The Orlando Pride are for real. I’m tempted to slot them at No. 2 just because they seem to thrive in that underdog position. However, at this moment, they simply are the team to beat. 

After the Pride, the No. 2-through-6 zone is straight chaos. It feels like on any given day, anyone can beat anyone. The differences between the sides are minuscule and they’ve all seemingly beaten each other already. But that’s what makes the NWSL great. 

Without further ado: 

10. Kansas City (-1)

Even though that probably wasn’t a goal, Orlando was still the better team and deserved to win that game. Kansas City is now the only team in the league still searching for a win.

9. Chicago Red Stars (+1)

They may have beaten Kansas City, but I’m still not convinced this group is cohesive enough to consistently win games. The talent is there, but it’s just not consistent.

8. Racing Louisville (-1)

A young Louisville side got slapped down to earth in their game against North Carolina, who absolutely destroyed them in every facet of the game. Things don’t get any easier with Portland this weekend.

7. Houston Dash (-1)

The Dash beat Chicago but not before losing to a 10-player Washington Spirit side. There’s glimpses of good, but they’re conceding too many goals.

6. OL Reign (-4)

I was riding high on the Reign after their Portland road win, but to follow that up with a loss at home to the Spirit, with Rose Lavelle in the starting line up, hurts. When they’re at their best, they’re one of the best, but It’s hard to know which Reign team is going to show up on a given day.

5. Gotham FC (-2)

I know. Dropping Gotham FC this far after a single loss is harsh. But the middle of the pack is just chaos at the moment. Losing to a struggling Thorns side at home makes this weekend’s game against the Reign crucial for recovering their early season momentum.

4. Washington Spirit (+4)

The Spirit plays the Pride this weekend, and I’ve got the game circled on my calendar. They’re currently 1-2 on the points table and it’s a quick rematch from an early season draw.

3. Portland Thorns (-2)

The back to back losses to the Reign (at home) and Pride weren’t pretty. But the Thorns rebounded with a win over Gotham FC on the road. These next couple weeks will really show if the side peaked in the preseason.

2. North Carolina Courage (+3)

Sam Mewis is back, just in time for the Courage to absolutely throttle a Louisville FC team riding high from their first win. I think they’ve turned the corner after their mediocre (by their standards) start to the season. 

1. Orlando Pride (+4)

Three games in a week, three wins. Orlando rightfully deserves the crown this week, and if they play the way they have been, they should keep the top spot moving forward. 

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.