The North Carolina Courage defeated the Washington Spirit 2-1 in the NWSL Challenge Cup final on Saturday, but not before hard fouls and collisions caused more players to exit the preseason tournament.

Injuries on both sides overshadowed the victory, with the Courage’s Kerolin and Spirit’s Aubrey Kingsbury and Jordan Baggett all leaving the game at various points. Seconds before the Courage’s game-winning goal, Spirit defender Sam Staab went in for a tackle on Kerolin, forcing her to leave the game in the 70th minute though no foul was called on the play. Kerolin was later named the Challenge Cup final MVP and celebrated the win with her teammates.

KEROLIN 🤩

The 2022 NWSL Challenge Cup MVP 👏 pic.twitter.com/hMFko3YmHP

— Attacking Third (@AttackingThird) May 7, 2022

Following the tackle, the Courage scored off of a corner kick, thanks to an own goal from the Spirit. During the play, Kingsbury crashed into the post and was evaluated by the Spirit’s training staff. Washington head coach Kris Ward said after the game that the keeper was responsive during on-field tests, which led to their decision to keep her in the game.

During stoppage time, Baggett went down hard after colliding with Courage striker Debinha. Medical personnel pushed a stretcher out onto the field, and Spirit players helped them rush the cart over to Baggett. As the midfielder was stretchered off the field, she could be seen smiling.

Spirit players literally ran over and grabbed the stretcher because they weren’t moving fast enough. This is after players, coaches and refs are whistling, yelling and waving for the medical crew. pic.twitter.com/dr8geInwmN

— Mitchell Northam (@primetimeMitch) May 7, 2022

Baggett was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and “is under evaluation,” the team said in a statement. Spirit owner Michele Kang reportedly traveled with Baggett to the hospital.

This year’s Challenge Cup has been marred by injuries, with several high-profile stars being ruled out for the season, including Kansas City’s Lynn Williams and Orlando’s Marta. The referees have generally called tighter games, handing out over 100 yellow cards through the Challenge Cup group stage compared to 43 in the 2021 tournament. The officiating, however, has been called into question, most notably on Wednesday after a no-call on a handball helped the Spirit advance past OL Reign and to the final.

A few weeks ago, Spirit coach Kris Ward ruminated on the challenges of the preseason tournament in an interview with The Equalizer.

“How you take care of players, how you travel, how you eat, how you sleep, what type of surface you have to train in or play on — those are all things that impact the quality of the game. In my opinion, that’s how we should be looking at these things,” he said. “And so, creating a tournament up front and then putting such a dollar sign on it for the players to make it overly competitive, before maybe they’re ready for it, maybe that’s not the best thing. Maybe it is.”

On Friday, the NWSL announced a partnership with UKG that will boost the Challenge Cup’s prize money this year and in the years to come. In the postgame press conference on Saturday, Courage defender Carson Pickett called the bonuses life-changing.

“In our profession, $10,000 changes people’s lives, so I think that we have to give credit to the sponsors and to the league,” she said. “We’re finally getting somewhere. It’s nice to have a trophy, but it’s also nice to have money.”

The NWSL has made a decision, as the league officially moves forward with its new "High Impact Player" rule despite stated opposition from the players union.

Announced last week, the rule change allows clubs to exceed to the NWSL salary cap by up to $1 million to attract or retain players that meet one of eight qualifying metrics set by the league.

Those metrics include major media award rankings like the 30-player Ballon d'Or shortlist and ESPN FC's Top 50 Football Players, as well as marketing power, top USWNT minutes, and end-of-year NWSL awards.

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Developed with Washington Spirit superstar — and current free agent — Trinity Rodman and her potential contract in mind, the "High Impact Player" rule will not go into effect until July 1st, 2026.

Meanwhile, the NWSLPA has spoken out against the mechanism, proposing instead to up the salary cap by $1 million without league-imposed spending regulations.

"Under federal labor law, changes to compensation under the salary cap are a mandatory subject of bargaining — not a matter of unilateral discretion," the union wrote on Wednesday.

Additionally, per The Athletic, NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke expressed concerns that the rule ties top athlete pay, in part, to player valuations in third party publications — a move that externally defines who a club can consider "high impact."

Led by six Kansas City athletes and five from Gotham FC, just 27 current NWSL players across 10 of the 16 clubs in the expanded 2026 season meet the new HIP qualifying criteria — though all teams could use the mechanism to attract a new athlete to the league.

In a growing global market, the NWSL could be falling into a trap of half-measures, as the union pushes back with league parity potentially on the line.

The Kansas City Current have apparently found a new manager, with ESPN reporting last week that the 2025 NWSL Shield-winners will bring on former MLS head coach Chris Armas to lead the team in 2026.

Armas built his career in the MLS, coaching the New York Red Bulls from 2018 to 2020 before taking over Toronto FC in 2021, then spending the last three years heading up the Colorado Rapids.

The ex-USMNT player also has experience in the women's game at the college level, leading the Division II Adelphi University women's soccer team from 2011 to 2014.

Despite their many victories in 2025, the Current found themselves without a coach after third-year boss Vlatko Andonovski moved into a sporting director role with the club in November.

ESPN reported that Kansas City chose Armas over internal candidates like assistants Milan Ivanovic and ex-Angel City and Gotham manager Freya Coombe.

"I want my staff and people I've worked with to become successful coaches. These are things I'm very passionate about and want to be able to execute," Andonovski told ESPN last month.

Armas would be the first former MLS coach to make the leap to the NWSL, with the winds of change in Kansas City blowing stronger than anticipated.

With the 2026 Winter Olympics fast approaching, US skiing icon Mikaela Shiffrin has started the 2025/26 FIS World Cup cycle in top form — particularly in her favored slalom event.

Closing out last season with a victory, Shiffrin is currently on a multi-event winning streak, earning her sixth straight slalom title in Semmering, Austria, on Sunday.

"It was a really hard day today, tough conditions, a really big fight, and the pressure's on… I did my best, best possible run," Shiffrin said afterwards.

Momentum is on her side, with Shiffrin set to enter the 2026 Winter Games in Italy as the winningest skier in World Cup history, surpassing Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark's 86 wins in March 2023 and becoming the first skier to reach 100 World Cup victories earlier this year.

Sunday's race marked the 30-year-old's 106th career World Cup title, with Shiffrin looking to add to her ever-growing historic record with three more slalom events scheduled before the Olympic women's Alpine skiing events kick off on February 8th.

The 2014 Olympic slalom champion and 2018 Winter Games giant slalom gold medalist is aiming to return to the podium after failing to medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Shiffrin will likely hit the slopes again next weekend, when the women's FIS World Cup lands in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, for a giant slalom and slalom competition.

South Carolina basketball is stocking up, as top-ranked high school senior Jerzy Robinson announced her commitment to join the head coach Dawn Staley and the No. 3 Gamecocks last Tuesday.

"I chose South Carolina because I had a sense of peace when it came down to the decision for me," Robinson told ESPN. "When I visited South Carolina, I was already home. I was already valued there.... I felt like this was where I needed to be for the next four years."

A 6-foot-2 guard who averaged 27 points and 10.2 rebounds in her junior season at Los Angeles's Sierra Canyon High School, Robinson is now the highest-ranked Class of 2026 recruit heading to South Carolina — as well as the final Top 5 player to make a college decision after also visiting No. 1 UConn and No. 5 LSU.

Robinson first made a name for herself at the youth level, winning three gold medals and the 2025 U-19 FIBA World Cup with Team USA.

The young talent also inked one of the first-ever shoe sponsorships for a high school player, signing an NIL deal with Nike in November 2024.

"Basketball has always been my love and my passion," she said. "To see it pay off and the hard work and the hours pay off, in the sense of I get to play for one of the best universities in the country, I just have so much gratitude."