReign) May 25, 2022

The Reign get a three-day break before their next game against the league-leading San Diego Wave on Sunday. The Current have four days off before hosting Racing Louisville on Monday night.

“It makes it seem pointless to come play, really,” Rapinoe said. “It’s difficult to do that. I know everybody’s doing their job and having to show up today and trying to just sort of fake their way through it, but it’s so heartbreaking.”

Pickett paused in the postgame press conference after telling reporters that she had nothing else to say.

“Sorry, one more thing,” she said. “Just better gun rules. It needs to tighten up. That’s all there is to it.”

Jessa Braun is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports covering the NWSL and USWNT. Follow her on Twitter @jessabraun.

The grass court chaos of Wimbledon didn't disappoint this week, as the unpredictable surface claimed more than one surprise victim in the 2025 Grand Slam's first round.

A full 10 of the London tournament's 32 seeded players fell in the competition's first round, including four of the WTA's Top 10: World No. 2 Coco Gauff, No. 3 Jessica Pegula, No. 6 Qinwen Zheng, and No. 9 Paula Badosa.

"I should just play no tournaments, get no wins, then roll into Wimbledon, and maybe I'll have better results," US star Pegula joked after her two-set Tuesday loss to Italy's No. 116 Elisabetta Cocciaretto, referencing her recent wins.

Gauff's short Wimbledon outing also represented a new challenge for the 21-year-old standout, as the top-ranked US tennis player struggled to bounce back after winning the 2025 French Open last month.

"I feel like mentally I was a little bit overwhelmed with everything that came afterwards," Gauff told ESPN. "So I didn’t feel like I had enough time to celebrate and also get back into it."

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The upsets continued as Wimbledon entered its second round on Wednesday morning, claiming several more seeded players like world No. 5 Jasmine Paolini and No. 15 Diana Shnaider, though both No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and unseeded fan favorite Naomi Osaka cruised into the Slam's third round on two-set wins.

No. 8 Madison Keys now leads the US contingent, with fellow US contender No. 12 Amanda Anisimova joining the 2025 Australian Open champion in snagging their own two-set, second-round victories on Wednesday.

How to watch the 2025 Wimbledon Championships

Second-round play at the 2025 Wimbledon women's singles tournament continues on Thursday, as seven US players — including No. 10 Emma Navarro and No. 28 Sofia Kenin — look to advance to the competition's third round.

Live continuous coverage of the London Grand Slam airs on ESPN.

The world No. 1 USWNT will close out their summer international break against a familiar foe on Wednesday night, facing North American rival No. 8 Canada for the first time this year.

"It's never friendly, you know? It's always like a final," US midfielder Sam Coffey told media earlier this week. "We all know each other super well."

"I'm really excited to be a part of it again for our younger, newer players," she continued. "I think it's going to be a huge learning opportunity on what representing this crest means."

The Northern neighbors are the USWNT's most frequent opponent, with the US entering the pair's 67th meeting with a 53-4-9 all-time record against Canada.

Wednesday's matchup will also mark Canada's first US clash under new head coach Casey Stoney, who joined the team in January following her abrupt June 2024 dismissal by the NWSL's San Diego Wave FC.

As for US boss Emma Hayes, she'll be looking for yet another refreshed set of starters on Wednesday after swapping out all 11 players between the team's two friendlies against Ireland last week.

"It's a testament to players and staff alike that we can rotate to different groups like we did last game, and everybody's understanding [the tactics] to varying degrees," Hayes said on Tuesday.

With months to go before the next USWNT camp in October, Wednesday's showdown serves as the last chance for bubble players to prove their worth, all while the team aims to cap the summer window with a big win over their longtime rivals.

How to watch the USWNT vs. Canada on Wednesday

The USWNT will cap their three-friendly summer break against Canada at 7:30 PM ET in Washington, DC.

Live coverage of the clash will air on TNT.

The Indiana Fever lifted their first trophy since 2012 on Tuesday night, winning the 2025 WNBA Commissioner's Cup with a 74-59 upset victory over reigning Cup champs Minnesota — all while injured star guard Caitlin Clark watched from the sidelines.

To snag the win, Indiana leaned on balanced scoring, with forward Natasha Howard's 16-point, 12-rebound double-double leading the Fever's five double-digit shooters.

At the same time, the Fever employed a shutdown defense, limiting the Lynx to their lowest point total of the season.

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Beyond the $500,000 payout, Tuesday's win gives the 8-8 Fever a momentum boost as the team continues contending with both high-profile departures and the limited availability of their floor general.

"We have a resilient group, you know?" Indiana head coach Stephanie White said after the game. "They're tough, mentally and physically, they pull for one another. I'm just really proud."

"It felt good to get a win under gut-check circumstances," echoed guard Kelsey Mitchell. "To have so much going on and still stay consistently for each other, it was beautiful. It felt really amazing."

As for the league-leading Lynx, the Commissioner's Cup loss won't impact Minnesota's regular-season WNBA standings — and they’ll hope to build on the learnings from last night's ego blow.

Minnesota also has a bit of history one their side, as the last two Commissioner's Cup runners-up went on to win the WNBA Championship in the same year.

"We have to take this game to heart and learn from the mistakes we made, the way we showed up, the way we prepared, and make sure we don't do it again," said Lynx center Alanna Smith.

How to watch the Indiana Fever, Minnesota Lynx this week

Neither 2025 Commissioner's Cup contender will have much time to reflect on Tuesday's game, as both Indiana and Minnesota will dive back into regular-season WNBA play on Thursday.

The Fever will host the Las Vegas Aces at 7 PM ET, airing on Prime, before the Washington Mystics visit the Lynx at 8 PM ET, with live coverage on WNBA League Pass.

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham turned heads on Tuesday, criticizing the latest WNBA expansion plans in light of ongoing WNBPA CBA negotiations.

Cunningham drew ire from some fans after expressing skepticism about the WNBA awarding expansion teams to Detroit and Cleveland over other possible cities, while also suggesting that the league might be growing too quickly.

"You want to listen to your players, too. Where do they want to play?" she told reporters ahead of Indiana's Commissioner's Cup win. "I'm not so sure what the thought process is there, but at the end of the day, you want to make sure that you're not expanding our league too fast."

"It's kind of a hard decision-making situation. But man, I don't know how excited people are to be going to Detroit or [Cleveland]."

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Elsewhere, Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally also voiced her expansion concerns on Tuesday, calling on the WNBA to keep player support at the forefront when adding expansion teams.

"We really have to put an emphasis on the players that are in our league right now," she told reporters. "Maybe focus on the teams that find excuses continuously to lack investment in their players before we focus on adding more to the grain of people that can't really be sustained."