If there is one person that Naomi Girma leaned on the most at the 2023 World Cup, it was Kelley O’Hara.

A veteran defender with over a decade of experience and 160 international appearances under her belt, O’Hara has long been a leader for the U.S. women’s national team. But for Girma, who has just 20 caps under her belt, O’Hara was particularly instrumental in ensuring that she remained on top of her game in Australia and New Zealand.

“In the locker room, I wore No. 4 so I was next to Kelley [O’Hara], No. 5,” Girma said of how the mentorship came to be on the latest episode of Just Women’s Sports‘ “Snacks” podcast. “And I felt like I could lean on her a lot, and she was really good at boosting me up if I needed it or being like, ‘Hey, we got this, keep going,’ or like, ‘Hey, look for this ball. This is on.’”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Just Women’s Sports (@justwomenssports)

Girma also said that O’Hara was helpful in making sure that players were pressing the reset button after each match, even if that match hadn’t gone according to plan. While they would go on to have a disappointing finish in the Round of 16, the team’s earliest-ever exit at a World Cup, O’Hara helped Girma to realize that the World Cup mindset was different from normal USWNT business.

With the World Cup serving as Girma’s first major tournament, she learned a lot about how “every game, every point is so important” but also being able to set the reset button was key, she said.

“Once you do move on or make it to the next phase like you really do have to forget about the game before so quickly, like, get your takeaways and what you can improve on as a team as an individual,” Girma said. “But then it’s really like, look to the next game, you have like four or five days to prepare.”

The team did well in looking ahead to Sweden despite the disappointing result, according to Girma. Team veterans were key in helping to implement that.

“[O’Hara was] also one of those players who was just kind of driving that like, ‘It’s a tournament, we’re through, focus on the next game,’” Girma said. “Like, that mindset I think is so different from a regular camp. … In a tournament it’s new team [every game]. You can’t really worry about how you could have broken [the previous opponent] down. It’s like how do you now beat this new team?

“So going into tournaments moving forward, I think that would be a big takeaway for me. And I think for a lot of us who experienced our first World Cup something that we can look to use going into the Olympics.”

No. 3 South Carolina basketball suffered a blow this week, as top transfer Ta'Niya Latson exited the Gamecocks' 96-55 win over Providence with a lower leg injury on Sunday.

"She's smiling," South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said of Latson immediately following the game, offering an optimistic injury update. "She got treatment all through the second half."

The star senior guard, who turned 22 years old last Friday, joined South Carolina after leading Division I in scoring with Florida State last season.

This year, Latson's 16.9 points per game trails only sophomore forward Joyce Edwards's 21.4-point average on the Gamecocks' scoresheet.

While the full extent to Latson's injury and her potential time off the court is still unknown, any absence exacerbates the team's injury woes, as South Carolina lost standout forward Chloe Kitts to a season-ending injury before the 2025/26 campaign tipped off — with the Gamecocks battling additional availability limits throughout their roster all month.

That said, with the recent returns of forward Madina Okot and guard Agot Makeer from concussion protocol, the Gamecock bench is significantly less sparse, with both returnees impacting Sunday's South Carolina victory with a double-double.

Even more, Staley's squad will see additional roster relief when 18-year-old French center Alicia Tournebize joins the team midseason.

How to watch South Carolina basketball this week

The No. 3 Gamecocks will open the new year by tipping off their SEC slate on Thursday, when South Carolina hosts unranked Alabama at 2 PM ET.

The clash with the Crimson Tide will air live on SEC+.

The world's tennis stars are preparing to open 2026 play in Australia this weekend, with top WTA and ATP leaders on Team USA gearing up to defend their United Cup title starting this Friday.

The two-time champion US enters as the No. 1 seed in the fourth edition of the hard-court tournament, bolstered by the return of world No. 3 Coco Gauff to lead Team USA's six-player United Cup contingent.

With each tournament bout consisting of one WTA singles match, one ATP singles clash, and one mixed-doubles competition, Gauff notably claimed a straight-sets victory over Polish phenom No. 2 Iga Świątek to secure the 2025 title for the US.

"I'm super excited," the 21-year-old star said prior to this year's United Cup. "I had such a good time in my first year playing with the team, and I'm looking forward to going back."

With the 2026 Australian Open beginning in less than two weeks, the United Cup pits 18 national teams against each other as players from both the women's and men's tours tune up for next year's Slams.

Fellow WTA Top-10 stars Świątek and Italy's No. 8 Jasmine Paolini will join Gauff on the 2026 United Cup court, while fan favorite No. 16 Naomi Osaka will feature for tournament debutant Japan.

Also battling for national pride will be two winners of last season's WTA awards, with 2025 Newcomer of the Year No. 18 Vicky Mboko joining Team Canada and 2025 Comeback Player of the Year No. 11 Belinda Bencic competing for Switzerland.

How to watch the 2026 United Cup

The 2026 United Cup runs January 2nd through 11th, with live coverage airing on the Tennis Channel.

The No. 3 Minnesota Frost are looking to skate up the PWHL table, as the reigning back-to-back champs hope to make up ground before the third-year league breaks for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Eight games into the 2025/26 season, the Boston Fleet top the PWHL standings with 19 points, trailed by the No. 2 Toronto Sceptres with 14, while the No. 4 Montréal Victoire sit one point behind the Frost with 11.

"Our league is good. Every game is going to be close," Minnesota head coach Ken Klee said last week. "It's just about getting better and keep accumulating points."

With the league's original six teams largely off to a hot start, there's only a few weeks left before players hang up their PWHL jerseys for February's Winter Games.

Teams outside the current playoff chase are also making a statement, as New York Sirens forward Casey O'Brien scored her first pro goals to power the sixth-place squad past the No. 5 Seattle Torrent 4-3 on Sunday — becoming the first rookie to record a hat trick in PWHL history in the process.

"We've been putting in a lot of work in practice and video, focusing on the little things," O'Brien said postgame. "Tonight felt like the payoff."

How to watch this week's PWHL action

The puck drops on the final 2025 PWHL matches on Tuesday, when the No. 3 Minnesota Frost visit the No. 2 Toronto Sceptres at 7 PM ET, airing live on Prime.

Closing out the year on Wednesday, the No. 6 New York Sirens will host the No. 7 Vancouver Goldeneyes at 1 PM ET, with live coverage airing on MSG Network.

San Diego made roster waves this week, as the 2022 NWSL expansion team announced on Monday that founding goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan is leaving the franchise in a mutual contract termination.

Sheridan joined the Wave ahead of the club's inaugural year, making 87 appearances over four seasons while registering nine shutouts in the team's 2023 Shield-winning campaign.

"Kailen has been an integral part of this Club since day one," Wave sporting director Camille Ashton said in a Monday statement. "We thank her for the contributions to this Club and this city and wish her the best in the next chapter of her career."

While San Diego hunts for a new starting keeper, they pointed to the future by also announcing the signing of Florida State defender Mimi Van Zanten on Monday.

Van Zanten is fresh off her second NCAA championship in three seasons, building youth experience with the USWNT before joining the Jamaica senior women's national team.

"Her championship experience and ability to contribute on both sides of the ball make her a strong addition to the Wave," Ashton remarked about the 20-year-old.

Ultimately, while San Diego has long had an aggressive transfer market approach, the move away from their 2023 Shield-winning core raises questions about the future of the Wave roster.