Behind a huge performance from sophomore Hannah Hidalgo, No. 8 Notre Dame handed No. 2 UConn their season’s first loss, defeating their third Top-5 team 79-68 on Thursday.

Even with injuries limiting Notre Dame’s depth, it was all gas, no brakes for the Irish, who spent nearly all of the game’s 40 minutes in the lead.

The Irish defense held the Huskies to an abysmal 18.8% three-point shooting rate, with UConn making just three out of 16 attempts from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, Notre Dame did the opposite, sinking 55% of their 18 three-point attempts.

UConn superstar Paige Bueckers led the Huskies with 25 points in a game where guard Azzi Fudd, who’s nursing a minor knee injury, was sorely missed. While freshman forward Sarah Strong added 14 points despite getting into early foul trouble, UConn’s roster simply couldn’t put together enough clutch plays to overcome the Irish.

“Going forward, we need more contributions from more people [other than Bueckers],” assessed UConn head coach Geno Auriemma following the loss. “If you're playing at Connecticut, you have to be the kind of kid who can make an impact in a game like this."

Notre Dame has now taken three games in a row from UConn, something the Irish haven’t done since 2012-13. 

"This is a major win for us," Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey said after the game. "Obviously, it's just one win, but I'm really grateful for this group and really proud of our effort and the way that we showed up today with such toughness and discipline."

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Red-hot Hidalgo fuels Notre Dame win

Star guard Hidalgo played menace to the visiting Huskies on Thursday, putting together a near-triple-double with 29 points, 20 rebounds, and eight assists, plus draining a career-high six three-pointers. In total, the preseason All-American played a role in 48 of Notre Dame’s 79 points.

"Hidalgo is the head of the snake," UConn’s Bueckers said about her opponent. "She does a lot of great things offensively, defensively. She's a pest. I think the best thing that she does is her energy and her attitude and the way she leads that team with that and the fire that she brings."

Forward Liatu King added a 16-point, 12-rebound double-double of her own to the Irish’s total, with guard Olivia Miles also sinking 16 points.

The backcourt duo of Miles and Hidalgo continues to lift Notre Dame into this season’s top echelon, with Auriemma, the winningest NCAA basketball coach in history, commenting "I don't know if there's a better combination of guards than those two with how many different things they can hurt you with."

"Those guys are attacking you for the entire 40 minutes. And I don't know that I've seen anybody up close yet that can do that."

Ultimately, the Irish look as formidable as ever. Despite an uncharacteristic two-loss skid, Notre Dame boasts wins over then-No. 3 USC, then-No. 4 Texas, and now No. 2 UConn, becoming just the third team with a trio of Top-5 wins before January in 25 years.

"I'm hoping that the lesson [is], when we play with heart, we play with discipline, we play focused, we can be just as elite as everybody else in the country," remarked Ivey.

How to watch Sunday’s Top-25 NCAA basketball

Though both UConn and Notre Dame will face decidedly overmatched opponents in Georgetown and Eastern Michigan, respectively, there are two Top-25 tilts on deck.

First on Sunday, WNBA star Caitlin Clark’s alma mater, No. 21 Iowa, will visit an undefeated No. 17 Michigan State side off to their best start in program history. The Big Ten foes will tip off at 12 PM ET, with live coverage on BTN.

Then at 2 PM ET, undefeated No. 25 Georgia Tech will take on one-loss No. 14 UNC, airing on ACCN.

In between lies an intriguing bout between No. 22 NC State and Louisville, two teams who have suffered a slew of losses to ranked squads. The Wolfpack, who fell to No. 3 South Carolina, No. 4 LSU, and No. 12 TCU, will be hungry to keep their Top-25 spot. On the other hand, Louisville, who registered losses to No. 1 UCLA, No. 2 UConn, No. 10 Oklahoma, and No. 16 Kentucky, will be eager to bounce back into the AP poll after being ousted on Monday.

NC State’s battle with Louisville will air live at 1 PM ET on ABC.

Wisconsin volleyball is off to the attendance races, with the No. 7 college squad averaging 8,620 fans per match this season to become this NCAA's best-attended program — narrowly beating Big Ten rival No. 1 Nebraska's 8,602 current average.

Other than the Badgers and Cornhuskers, no other college volleyball team has surpassed 6,000 fans per match this year, but Wisconsin is well on track to surpass even their own dominant attendance history in the sport.

If they finish the season in the top attendance spot, the Badgers will snap a six season streak logging the second-best average crowds per year.

Even more, Wisconsin is on their way to blasting through their program-best mark, set when 7,761 fans per match filled the bleachers in 2022.

The growing demand for Badger volleyball is also translating into significant revenue boosts for school.

"We're really, really excited; we're going to exceed $2 million in volleyball ticket sales for the first time ever," Wisconsin deputy athletic director Mitchell Pinta told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this week. "And we're largely sold out for the rest of our matches at the Field House for the remainder of the season."

Should the Badgers reach that $2 million mark, they will see a massive 25% increase over the $1.6 million the team garnered just two seasons ago, and a near 18-fold growth from the $111,809 in volleyball ticket sales that Wisconsin logged in 2013.

Ultimately, the sky's the limit for both Wisconsin volleyball — and the sport at-large.

"If there's a saturation point on the demand for Wisconsin volleyball, we certainly have not seen it yet," said Pinta.

How to watch Wisconsin volleyball in action

With conference play kicking off this weekend, No. 7 Wisconsin will host unranked Big Ten foe Rutgers at 8 PM ET on Friday, before paying a visit to also-unranked Iowa at 3 PM ET on Sunday.

Both Big Ten battles will stream live on B1G+.

WSL side Liverpool opened their 2025/26 League Cup campaign with an emotional 5-0 win over WSL2 club Sunderland on Wednesday, dedicating the shutout victory to former manager Matt Beard after the 47-year-old's sudden passing last Saturday.

The match marked the Reds' return to the pitch following the postponement of their Sunday regular-season game against Aston Villa due to Beard's passing.

"It's a good win for Matt. We played with a lot of emotion," Liverpool defender Jenna Clark said afterwards, calling Wednesday "a really emotional night and an emotional few days for everyone involved with the club."

"We have pulled through together as a team the best we could and you saw that on the pitch tonight," Clark added.

Beard won back-to-back WSL titles with Liverpool in 2013 and 2014, departing the Reds in 2015 for a two-year stint with the NWSL's Boston Breakers.

He made his return to Liverpool in 2021, lifting the club back into the top-flight WSL by earning promotion his first season back at the helm.

"Matt will leave a huge void in the women's game," USWNT head coach and former Chelsea boss Emma Hayes said in a statement earlier this week. "He was one of a kind, and his loss will be felt by all. My heart goes out to his family, but I want to take the time to acknowledge what a special man he really was."​

How to watch Liverpool this weekend

Liverpool will continue their 2025/26 WSL campaign against Manchester United this Sunday, kicking off live at 7 AM ET on ESPN+.

The 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup culminates on Saturday, when host nation England battles for their first tournament title in more than a decade in a top-tier final against Canada, who are hunting their first-ever world championship trophy.

The Red Roses' long dominance on the Rugby World Cup pitch has led them to eight finals in the competition's nine editions, with England emerging victorious twice — in 1994 and 2014.

On the other hand, Canada will make just their second-ever appearance in the World Cup final this Saturday, as the Maple Leafs aim for a decidedly different outcome from their 21-9 loss to England in the 2014 championship game.

The top-ranked Red Roses will also be looking to avenge their narrow 34-31 loss to New Zealand in the tournament's most recent 2022 edition when they square off against No. 2 Canada in front of an sold-out crowd inside London's Twickenham Stadium — with another women's rugby attendance record on the line.

"You feed off of that energy, especially knowing what this game is going to be," England defense coach Sarah Hunter said. "It's a cliché, but [the crowd] almost becomes the 16th person in those moments where you need them."

How to watch the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup final

England and Canada will battle in the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup final at 11 AM ET on Saturday, with live coverage airing on Paramount+.

While the No. 1 Kansas City Current have officially run away with the 2025 NWSL Shield, the race for top playoff seeding rages on, as the No. 2 Washington Spirit fights to hold their ground against an unpredictable No. 9 Houston Dash this Sunday.

Bolstered by star Trinity Rodman's return from injury, the Spirit enter the weekend on a nine-game unbeaten streak, going up against a motivated Dash side sitting just two points outside of postseason contention.

"Every game we just need to be a lot more clinical in the final third," Rodman said after last weekend's 2-2 draw with No. 11 Angel City. "We're doing all the hard stuff and then it's [lacking] quality at the end."

Washington isn't without top-table challengers, with No. 3 Gotham FC riding their own five-game unbeaten streak into a Friday night match against the No. 4 Portland Thorns, who sit tied for points with both the Bats and the No. 5 San Diego Wave in the NWSL standings.

"At this stage, almost everyone still has a real chance to make the playoffs, which is great for the league," said Gotham manager Juan Carlos Amorós after the Bats' 1-1 draw with Bay FC last Sunday. "But it also means nothing can be taken for granted."

How to watch the Washington Spirit and Gotham FC this weekend

No. 3 Gotham FC kicks off this weekend's NWSL action when they host the No. 4 Portland Thorns at 8 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage on NWSL+.

Then in Sunday's NWSL action, the No. 9 Houston Dash will visit the No. 2 Washington Spirit at 1 PM ET, airing live on Paramount+.