Morgan Weaver and Debinha moved into a tie for third in the 2023 NWSL Golden Boot race over the weekend.

Weaver’s goal, which helped Portland to a 2-0 win over OL Reign in the Cascadia Cup rivalry, was her seventh of the season. She is tied with North Carolina’s Debinha and Gotham’s Lynn Williams for third in the standings. Thorns star forward Sophia Smith continues to retain the top spot with 11 goals as she continues to nurse a week-to-week MCL sprain.

Also, while it’s unlikely she finds herself in the running for the Golden Boot, recent NWSL addition Esther González got her first two goals in a Gotham FC uniform over the weekend.

Trending upward: Morgan Weaver

Saturday’s goal marked Weaver’s third in as many games, with the Thorns midfielder gaining ground on the league leaders in recent weeks. If anyone in the league has a hot foot, it’s Weaver.

Three straight games with a goal for @morganvweaver!

Thorns score off another set piece and lead 2-0. pic.twitter.com/f1Vwr6EpGB

— National Women’s Soccer League (@NWSL) September 17, 2023

She has continued to put shots on goal, averaging two per game over the last three games and 1.5 shots on goal over the last 10 games. Her goals per 90 puts her ninth this season, but her shots average (3.92) puts her at third in the league. She also ranks first in key passes and expected assists, meaning that any time she’s on the field, the chances of a goal being scored are high.

She also ranks fourth in goal creating actions this season with nine. It would be difficult for the midfielder to overcome Smith, but if Weaver continues at the pace she is with three games left in the season, it’s not impossible.

Needs a goal: Lynn Williams

After starting the season hot, Williams has gone stagnant in her three games since returning from the World Cup. A good sign for her, however, is an assist in each of her last two games.

Her shot production, though, has decreased. In the three games before leaving for the World Cup, Williams had six, seven and eight shots, respectively, with an average of 3.67 shots on target over those three games. Since returning, she’s averaged three shots in the last three games and had just one shot on target in that timespan.

NWSL leaderboard

• 11 goals
  • Sophia Smith, Portland Thorns
• 9 goals
  • Ashley Hatch, Washington Spirit
  • Kerolin, North Carolina Courage
• 7 goals
  • Lynn Williams, Gotham FC
  • Debinha, Kansas City Current
  • Morgan Weaver, Portland Thorns
• 6 goals
  • Messiah Bright, Orlando Pride
• 5 goals
  • Bethany Balcer, OL Reign
  • Savannah DeMelo, Racing Louisville
  • Crystal Dunn, Portland Thorns
  • Cece Kizer, Kansas City Current
  • Tyler Lussi, North Carolina Courage
  • Alex Morgan, San Diego Wave
  • Ashley Sanchez, Washington Spirit
  • Jordyn Huitema, OL Reign
  • Jaedyn Shaw, San Diego Wave
  • Adriana, Orlando Pride

The PWHL is continuing to break records, as Sunday's 2025/26 Takeover Tour stop in Washington, DC, saw 17,228 fans pack into Capital One Arena to see the No. 2 New York Sirens top the No. 4 Montréal Victoire 2-1 — setting a new US women's hockey attendance record in the process.

The benchmark surpasses the previous US record set this past November, when the Seattle Torrent welcomed 16,014 fans to their inaugural home opener.

Sunday's DC crowd also sees the US mark inch closer to the overall professional women's hockey attendance record, set in April 2024 when 21,105 PWHL fans sold out Montréal's Bell Centre to watch the Victoire take on the Toronto Sceptres.

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"Washington, DC, showed up in such a big way, and the energy our fans brought into the arena turned this game into something truly special," PWHL EVP of business operations Amy Scheer said of the first-ever PWHL game in the nation's capital. "Moments like this capture the joy of our sport and the momentum behind the league."

The third-year league is currently racing through its best-attended month on record, drawing more than 154,000 fans across the last 16 games while averaging crowds of 8,726 across all 49 games so far this season.

The Kansas City Current delivered some concerning news this week, with the NWSL club revealing that star striker Temwa Chawinga remains sidelined with an hip adductor injury while the league's 2026 preseason gets underway.

The team currently lists the reigning back-to-back NWSL MVP under a season-ending injury (SEI) designation, a category earned after Chawinga picked up the injury in mid-October, leaving the Kansas City attacker benched for the Current's quarterfinal loss to eventual 2025 NWSL champions Gotham FC.

"It's hard because of the nature of the injury," incoming Kansas City head coach Chris Armas told The Athletic last week. "With Temwa, we've got to be very careful, but she's looking great and doing lots of good work on the return to play."

Also on the Current's SEI list is standout winger Michelle Cooper, with the 23-year-old rising USWNT star suffering a foot injury in Kansas City's final regular-season match of 2025.

"It was a little bit of a tough ending here after, honestly, an amazing historic season," said Armas. "Hopefully they are back as soon as possible, but it's still unclear."

Both Chawinga and Cooper will have some time to recover before Kansas City kicks off their 2026 NWSL regular season against the Utah Royals on March 14th — with teams allowed to lift a player's SEI status any time once the season begins.

The world's top tennis stars are rolling in Melbourne, as the first round of the 2026 Australian Open wrapped early Tuesday morning with only a few ranked seeds suffering early defeats.

World No. 15 Emma Navarro was the highest-ranked US player to fall in the first round, with the 24-year-old exiting the season's first Grand Slam in a 6-3, 3-6, 3-6 loss to Poland's No. 50 Magda Linette on Sunday.

No. 11 Ekaterina Alexandrova also stumbled in the first round, with her Melbourne run ending in a three-set loss to Turkey's No. 112 Zeynep Sönmez on Saturday before No. 68 Peyton Stearns ousted fellow US star and 2020 Australian Open champion No. 30 Sofia Kenin in straight sets on Sunday.

Many contenders still remain in the hunt, however, as the entire WTA Top 10 cruised through their opening matchups to advance to the Slam's second round.

That said, fans will miss out on one highly anticipated showdown, as wild card entry Venus Williams's first-round loss ended the 45-year-old tennis icon's path to a second-round clash with US favorite No. 3 Coco Gauff.

How to watch the second round of the 2026 Australian Open

The 2026 Australian Open continues when the Slam's second round kicks off with a Tuesday night slate that features stars like No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 3 Coco Gauff, and No. 7 Jasmine Paolini.

Tuesday's action begins at 7 PM ET, with all Melbourne matches airing live across ESPN platforms.

The ongoing dominance of UConn basketball has started to break records, as the top-ranked Huskies humbled unranked Notre Dame 85-47 on Monday — keeping their perfect 2025/26 NCAA season intact.

Monday's 38-point margin of victory marked the largest in the teams' 20-year rivalry, with the win also snapping the Huskies' three-game head-to-head losing streak against the Fighting Irish.

"UConn showed why they're the best team in the country," Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey said postgame.

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Even more, UConn sophomore forward Sarah Strong added her own individual history to Monday's tally, becoming the third-fastest Husky to reach 1,000 career points, with the 19-year-old trailing only program legends Maya Moore and Paige Bueckers — who each did so in 55 games to Strong's 59 — in the race to reach that stat.

"I would love to see if anybody has scored 1,000 points by taking less shots than she's taking," said UConn head coach Geno Auriemma. "She's so efficient."

"It means a lot to me I guess, but I wouldn't be able to do it without my teammates," Strong said after leading the Huskies with an 18-point, 11-rebound double-double on Monday night.

How to watch UConn basketball this week

UConn now returns to Big East play, with the No. 1 Huskies taking on unranked Georgetown at 7:30 PM ET on Thursday, airing live on TNT.