The NWSL trophy case has gotten an upgrade.

The NWSL announced a collaboration with Tiffany & Co. on Tuesday, debuting a redesigned NWSL Championship trophy and MVP award. It’s the first redesign since the league was founded in 2013.

“Our ability to partner with iconic brands like Tiffany reinforces the remarkable athletes who play in the NWSL,” NWSL Chief Marketing & Commercial Officer Julie Haddon said in a news release. “Their influence both on and off the field is deserving of a top-tier trophy and we’re grateful to our partners at Tiffany & Co. for their invaluable collaboration in creating a prize befitting the best women’s soccer league in the world.”

The league will also collaborate with Tiffany & Co. to redesign the NWSL Shield, awarded to the best team in the regular season, as well as the rest of the league’s end-of-year awards.

With the new designs, the NWSL joins other major leagues, including the NFL, MLB and NBA, in partnering with Tiffany & Co. to design their postseason trophies.

The new championship trophy is “inspired by aerodynamic forces and the beauty of the game,” according to the NWSL. It is meant to evoke a ball in motion, with an air-current shaped motif holding a ball up in the air. It also pays homage to the original NWSL trophy, with panels forming the NWSL shield.

The trophy will make its debut at the NWSL Championship on Nov. 11 at San Diego’s Snapdragon Stadium.

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The Naismith Awards unveiled their 2024/25 National Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) semifinalists on Tuesday, with the 10-player lineup highlighting some of NCAA basketball’s biggest stars.

Each athlete represents a different team, all of whom finished the regular season in the Top 25 AP Poll. Six hail from the nation's Top 10 teams.

No. 1 UCLA junior Lauren Betts and fellow center Sedona Prince out of No. 6 TCU lead the list's frontcourt players, which also includes a pair of senior forwards in No. 15 Ohio State's Taylor Thierry and No. 23 Florida State's Makayla Timpson.

Holding down the backcourt are six guards, highlighted by a trio of sophomore stars in No. 4 USC's JuJu Watkins, No. 8 Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo, and No. 20 Tennessee's Talaysia Cooper. Senior veteran experience rounds out the group in No. 5 Texas's Rori Harmon, No. 10 LSU's Aneesah Morrow, and No. 16 West Virginia's JJ Quinerly.

With three semifinalists each, the SEC and Big Ten lead the field, while the ACC and Big 12 each claim two of the list's standouts.

Naismith semifinalists lead the nation in defensive stats

On the Division I stat sheet, Hidalgo tops all other Power Four players in steals per game with 3.7, while Morrow leads the country in rebounds with an average of 13.6 per game.

Morrow's rate is unquestionably impressive, eclipsing the next Power Four athlete on the list, Timpson, by a full three rebounds per game.

Speaking of Timpson, she joins Betts and Prince in Division I's Top 5 players for blocks per game.

Three semifinalists have already claimed some DPOY hardware for their 2024/25 performances, with Hidalgo, Quinerly, and Betts earning the honor for the ACC, Big 12, and Big Ten, respectively.

Many of the season’s best defenders are also in the mix for National Player of the Year (POY), with Betts, Hidalgo, and Watkins leading the charge for the season's top individual award.

The most noteworthy POY candidate missing from Tuesday’s DPOY group is No. 3 UConn senior guard Paige Bueckers, who averages 4.5 rebounds and 0.7 steals per game.

Of the 10 semifinalists, only four will make the award's final cut on March 18th. The 2024/25 Naismith DPOY will be crowned on April 2nd, just days before the NCAA tournament's Final Four tips off.

With Sunday's final match looming, the competition is heating up at the 2025 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells — though several top US players are no longer feeling the fire after falling short in the Round of 16.

Unseeded 28-year-old Swiss contender Belinda Bencic claimed arguably the tournament's biggest upset thus far, with the wild card ousting world No. 3 Coco Gauff on Wednesday.

Despite Gauff taking the first set, 2020 Olympic champion Bencic prevailed, fighting through multiple medical timeouts to snag the win.

Fellow US standout No. 4 Jessica Pegula suffered a similar fate, losing to Ukraine’s No. 23 Elina Svitolina in a three-set match heavily impacted by three hours of rain delays on Tuesday.

With the 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 come-from-behind win, Svitolina advances to her first Indian Wells quarterfinals in six years.

World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and defending Indian Wells champion No. 2 Iga Świątek continued their dominance through the Round of 16, with each booking their quarterfinals berth without dropping a single set at the tournament.

Bencic to face last-standing US player Madison Keys

Another US star stands between Bencic and Friday's semifinals, as 2025 Australian Open champ and freshly minted world No. 5 Madison Keys continues her winning form in California.

The endurance and tenacity that earned Keys her first-ever Grand Slam title is on display at Indian Wells, where she outlasted Belgium's No. 28 Elise Mertens after three back-and-forth sets on Monday before surviving a difficult battle against Croatia's No. 19-seed Donna Vekić in Wednesday’s Round of 16.

By winning the 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-3 clash, Keys is now riding a 15-match victory streak into Thursday's quarterfinal.

"I kind of just started deciding I was going to go for a little bit more," she said afterwards. "Really happy to be able to get that match and get that win and play another match here."

How to watch Thursday's 2025 Indian Wells quarterfinals

Thursday's quarterfinal round kicks off with Świątek taking on China's 2024 Olympic champion No. 8-seed Qinwen Zheng in a gold-medal rematch at 2 PM ET.

Svitolina will take on No. 9-seed Mirra Andreeva at 4 PM ET, with Keys set to contend with Bencic at 5:10 PM ET.

Sabalenka will close out the round at 8 PM ET, when she'll face her first seeded opponent all tournament in No. 24-seed Liudmila Samsonova.

Live coverage of all matches will air on the Tennis Channel.

USWNT forward Mallory Swanson has yet to join the Chicago Stars for 2025 play due to a personal matter, with the NWSL club confirming Wednesday that the standout striker will not feature in their Friday season opener against the reigning league champion Orlando Pride.

Chicago originally noted Swanson’s absence alongside their preseason roster announcement, adding that the organization is "fully supportive of her decision."

"I'd like to thank the club and the fans for their understanding during this time," Swanson said in the club's January release. "I appreciate the kindness and encouragement from my teammates and all the Stars staff and hope to be back with the team and playing in front of our fans as soon as I can."

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Triple Espresso dwindles to a single shot

After lighting up the Paris pitch last summer, the USWNT's gold medal-winning attacking trio of Swanson, Sophia Wilson (neé Smith), and Trinity Rodman — self-dubbed the "Triple Espresso" — have yet to reunite on the national team roster, due in part to load management.

While a lingering back issue has kept Rodman out of every USWNT camp since the 2024 Olympics, the Washington standout made her return to play as a second-half substitute during the Spirt’s 2025 Challenge Cup win last Friday.

Portland Thorns star Wilson — who hasn’t played with the US since October — is officially out for the entire 2025 NWSL season after announcing her first pregnancy last week.

As for Swanson, a return timeline for both club and country remains unclear, with Chicago now preparing to open the season without their celebrated striker.

"Top player in the world, but the game still goes on," Stars head coach Lorne Donaldson told media Wednesday. "We still have players that we have to focus on, and I think that just gives somebody else another opportunity to come out and just say, 'Okay, I can do it,' because the game is not going to wait for us."

In a year without a major international tournament, maintaining player health on and off the field is massively important, leaving clubs adjusting to their shorthanded rosters and fans cheering for a very different NWSL than last season.

How to watch the 2025 NWSL season kick-off

The first peek at the new NWSL rosters in action hits fields this weekend, with all 14 clubs notching their first minutes by Sunday night.

The Chicago Stars will kick off 2025 play against the Orlando Pride at 8 PM ET on Friday, with the match streaming live on Prime Video.

At the same time, Rodman's Washington Spirit will take on a new-look Houston Dash, streaming live on NWSL+.

With Wilson sidelined, the Portland Thorns will face 2024 NWSL semifinalists KC Current in their 12:45 PM ET season opener on Saturday, with live coverage airing on ABC.

The NCAA is turning up the heat on the next two seasons of non-conference basketball competition, with powerhouse programs from the University of South Carolina and the University of Southern California set to determine which team is "The Real SC" via a special two-game series.

The acronymic rivals will first meet at Crypto Arena in Los Angeles on Saturday, November 15th, 2025, before heading to Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina, on the same date the following year.

In anticipation of high ticket demand, series host Complete Sports Management shifted both games to the aforementioned higher-capacity venues, rather than utilizing the teams’ usual on-campus arenas.

"I will always choose elevating women's basketball, and that's especially true in scheduling," South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said in a team statement. "I know Complete Sports Management has the same mission, and I like their creativity in bringing not just two great programs together, but engaging their fan bases on both coasts in a debate they love to have."

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Series to showcase the best of NCAA basketball

The newly created series won't just decide "The Real SC," it also pits two of the sport's historic programs against each other in an SEC vs. Big Ten and East Coast vs. West Coast battle for bragging rights.

The defending champion Gamecocks are currently ranked No. 2 in the nation as they gear up for the 2025 March Madness tournament, in which they'll seek a fifth straight Final Four berth and an overall fourth NCAA title.

Meanwhile, the Trojans are chasing South Carolina up the AP Poll in the No. 4 spot, with a goal to equalize with Gamecocks by claiming a third national championship this season. If they're successful, it will be USC's first NCAA trophy since 1984.

Regardless of the 2024/25 NCAA tournament's outcome, both teams will likely still roster multiple future WNBA stars for the foreseeable future, with fans banking on seeing current sophomore stars like South Carolina's MiLaysia Fulwiley and USC's JuJu Watkins featuring in both games of "The Real SC" series.

How to buy tickets to USC vs. South Carolina in "The Real SC"

Tipping off in LA on November 15th, 2025, tickets for the first meeting between the Gamecocks and Trojans in "The Real SC" series will be available for purchase online this Friday at 1 PM ET.