When Heather O’Reilly joined the North Carolina Courage through a trade in 2018, Meredith Speck couldn’t resist telling her how much she looked up to the World Cup champion 10 years earlier, when Speck was playing youth soccer.

O’Reilly, a longtime midfielder with the U.S. women’s national team, helped establish a standard of excellence in North Carolina. During the two years she was on the team from 2018-19, the Courage won back-to-back NWSL championships and NWSL Shields.

With O’Reilly now retired and in the broadcasting booth, calling her first game as an analyst for North Carolina’s home opener Wednesday night, Speck and the other Courage veterans are carrying on the winning tradition. The team enters the regular season as the winningest club in the NWSL after defeating the Washington Spirit in the Challenge Cup final earlier this month.

Even now, Speck looks up to O’Reilly, influenced by her commitment to putting forth 100 percent effort at all times.

“I think sometimes people think it’s cool to not try your hardest, because if you’re not trying your hardest, then you can’t necessarily fail,” Speck said. “And what I love so much about Heather is she’s never too cool to work her hardest, and if she trains her hardest every day and doesn’t make the lineup, that’s just not embarrassing for her.”

Speck has been with the Courage since 2017, but she hasn’t always been a consistent starter. In four seasons with the club, excluding Challenge Cups, the midfielder has started 12 of the 45 games in which she’s played. But the Courage are a winning team not only because of the players they field on game day. Speck and her teammates fight for their starting spots in training.

“Game day is one day a week, and the other five days of training are so imperative to preparing the team,” she said. “So for myself, I’m not necessarily looking at preparing for a game in that moment — I’m looking for, how can I be my best every day? Because every day that I’m my best, my teammates are going to be able to be their best and whoever gets to go on the field, whatever 11 that is, they’re going to be the most prepared. If the team wins, we all win.”

The Courage are known for their player-driven, highly competitive culture. Speck, tied with teammate Abby Erceg as the winningest field players in the NWSL, sets the example for the younger players. She cited rookie midfielders Haleigh Stackpole and Frankie Tagliaferri as standard-bearers of that mentality in training.

“Everyone needs a Meri Speck,” said Courage head coach Sean Nahas. “She’s a massive glue piece for us. She’s a piece that keeps everything together. She’s that lightheartedness but focus as well. She’s a true pro, and I say that because for five years she never saw the field, but Meri never complained. Meri never lost her way. She never thought, ‘I’m not coming back because I don’t approve of my role.’”

COURAGE ARE YOUR 2022 CHALLENGE CUP CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!! #CourageUnitesUs pic.twitter.com/obHJ108DsZ

— NC Courage (@TheNCCourage) May 7, 2022

Speck, 29, is part of a Courage veteran group that includes Erceg, Debinha, Carson Pickett, Denise O’Sullivan, Merrit Mathias, Katelyn Rowland, Kaleigh Kurtz and Ryan Williams. They have had to ramp up their energy since the Challenge Cup ended on May 7, helping the team overcome a stretch that included a seven-player COVID-19 outbreak and a postponed match against Gotham FC. With smaller numbers at practice, they’ve focused on specific parts of their game and kept the intensity high.

After dropping their regular season opener 2-1 to Angel City FC, the Courage are riding the momentum from their Challenge Cup win into Wednesday’s match against the Orlando Pride. Their early success came as a surprise to some people after all of their roster changes in the offseason, including losing U.S. women’s national players Lynn Williams and Sam Mewis in trades with the Kansas City Current, but the Courage had their eyes set on the trophy from the beginning.

“This team has been, from day one, super focused and ready to get down to business, and that’s why we won the Challenge Cup,” Speck said.

“We proved so many people wrong,” said Nahas.

After dealing with last September’s bombshell report in The Athletic detailing allegations of emotional and sexual abuse against former head coach Paul Riley, Nahas wanted the team to experience winning again, especially the veterans.

“It’s revitalized some players,” Nahas said of the Challenge Cup title. “It’s brought a new light to some things. It’s allowed the veterans to have a new sense of energy because they have other players around them working and representing the crest the way we want it to be represented.”

For an example of what that representation looks like, the players need look no further than Meredith Speck.

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

Cameron Brink already has her rookie of the year pick for the upcoming WNBA season, and it’s Indiana-bound star Caitlin Clark. 

In the latest edition of Kelley on the Street, host Kelley O'Hara caught up with Brink in New York hours before the Stanford phenom went No. 2 overall to the Los Angeles Sparks at the 2024 WNBA Draft. When O’Hara asked who would win the WNBA's rookie of the year, she answered without pause.

"Caitlin Clark," she said, while a fan commented that she thought Brink would take home the award. Brink later added that the extra foul granted to WNBA players will be "good for me."

"I hope it’s me," Charisma Osborne, who was later drafted by the Phoenix Mercury, said when asked her ROY prediction. "But, I don’t know — we’ll see."

Watch more of Kelley on the Street:

Maria Sanchez issued a statement on Thursday, confirming recent reports that she has requested a trade from the Houston Dash. 

In it, she revealed that the club has been aware of the request "since late March."

"This has all taken a toll and isn’t an easy thing to talk about, but I want to confirm that I’ve requested an immediate trade," she wrote. "My expectations and reasons have been clear. I trust that my current club’s management will honor my decision in a timely manner and proceed with accepting a trade."

"I’m eager to refocus and dive back into what I love most: playing football," she concluded.

Thank you, everyone, for the outpouring of kindness and support. pic.twitter.com/gcnN7dhCJU

— Maria Sanchez (@Maria17_7) April 19, 2024

Reports of Sanchez's trade request first surfaced on ESPN last week, and were later confirmed by multiple sources. 

In December of last year, Sanchez signed a three-year contract with the Dash valued at $1.5 million including bonuses and an option year. It was the largest contract in NWSL history at the time — a figure that would be eclipsed by multiple contracts in the following months. 

Sanchez spent the offseason as a restricted free agent, meaning that Houston could match any other team's offer to retain her rights. Should the Dash trade Sanchez, her current contract terms would remain intact, limiting potential buyers to teams able to afford to take on an inking of that size.

The Dash has yet to address the trade, instead reiterating to ESPN that Sanchez is "under contract, a choice she made in free agency at the end of 2023." 

Both the NWSL trade window and transfer window close tonight, April 19th, at 12 a.m. ET. The window will stay closed through the next 11 regular season games, reopening on August 1st, 2024.

The four-time league champion Seattle Storm unveiled their new practice facility on Thursday, with Storm co-owner Lisa Brummel dubbing Interbay's Seattle Storm Center for Basketball Performance the team’s "new home."

"It's just such a special space," Brummel told Fox 13 Seattle. "I think when the players get here, it's gonna be overwhelming."

The sprawling 50,000-square-foot, $64 million property is just the second designated practice facility to be designed and built expressly for a WNBA team, with the Storm further noting that 85% of all design and engineering team members involved in the project's construction were women and people of color. The finished product holds two professional indoor courts, two 3x3 outdoor courts, a state-of-the-art locker room, and players' lounge, plus designated areas for strength and conditioning, kitchen, dining, and nutrition, and recovery. 

"This facility reflects our commitment to providing our athletes an exceptional environment that supports their growth, health, and performance," said Storm co-owner Ginny Gilder in an official team release. "It’s built for women, by women, embodying our dedication to leading the way in professional women’s sports."

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For their part, the team can't wait to make the faciilty their own.

"It's amazing," Storm guard Jewell Loyd told Fox 13. "Not having to drive everywhere around, knowing you have access anytime of the day to get into the gym, to workout." 

Head coach Noelle Quinn said she predicts the team is "never going to leave this building."

"Which is a good thing for me," she continued. "You talk about having an edge in performance. We want our athletes to not only perform on the court, but get whatever they need."

All of the Storm's staff and operations will now live under one roof, and the team also has plans to launch a youth basketball program operating out of the building.

The Caitlin Clark effect is quickly making its mark on the big leagues, as WNBA host teams around the country rush to upgrade their Fever games to larger arenas in order to accommodate surging ticket sales.

With Clark mere weeks away from her Indiana Fever debut, both the Las Vegas Aces and Washington Mystics have officially relocated their scheduled home games with head coach Christie Sides' squad. On Thursday, the Mystics became the latest to adjust their plans, moving their June 7th matchup from Entertainment & Sports Arena in Southwest DC to the more centrally located — and much larger — Capital One Arena "due to unprecedented demand."

The Mystics home court's capacity taps out at 4,200, while Capital One Arena — home to the Wizards, Capitals, and Georgetown Hoya's Men's Basketball — can fit nearly five times that crowd at some 20,000 spectators.

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"The move to Capital One Arena will allow for additional fans in the stands as well as premium hospitality options, including Suites and the all-new all-inclusive courtside Hennessy Lofts," the team announced via Thursday's press release.

The Aces were one of the first teams to switch venues, aiming to take on the Indiana Fever in front of as many as 20,000 fans inside T-Mobile Arena on July 2nd. That’s a sizable a boost from their home venue, which holds just 12,000.

For those still planning to face the Fever in their home arenas, ticket prices have skyrocketed. Previously scheduled construction has already forced the LA Sparks to relocate their first five games — including their May 24th clash with the Fever — to Long Beach State's Walter Pyramid. The temporary venue is quite the downsize, holding just 4,000 in comparison to Crypto.com Arena's near-19,000. As of Friday, the get-in price for that game started around $400.

Despite fans launching a Change.org petition urging relocation, the Chicago Sky say they're unable to move their June 23rd Fever meeting from Wintrust Arena's 10,000-seat facility to the 23,500-seat United Center due to a concert. Tickets for that game start around $325 as of Friday.