With eight lower seeds prevailing in the first round, the chaotic first two days of the 2022 NCAA Tournament will be etched into the pages of tournament lore.

Most notable in that group are 12 seeds Florida Gulf Coast and Belmont defeating power-five programs Virginia Tech and Oregon. Also over the weekend, No. 11 seeds Princeton and Villanova took down six-seeds Kentucky and BYU, and No. 10 seeds South Dakota and Creighton prevailed over seven-seeds Ole Miss and Colorado.

Everyone loves a good upset — except, of course, if your team is on the losing end. So, let’s revisit five historic first-round upsets from the NCAA Women’s Tournament that are worth remembering.

No. 16 Harvard 71, Stanford 67 (1998)

Before there was UMBC on the men’s side, there was Harvard on the women’s side. Granted, in terms of being a mid-major program, the two aren’t really comparable, but Harvard still has the distinction of being the first 16-seed to top a 1-seed.

This matchup was interesting for a variety of reasons. For starters, seeding aside, there were reasons to view Harvard as the favorite going in. Allison Feaster led the country in scoring that year with 28.5 points per game, and went on to play 10 years in the WNBA. Sure enough, the senior was dominant against the Cardinal, scoring 35 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in the win.

Meanwhile, Stanford was coming off a Final Four appearance the season prior. But the Cardinal team that was awarded a No. 1 seed wasn’t the same team that took the court against Harvard. Vanessa Nygaard and Kristin Folkl both sustained season-ending injuries the week before the tournament opener. Folkl led the team with 18.9 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, while Nygaard contributed 14.9 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. It was the perfect combination for an upset, and Harvard took advantage.

No. 13 Marist 76, No. 4 Georgia 70 (2012)
No. 13 Marist 67, No. 4 Ohio State 63 (2007)

There has yet to be an upset of a 15–seed over a 2-seed or a 14 over a 3 — though No. 14 Jackson State nearly made history in its wire-to-wire loss to No. 3 LSU on Saturday. Marist, though, has the distinction of being atop the list of 13-seed upsets. That’s because there have been seven such upsets, and Marist is the only team to have done it more than once.

In 2007, Julianne Viani scored 24 points on 7-for-11 shooting from the field (including six 3-pointers), and clinched the win by knocking down two free throws with 18.1 seconds left. These days Viani still takes part in basketball upsets, just from the sideline where she serves as a TV analyst.

Then in 2012, Marist did it again, this time over Georgia. The Red Foxes held Jasmin Haskell, Georgia’s leading scorer, to six points and six rebounds en route to the win. The Bulldogs had made it to the Sweet 16 two years in a row prior to the upset.

No. 12 Notre Dame 73, No. 5 Purdue 60 (1996)

A year before appearing in their first Sweet 16, which turned into their first Elite Eight and then Final Four, the Fighting Irish showed the basketball world what was coming in a first-round upset of Purdue.

Notre Dame was five years away from its first title, and Purdue was coming off a Final Four appearance in 1994 and an Elite Eight in 1995. Plus, the Boilermakers took the tournament crown three years later when they defeated Duke 62-45 in the championship game.

With their win over Purdue in 1996, the Fighting Irish advanced past the first round for the first time. Since then, they’ve made it to the second week of the tournament 21 more times.

No. 11 UAB 80, No. 6 Oregon 79, OT (2000)

On Sunday, Oregon fell to No. 12 Belmont in double overtime. Twenty-two years ago, the Ducks were ousted from the first round by No. 11 UAB.

The Blazers were coming off a Conference USA tournament win, earning them the NCAA Tournament bid. UAB went into that conference tournament as an eight-seed, so they’d already compiled multiple upsets before meeting Oregon on the big stage.

Shaquette Rhodes secured the overtime victory for the Blazers by grabbing a rebound and finishing a putback with three seconds left on the clock. Deanna Jackson led UAB with a career-high 32 points in the thrilling victory.

Eden Laase is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports. She previously ran her own high school sports website in Michigan after covering college hockey and interning at Sports Illustrated. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.

The USA women's hockey team came out on top over the weekend, kicking off the four-game 2025 Rivalry Series against Canada by dominating their northern neighbors, outscoring them by an impressive 10-2 margin across the pair's first two games.

US forward Abbey Murphy emerged as a series star, scoring a natural hat trick in the team's 4-1 win in Cleveland on Thursday — the first three-goal turn by a USA player against Canada since team captain Hilary Knight did so at the 2023 IIHF Women's World Championship.

"I told [Murphy], 'You set the bar pretty high,'" said Knight, who added her own hat trick to the mix in Saturday's 6-1 victory in Buffalo.

"I love how we showed up," the 36-year-old continued. "We've been working like dogs since August and to get rewarded for our work, and see situations that we need to work on."

Notably, while the USA brought their entire 2025 world championship-winning roster to the first two Rivalry Series games, Canada chose to evaluate some fresh faces while resting a number of standout veterans, including their No. 1 goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens — a fact that should temper the sting of adding two big losses to their now four-game skid against the US.

With women's hockey taking over Milan at the 2026 Winter Olympics in February, the last two 2025 Rivalry Series matchups will more likely see both sides testing their final rosters for Italy.

How to watch the final games in the 2025 Rivalry Series

Canada will welcome the USA for the last two matchups in the 2025 Rivalry Series, with the puck dropping in Edmonton, Alberta, at 9 PM ET for both the December 10th and 13th clashes.

Both games will air live on the NHL Network.

The LPGA is bringing star power to Florida this week, as a wealth of women's golf talent — and one basketball superstar — tee off at the 2025 edition of The ANNIKA.

Kicking off the event on Wednesday was the annual Pro-Am, with Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark headlining the field for the second straight year.

World No. 2 golfer Nelly Korda once again joined Clark through her first nine holes, as Fever teammates Sophie Cunningham and Lexie Hull served as guest caddies.

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The four-day professional tournament will then tee off on Thursday, though current world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul will not be in attendance for the second year in a row.

Korda, however, will lead the charge to both defend her 2024 title and secure her first win of the 2025 LPGA season — as well as add to her full trio of trophies collected at The ANNIKA.

Four other Top-10 players will look to upend Korda's back-to-back bid, including No. 3 Miyu Yamashita, No. 6 Charley Hull, No. 9 Mao Saigo, and No. 10 Lottie Woad.

With the 2025 CMA Group Tour Championship capping the LPGA season later this month, The ANNIKA will also see golfers on the bubble — like US stars Rose Zhang and 2023 champion Lilia Vu — try to snag enough points to make the end-of-year tournament's final 60-player cut.

How to watch The ANNIKA 2025 LPGA tournament

Coverage of the fifth edition of The ANNIKA continues through Sunday, airing live on the Golf Channel.

The No. 3 UCLA Bruins rose to the occasion on Monday, looking like 2025/26 NCAA basketball championship contenders as they took down the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners 73-59 in Sacramento.

Utah transfer Gianna Kneepkens made the difference for the Bruins, leading all scorers with 20 points while opposing defenses limited both UCLA center Lauren Betts and Oklahoma big Raegan Beers to single digits.

Bruins forward Angela Dugalić also put up a standout performance, coming off the bench to score 16 points and snag 15 rebounds on Monday.

"There are so many weapons that I feel like it's hard for the defense to choose what to take away," Kneepkens said ahead of Monday's matchup. "What makes this team special is that any night could be someone's night."

Monday's clash with UCLA also served as the national broadcast debut of Oklahoma freshman guard Aaliyah Chavez, with the No. 1 high school basketball recruit seeing her first Top 10 NCAA matchup as a Sooner.

Chavez had a slow start against the experienced Bruins, registering 11 points, three assists, and two rebounds across her 32 minutes on the court.

How to watch UCLA basketball this week

The heat continues for No. 3 UCLA on Thursday, when the Bruins will host the No. 11 North Carolina Tar Heels at 9 PM ET, airing live on ESPN.

Newly formed offseason league Project B is stocking up, with Phoenix Mercury star forward Alyssa Thomas becoming the second big-name WNBA player to sign with the overseas venture ahead of its anticipated November 2026 debut.

Thomas follows Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike in joining Project B, a traveling tournament-style competition reportedly offering players significant pay raises into the seven- and even eight-figure echelon — as well as equity stakes in the league.

Thomas will still feature in the 2026 season of Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball this January, with the launch of Project B expected to conflict with Unrivaled's third season in 2027.

With salaries reportedly topping both Unrivaled and the WNBA, Project B's funding sources came into question after Ogwumike's announcement last week.

In February, The Financial Times named Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund as a league investor, though Project B co-founder Grady Burnett denied those claims to Front Office Sports last week.

However, the league is working with event partner Sela, a known subsidiary of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, though Burnett was quick to qualify that "Sela is one event partner that we pay money to. We do not have any dollars coming from them."

With the first season of Project B set to field 66 players, expect more high-profile signings to continue as the new venture adds to the increasingly crowded WNBA offseason space.