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.

U.S. Soccer announced Tuesday that the USWNT will play their last home game on July 16th in the lead-up to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

The 2024 Send-Off Match against Costa Rica will take place at Washington, DC’s Audi Field — home to both the Washington Spirit and DC United — at 7:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 16th. The friendly rounds out a four-game Olympic run-up campaign under incoming head coach Emma Hayes’ side, with the last two set to feature the finalized 2024 U.S. Olympic Women’s Soccer Team roster.

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Hayes will appear on the USWNT sideline for the first time this June, helming the team as they embark on a two-game series against Korea Republic hosted by Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado on June 1st followed by Allianz Stadium in St. Paul, Minnesota on June 4th. 

The team is then scheduled to meet a talented Mexico squad on July 13th at Gotham FC’s Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey, where the Olympic-bound lineup will attempt to rewrite February’s shocking 2-0 loss to El Tri Femenil in the group stages of this year’s Concacaf W Gold Cup. And while clear roster favorites have emerged from both of this year’s Gold Cup and SheBelives Cup rosters, a spate of recent and recurring injuries means making it to the Olympics is still largely anyone’s game.

Broadcast and streaming channels for the USWNT's final July 16th friendly at Audi Field include TNT, truTV, Universo, Max, and Peacock.

The USA Basketball Women's National Team is still considering Caitlin Clark for a spot on the Paris Olympics squad, says selection committee chair Jennifer Rizzotti. 

On Monday, Rizzotti told the AP that the committee will be evaluating the college phenom’s Olympic prospects by keeping a close eye on her first few weeks of WNBA play with Indiana.

The move is somewhat unconventional. While Clark was invited to participate in the 14-player national team training camp held earlier this month — the last camp before Team USA’s roster drops — she was unable to attend due to it coinciding with Iowa’s trip to the NCAA Women’s Final Four.

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Judging by the immense talent spread throughout the league in what might be their most hyped season to date, competition for a piece of the Olympic pie could be fiercer than ever before.

"You always want to introduce new players into the pool whether it's for now or the future," said Rizzotti. "We stick to our principles of talent, obviously, positional fit, loyalty and experience. It's got to be a combination of an entire body of work. It's still not going to be fair to some people."

Of course, Clark isn’t the first rookie the committee has made exceptions for. Coming off an exceptional college season that saw her averaging 19.4 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 4 assists per game for UConn, Breanna Stewart was tapped to represent the U.S. at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil less than two weeks after being drafted No. 1 overall by the Seattle Storm. Eight years prior, fellow No. 1 pick Candace Parker punched her ticket to the 2008 Games in Beijing just two weeks after making her first appearance for the L.A. Sparks.

In the lead-up to Paris’ Opening Ceremony on July 26th, USA Basketball Women’s National Team is scheduled to play a pair of exhibition games. They'll first go up against the WNBA's finest at the July 20th WNBA All-Star Game in Phoenix before facing Germany in London on July 23rd.

While an official roster announcement date hasn’t yet been issued, players won’t find out if they’ve made this year’s Olympic cut until at least June 1st.

For the first time in history, three different WNBA teams have completely sold out of season ticket plans well before the league's May 14th kick-off.

Call it the Caitlin Clark effect, attribute it to this year’s tenacious rookie class, or look to the skyrocketing visibility of veteran players across the board. But no matter the cause, facts are facts: Tickets to the 2024 WNBA season are selling like never before. 

On Monday, the Dallas Wings became the third team to sell out of season ticket memberships in the league’s 27-year history. The announcement from Arlington came shortly after the Atlanta Dream issued their own season ticket sell-out statement, also on Monday, and almost seven weeks after the back-to-back WNBA Champion Las Vegas Aces made headlines by becoming the first-ever WNBA team to sell out their season ticket allotment.   

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According to the Wings, season ticket memberships will fill nearly 40% of the 6,251 seats inside their home arena, College Park Center. The club also said that their overall ticket revenue has ballooned to the tune of 220% this year, spanning not just season tickets but also a 1,200% increase in single ticket sales. There’s currently a waitlist to become a Dallas season ticket holder, a status that comes with extra incentives like playoff presale access and discounts on additional single-game tickets. 

In Atlanta, season tickets aren't the only thing flying off the shelves. The Dream also announced that they broke their own record for single-game ticket sales during a recent limited presale campaign. Sunday was reportedly their most lucrative day, with five different games totally selling out Gateway Center Arena. Individual tickets for all upcoming matchups will hit the market this Thursday at 8 a.m., while a waitlist for season ticket memberships will open up next Tuesday at 10 a.m.

"Excitement around women's sports, particularly basketball, is at an all-time high and nowhere is that felt more than here in Atlanta," Dream president and COO Morgan Shaw Parker said in the team’s statement. "We’ve continued a record-setting growth trajectory over the past three years under new ownership — both on and off the court — and 2024 is shaping up to be our best season yet."

As of Tuesday, season ticket sales revenue for Caitlin Clark’s hotly anticipated Indiana Fever debut haven’t yet been announced by the club. But if these numbers are any indication — not to mention the explosive demand for Fever away games felt by teams around the country — it won’t be long before we see some scale-tipping figures coming out of Indianapolis.

25-year-old American pro golfer Nelly Korda secured her spot in LPGA history on Sunday, notching her fifth-straight title at this weekend's Chevron Championship in The Woodlands, Texas.

Ranked No. 1 in the world by Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, Korda joins Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sörenstam (2005) as just the third LPGA player to rack up five consecutive tour wins. She is also the third No. 1-ranked player to capture The Chevron Championship victory since the rankings debuted in 2006, accompanied by Lorena Ochoa and Lydia Ko.

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The Florida native shot three-under 69 in Sunday's final, besting Sweden's Maja Stark despite Stark's valiant come-from-behind attempt in the 18th. Korda finished with a four-day total of 13-under 275, celebrating her two-stroke win by cannonballing into Poppie's Pond, much to the crowd's delight. She left The Club at Carlton Woods with $1.2 million from an overall purse of $7.9 million.

It wasn't long ago that the two-time major champion's current winning streak seemed unimaginable. After maintaining her No. 1 position for 29 weeks, Korda underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from her left arm in 2022. She returned to the course not long after, but failed to win a single tournament in 2023 before seeing a surge in form during the first four months of 2024. As of today, she hasn't lost a tournament since January.

Korda will attempt a record sixth-straight win at next week's JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles, where she'll vie for a cut of the $3.75 million purse.