The women playing in the NCAA Tournament have no time for the haters. You know, the people who fire off ignorant tweets about how the women’s tournament isn’t as exciting as the men’s, or who write about how it’s lacking upsets.

The only thing that was lacking in the first two rounds was any sense of calm, because the first 52 games were pandemonium.

Eight double-digit seeds won in the first two rounds, and two 10-seeds — Creighton and South Dakota advanced to the Sweet 16.

If you need more proof that there’s parity in women’s basketball, look no further than No. 14 Jackson State, who went wire to wire with No. 3 LSU, or No. 12 Belmont, who nearly knocked off No. 4 Tennessee. And if that’s still not enough, turn your attention to No. 11 Princeton, who lost by one-point to No. 3 Indiana at Assembly Hall.

I don’t think we need to create a competition between the men’s and the women’s tournaments — I eat up every second of both events — but it never hurts to present the facts.

The men’s tournament saw nine double-digit seeds win in the first two rounds — just one more than the women’s — and had the same number of double-digit seeds make the Sweet 16 (two) as the women’s tournament.

Another thing to keep in mind: The first men’s national title took place 43 years before the first women’s tournament. So while men’s basketball was growing, women still spent over four decades fighting for their right to play.

Then, there is the argument that the same teams always win the women’s tournament. Well, UConn has won 11 times, and Tennessee has won eight. Stanford and Baylor are next on the list of repeats, with three each. After that, no team has won more than two. One the men’s side, UCLA has 11 titles, Kentucky has eight and six other programs have three or more.

Those are the facts. I’ll let you decide how to interpret them.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s get back to appreciating the women’s NCAA Tournament for what it is: madness. Starting with the two biggest upsets of the week.

No. 10 Creighton 64, No. 2 Iowa 62

The Bluejays came into Carver Hawkeye Arena and absolutely stunned Iowa. Creighton was able to limit Caitlin Clark — a near impossible feat — to a season-low 15 points.

Coach Jim Flanery’s game plan was relatively simple, but also genius. The Bluejays rotated defenders and had a different player match up with Clark every few minutes. This ensured a constant supply of fresh legs. It also meant that Clark had to adapt to different styles — speed, strength, athleticism, peskiness — every time she had a new player on her. As a result, the National Player of the Year candidate was forced to adjust to the defense, rather than it adjusting to her, which has been the case all season.

Then there was Lauren Jensen, the Creighton sophomore and Iowa transfer who hit the game-winning 3-pointer. The guard says there is no bad blood between the programs, but it still takes a sky-high level of poise to come in as an underdog, against your former team, in their home gym, and do what she did. Jensen finished with a team-high 19 points.

Lauren Jensen gives the Jays the lead! #MarchMadness x @CreightonWBB pic.twitter.com/cFfuJXftTX

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) March 20, 2022

No. 10 South Dakota 61, No. 2 Baylor 47

The Coyotes earned their first Sweet 16 appearance with an upset of No. 2 Baylor, while also ending the Bears’ streak of 12-straight third-round NCAA Tournament appearances.

South Dakota ranks eighth in the country in scoring defense, giving up 53.1 points per game. The Coyotes used that to their advantage and held Baylor — the 16th scoring offense in the country at 76.5 points per game — to its lowest point total of the season. South Dakota also forced 19 turnovers, which turned into 20 points on the other end.

Offensively, the Coyotes went 8-for-16 from 3-point range and had three double-digit scorers. Seniors Hannah Sjerven, Chloe Lamb and Liv Korngable had 16, 15 and 11 points, respectively.

All of that adds up to a historic upset for South Dakota.

No. 4 Tennessee 70, No. 12 Belmont 67

This was the perfect recipe for an upset. Belmont, coming off a first-round win over No. 5 Oregon, averages 8.6 3-pointers per game. Tennessee, according to Her Hoop Stats, ranks 333rd out of 356 teams in opponents’ 3-point makes.

Offensive rebounds kept this one close, as the Bruins had 18 offensive boards and 23 second-chance points. But Tennessee was able to escape and advance to the Sweet 16 thanks to a Sara Puckett 3-pointer with 18 seconds left and Belmont’s missed chances at the free-throw line. The Bruins were 5-for-10 at the line, including two misses with 25 seconds left when they were up 66-64.

THE FRESHMAN!

ICE. WATER.

📺 ESPN
📲 https://t.co/6yMKYQ1tMK pic.twitter.com/ABODs9pL1C

— Lady Vol Basketball (@LadyVol_Hoops) March 22, 2022

No. 3 Indiana 56, No. 11 Princeton 55

Indiana, up 10 points at halftime, scored just six points in the third quarter. The Tigers took advantage, and with 38 seconds left, the game was tied at 52.

Grace Berger, IU’s leading scorer, sliced through the Princeton defense for a layup with 29 seconds left. Then, the Hoosiers forced a turnover to seal the victory. Princeton got its last possession down four with one second left. IU came out in a zone, making sure not to foul, and Abby Meyers hit a 3-pointer to bring Princeton within one, but it was too late.

The clutch gene. @grace_berger34’s got it. 🥶 pic.twitter.com/Pfe1yBG6tt

— Indiana Women’s Basketball (@IndianaWBB) March 22, 2022

No. 5 Notre Dame 108, No. 4 Oklahoma 64

This was not a double-digit upset, and certainly not a close game, but Notre Dame’s beatdown of Oklahoma is exciting for a different reason. The Fighting Irish put on an offensive clinic. They shot 53.9 percent from the field and 40 percent from beyond the arc. Dara Mabrey had 29 points, including seven 3s, tying her with sister Marina Mabrey for the most 3s made by a Notre Dame player in an NCAA Tournament game.

The win also marked the first time a team in either the men’s or women’s tournament has beaten a lower-seeded team by 40 points or more.

No. 1 Stanford 91, No. 9 Kansas 65

Senior Lexie Hull propelled Stanford past Kansas thanks to a career-high 36 points. With the victory, Hull and twin sister Lacie get to play the Cardinal’s next-round game against Maryland in their hometown of Spokane, Wash.

The Hulls won two state championships at Central Valley High School and were 102-6 during their four years there.

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 new-look New York Sirens continue to impress in the early stages of the 2024/25 PWHL season, most recently notching a big 4-2 win over Toronto in the the team home opener on Wednesday.

All four of New York's goals came in the second period — the most in a single period all season — and all were the first goals of the season by each scorer.

Finland international Noora Tulus opened the game's scoring with her first PWHL goal, with teammates Emmy Fecteau, Micah Zandee-Hart, and Jaime Bourbonnais following suit. Both Fecteau's goal and team captain Zandee-Hart's were the first of their PWHL careers.

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Sirens rookie Sarah Fillier and teammate Alex Carpenter both assisted on Tulus's game-opening goal, with each booking a point in their fourth straight contest. Fillier remains in the PWHL's lead with two goals and five assists for a total of seven points, while Carpenter is just behind with six points — though her three goals make her the league's scoring leader.

As for the Sceptres, forwards Hannah Miller and former Siren Emma Woods each made a dent in the scoresheet with goals of their own in the third period, but it wasn't quite enough as Toronto failed to complete the comeback.

Last-place Toronto has now allowed their opponents to breach the scoresheet first in each of their 2024/25 matchups, ultimately losing their last three games in regulation.

New York Sirens to face Minnesota Frost in top matchup

New York's shifting fortune highlights the second-season league's rapidly growing parity. With only one loss through their first four games, the Sirens sit in second place to stake an early season claim on "most improved" after finishing last in the PWHL's inaugural season.

Just above New York on the league's table are the Minnesota Frost. The reigning Walter Cup champions are holding strong as the team to beat, but New York has already proved that it's possible after handing Minnesota an overtime 4-3 season-opening loss on December 1st.

The Sirens' will officially take aim at the top of the PWHL table on Sunday, when New York will try to gift Minnesota a second season loss in the league's pre-Christmas closer. This time, the Sirens will have the crowd on their side as the Frost visit New York's home ice.

How to watch New York Sirens vs. Minnesota Frost in PWHL action

The puck is set to drop on New York vs. Minnesota at 12 PM ET on Sunday, with live streaming coverage on YouTube.

Despite being populated by all four No. 1 seeds, Thursday's 2024 NCAA volleyball semifinals served up the bracket's biggest upsets, as heavily favored Nebraska and overall top seed Pitt were sent packing by their conference foes.

In front of 21,726 fans — a new record for college volleyball's postseason — Louisville shocked Pitt with a 3-1 victory before Penn State ousted Nebraska in a five-set instant classic.

Louisville books second national championship ticket

After dropping their first set to Pitt on Thursday night, it seemed the deck was stacked against the Cards, who had already lost twice to the Panthers in the regular season.

However, buoyed by their raucous home crowd, Louisville surged back, sweeping the next three sets to book their first trip to the national championship match since 2022, when they became the first and only ACC team to ever compete in the collegiate final.

As for Pitt, Thursday's loss was just their second all season, and not even 2024 AVCA Player of the Year Olivia Babcock's astounding 33 kills could extend their title chase. Notably, their national semifinal curse continues, with the Panthers now falling in the NCAA tournament's penultimate round for four straight years.

On the other hand, Louisville's victory was a true team effort, with three senior outside hitters — Anna DeBeer, Charitie Luper, and Sofia Maldonado Diaz — leading the offensive charge with 14 kills each.

The Cardinals' roster was also required to step up in unexpected ways. Just two points into the fourth set, Louisville star DeBeer crumbled to the court with an ankle injury and did not return to the match. The visibly shocked Cards looked to freshman Payton Petersen, who made a massive statement by recording two kills and four clutch digs to help seal the win.

"I wanted to do this for her," Petersen said of DeBeer. "She's meant so much to me."

Penn State roars back to top Nebraska

In Thursday's battle between two Big Ten titans, the message was clear: Never count out the Nittany Lions.

After falling behind the Cornhuskers 2-0 in what increasingly looked like an inevitable Nebraska victory, Penn State emerged from the brink of defeat to pull off the first reverse sweep of the Huskers in the NCAA tournament since 1982.

Following a 5-0 run that helped the Nittany Lions stay alive with a third set win, they flipped a 22-16 deficit into a match-point battle that ended the fourth set 28-26 in Penn State's favor. With the match now equalized, Penn State took control in the fifth, holding off Nebraska 15-13 to clinch their first championship trip since winning their seventh title in 2014.

Star Jess Mruzik led the Nittany Lions' charge with a 26-kill, 12-dig double-double, putting together what Nebraska head coach John Cook called "one of the best performances [he's] ever seen by an outside hitter." 

Like Louisville's Petersen, freshmen also stepped up for Penn State, with Izzy Starck recording six key blocks and redshirt freshman Caroline Jurevicius hammering 20 kills against her former team, having transferred from Nebraska in December 2023.

As for the Huskers, their stacked roster showed out, with outside hitter Harper Murray leading the charge with a 20-kill, 15-dig double-double, plus three aces — the most by any player in either match on Thursday. Middle blocker Andi Jackson also had a standout night, putting together a near-errorless performance to finish with 19 kills.

Four-time All-American libero Lexi Rodriguez added program history to Thursday's mix, closing out her NCAA career as the Huskers' all-time digs leader with 1,896.

Sunday's court will make NCAA history

Louisville and Penn State's semifinal victories have guaranteed that Sunday's 44th NCAA volleyball championship match will go down in the history books.

With Dani Busboom Kelly leading the Cardinals and Katie Schumacher-Cawley coaching the Nittany Lions, a woman head coach will lift the national championship trophy for the first time.

Only two women have ever coached their teams into the college volleyball final, with Florida's Mary Wise doing so in 2003 and 2017 before Busboom Kelly followed in 2022.

For context, the last seven Division I basketball trophies came under women head coaches.

The fact that this glass ceiling still exists is partially due to volleyball having less women in head coaching positions than other NCAA sports. Less than half of Division I's 334 teams are led by a woman, while basketball boasts nearly 68% female leadership and softball claims almost 74%.

Busboom Kelly's ACC exceeds that 50% stat, but the Schumacher-Cawley remains one of only six women leading the Big Ten's 18 teams.

Both of Sunday's sideline leaders know what it takes to win the national championship, with Schumacher-Cawley taking the 1999 title while playing for Penn State and Busboom Kelly doing the same with Nebraska in 2006.

Even so, in some ways, this year's title will mean even more, as the coaches pave the way for future generations of volleyball leaders.

"[There’s] just honestly no better feeling than being led by a female because that could be me someday, that could be one of my teammates someday," Mruzik noted. 

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How to watch the 2024 NCAA volleyball championship match

Sunday's final won't just make women's coaching history, it could see Louisville earn the ACC's first-ever NCAA volleyball title. But to do so, the Cardinals, who fell to Penn State 3-0 in early September, will have to deny the Nittany Lions an eighth national championship.

NCAA volleyball will crown its Division I champion in Sunday's 3 PM ET match, with live coverage on ABC.

For the first time, USWNT and Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman is opening up in unprecedented detail about her famous father, NBA legend Dennis Rodman, discussing him on Wednesday’s episode of the popular podcast "Call Your Daddy."

While having previously discussed their estranged relationship in brief, the 22-year-old enters "new territory" in sharing this amount of detail. 

Speaking to host Alex Cooper, Rodman described a financially controlling, partying alcoholic who was mostly absent after her parents’ divorce, and at one time left his children and their mother to briefly live in their car.

"I think he's an extremely selfish human being," Rodman told Cooper. "I think everything has always been about him."

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An NWSL breaking point

In 2021, Dennis unexpectedly showed up to Rodman’s NWSL quarterfinal match — the first and only he ever attended — causing the then-19-year-old to become emotional.

"I was so mad. I was like 'You took this happy moment from me. You f***ed with my head again,'" Rodman said. "I’m walking over [to him] so mad... he grabs my head and I just start bawling into his arms as if it’s a daddy-daughter [moment]."

That embrace was captured in a viral photo that was misconstrued as familial joy, rather than anger and overwhelm.

After Dennis expressed that he wanted to see her more in what Rodman calls a "wholesome" post-match catchup, she once again grew optimistic about building a relationship, but instead received total "radio silence" that lasted until late 2023.

"I think after that was when I lost hope in ever getting him back," she said. "Even at that game, I don’t think that was for me. I think he wanted to have a good conscience and then be like, headline, Dennis Rodman showed up to his daughter's game."

Today, Rodman has almost no relationship with her father, though she does answer when he calls.

"If something does happen, God forbid, I want to know that I did that. Or if he needed to hear my voice," she said. "That’s why I answer the phone, not for me."

"He's not a dad. Maybe by blood but nothing else. Hearing his voice is painful."

Gotham FC and USWNT forward Lynn Williams is being traded to the Seattle Reign, according to multiple reports late Wednesday.

Sports Illustrated reports that Williams and goalkeeper Cassie Miller will join the Reign in exchange for midfielder Jaelin Howell and an undisclosed transfer fee. 

Though still unconfirmed, the move reportedly comes at Williams’s request, with the 31-year-old Olympic gold medalist hoping to close out her club career on the West Coast, closer to her California home.

In her two seasons at Gotham, Williams scored 11 goals and tallied four assists en route to back-to-back NWSL Playoff runs.

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Williams is a major score for Seattle

The addition of Williams — the NWSL’s all-time leading scorer and third on the career assists list — would be a massive win for the Reign, who are in desperate need of firepower after posting the league’s fourth-worst goal count and finishing in 13th place last season.

Plus, Williams knows how to win, arguably more than nearly any other player in the league.

Since entering the NWSL in 2015, Williams has lifted trophies with all three of her clubs, earning championships with the Western New York Flash (2016), the NC Courage (2018, 2019), and Gotham FC (2023). Those four titles surpass every other NWSL athlete except McCall Zerboni, who coincidentally was Williams's teammate for all of those championships.

That title-winning aptitude would be clutch for Seattle, who are still hunting a franchise-first NWSL championship despite competing in three league finals.

Howell, Miller on the move again

Both Howell and Miller will exit their respective clubs after short tenures.

Miller joined Gotham from Kansas City in January as a replacement for starting goalkeeper Abby Smith, who suffered a season-ending injury in August 2023. In April, however, the NJ/NY club snagged German international Ann-Katrin Berger — one of the best keepers in the world and the NWSL's 2024 Goalkeeper of the Year — leaving Miller in a backup role.

Logging an even shorter time at Seattle than Miller's 11-month Gotham stretch is Howell, who will join her third club in five months with this trade. The midfielder began her NWSL career with Racing Louisville in 2022, but was sent to Seattle in August in exchange for striker Bethany Balcer and $50,000.

The 25-year-old, who captained her Louisville team, has struggled to stay in form. That said, if Gotham can help Howell unlock consistency in her top-level play, her on-pitch potential and off-pitch leadership could be a boon for the NJ/NY side.

Ultimately, trading Williams for a player with more potential than top form reads as a possible rebuild for a club who entered a so-called superteam era just one year ago — particularly in light of Gotham's flood of defectors this offseason, which includes star midfielder Delanie Sheehan.