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Thirteen years after their last Olympics, USA Softball is savoring the moment

Cat Osterman (Jade Hewitt, Courtesy of USA Softball)

Somewhere in Dejah Mulipola’s childhood home in Garden Grove, Calif., maybe in a basement or the back of a closet — she can’t quite remember where — is an all-star jacket from her youth softball days.

Well, there’s probably more than one. The 23-year-old former Arizona softball star and current member of Team USA likely has countless mementos marking her already successful softball career.

But this particular jacket is special. In 2008, when Team USA went on tour leading up to the Beijing Olympics, Mulipola remembers confidently walking up to a few players and asking them to sign her jacket.

“I thought I was so cool going up to them and asking for autographs on my jacket,” she said with a laugh.

That was 13 years ago. It was also the last time softball was featured in the Olympic games.

Then, Dejah Mulipola was a 10-year-old all-star. Now, with softball making a return to the Summer Games, she’s an Olympian.

This year’s United States squad is full of new faces like Mulipola. In fact, it’s essentially all new players. Just two members managed to bridge the 13-year gap and make the team once again: 38-year-old Cat Osterman and 35-year-old Monica Abbott.

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Dejah Mulipola, playing in her first Olympics, will catch for Cat Osterman, playing in her third. (Jade Hewitt, Courtesy of USA Softball)

For Mulipola, the 2008 Olympics are a distant memory. She’s certain she watched the games, but doesn’t have any recollections past getting her jacket signed.

For Osterman, the memory feels more palpable. She recalls the disappointment of taking silver and the feeling of “unfinished business” that lingered from it.

In the years since Beijing, Osterman played professional softball before eventually retiring and becoming a coach at Texas State University. When the sport’s return to the Olympics was made official, Osterman was initially up for a spot on the coaching staff.

But it didn’t take long for the pitcher to realize that, though she had retired in 2018, her playing days weren’t really over.

“I realized deep down that I didn’t want to be part of the coaching staff,” Osterman said. “I knew that it was going to be really difficult to coach at a level where I could probably still compete.”

As Osterman set out to get back into softball shape — it’s not quite like riding a bike, she said — Mulipola was fully in the sport. She and fellow Team USA members Rachel Garcia and Bubba Nickles (both from UCLA) all redshirted during their senior seasons to participate in the Stand Beside Her Tour. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic happened — an obvious curse sprinkled with a blessing.

“It was a roller-coaster of emotions, with COVID hitting and the tour being postponed,” Mulipolah said. “But it was also a blessing because it meant I got to go back and finish out my collegiate career and still go to the Olympics in the same year.”

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Osterman (Jade Hewitt, Courtesy of USA Softball)

It also meant more time with Caitlin Lowe, Arizona’s assistant coach during Mulipola’s college career who was recently promoted to head coach of the Wildcats.

Lowe played for Team USA in Beijing, so she knows what this means to Mulipola and softball as a whole. She was one of the players hurt by the 13-year gap after her first and only Olympic appearance, but she has no regrets for herself.

When Lowe was younger, she remembers going to watch the Yankees play the Red Sox on the Fourth of July and thinking, “This is as American as it gets.”

Then she went to the Olympics, and that patriotic memory was unseated by something even stronger.

During the opening ceremonies in Beijing, the USA athletes from every sport lined up in a tunnel. She likened it to a football team getting ready to run out on the field, just on a much grander scale. The lights were off, and it was dead silent. Then someone started chanting, “USA, USA, USA!” More people joined in, then a few more, and a few more, until every athlete was chanting in unison.

“To this day, it gives me goosebumps thinking about it,” Lowe said.

Memories like that are enough for Lowe. But since 2008, young girls haven’t had a team to look up to, and for Lowe, that is the worst part.

“I never had any frustrations for myself,” she said. “But I had those frustrations for the younger generations that were coming up. Because when I was growing up, I got to watch them compete in the Olympics and that was where my goals started. That is why I worked so hard.”

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Mulipola (Jade Hewitt, Courtesy of USA Softball)

Seeing softball back in the Olympics was emotional for Lowe, and seeing one of her players competing with two of her former teammates was even sweeter.

When the roster was announced, Osterman texted Lowe to say she was thrilled that Mulipola made the team. Osterman, a 38-year-old pitcher, told Lowe she loved throwing to the 23-year-old catcher.

“I texted back and said, ‘Take care of her,’” Lowe said. “And Cat texted back and said, ‘She can take care of herself.’”

In reality, the two will take care of each other and their sport. They have to, because Olympic softball finds itself in another precarious position.

After two Olympics without the sport, Tokyo serves as an interruption of that gap, but it doesn’t necessarily mark the return of softball to the Games. Softball isn’t slated for Paris in 2024, after the Olympic committee voted in favor of other sports replacing it, so like it was for Lowe, this could be Mulipola’s only chance to compete.

“To be able to compete for a gold medal is such a big deal,” Mulipola said. “It honestly feels like a dream when I talk about it, but it is real life for me. So I mean, that is pretty cool.”

Because of the uncertainty, Osterman knows she is lucky to be competing in her third Olympics. She remembers the nerves that came during her first Games in 2004, when she was one of the youngest players on the team. She also remembers what she calls “the pure excitement” of it all.

Now, Osterman knows what to expect. So does Abbott, but no one else on the team does.

“The novelty of it isn’t the same,” Osterman said. “Now I get to watch my teammates soak it in and see it through their eyes. I’m excited to be a part of that with them.”

Lowe is experiencing a similar sensation. Though she only got to compete in 2008, watching Mulipola is almost like being there again. As soon as her star catcher made the roster, Lowe bought tickets to go to Tokyo. Now that Olympic organizers have barred all spectators from the arenas because of COVID-19 concerns, Lowe, along with Mulipola’s friends and family, will have to watch her virtually.

Team USA will take on Italy in the opening round on July 21, when Mulipola will square off against Arizona teammate Giulia Koutsoyanopulos. The U.S. is considered the favorite, coming into the Olympics with the No. 1 ranking, followed by No. 2 Japan and No. 3 Canada.

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(Jade Hewitt, Courtesy of USA Softball)

If this is the final act for Olympic softball, Mulipola, Osterman and everyone in between want to take great care in remembering it and sending their sport off in the best way they can: by winning gold.

“We have a great chance,” Mulipola said. “The women on this team are very prepared as a unit. I think the only people who are in our way are ourselves. So, we can’t take any team lightly. We just have to play our game, go out and do what we do, and the gold medal will find its way to us.”

Unrivaled Playoffs Pack a Punch as League Scores Big with Debut Season

Rose's Brittney Sykes shoots over Vinyl's Jordin Canada during Monday's Unrivaled championship game.
Unrivaled’s postseason viewership rose 99% above the league’s regular-season average. (Rich Storry/Getty Images)

The first-ever Unrivaled Basketball playoffs delivered both on and off the court, with Rose BC’s championship victory over Vinyl BC drawing the largest TV audience the offseason league has seen in 3×3 play to date.

An average of 364,000 viewers tuned into Monday’s final, peaking at 385,000 fans and marking a 99% increase over Unrivaled’s record-breaking regular-season average audience of 221,000.

Including the league's postseason success, Unrivaled capped its inaugural season having aired the 10 most-watched women’s basketball broadcasts in the history of broadcast partner TNT Sports.

In total, Unrivaled reached an impressive 11.9 million viewers across its two-month regular-season and postseason run — including the league's first-ever in-season 1v1 tournament.

That head-to-head competition ultimately drew the league's top performing tilt, with the final between runner-up Mist forward Aaliyah Edwards and eventual 1v1 champion and Lunar Owls forward Napheesa Collier averaging 377,000 viewers with a 398,000-fan peak.

"We’ve built an incredible foundation," Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell told reporters once the season wrapped. "Based on what the viewership is, now it’s our job to [ask] 'how do we grow that a bit?' We’re very proud about where we stand in the women’s sports ecosystem of viewership."

Rose BC's Brittney Sykes makes snow angels in the championship confetti on the Unrivaled court.
Unrivaled players are celebrating off-court wins like social media growth and league compensation. (Rich Storry/Getty Images)

Unrivaled bags more big wins in inaugural season

Outside of TV viewership, Unrivaled also scored high social media engagement numbers, which have been a key metric for the league since its outset.

This season saw the league generate more than 589 million owned and earned social media impressions, and the pool of Unrivaled athletes collectively grew their own personal accounts by nearly one million followers in less than three months.

Perhaps most importantly for the players, the league followed through on its promise to prioritize athlete compensation, shelling out over $8.65 million in player salaries and performance bonuses from both Monday's championship and last month's 1v1 tournament.

With the offseason league designed primarily as a TV product, both Unrivaled and TNT will carry 2025’s wins far into their six-year partnership’s future — all while the WNBA will look to capitalize on the league’s ratings successes as its own May 16th season-opener nears.

UCLA Star Kiki Rice Is Locked in on March Madness, on and Off the Court

March Madness star UCLA Bruins guard Kiki Rice waits for her name to be called during introductions before the game against Ohio State.
UCLA junior Kiki Rice will play in her third March Madness this week. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

As the 2025 NCAA tournament tips off this week, few Women's March Madness teams have had a more remarkable run than No. 1 overall seed UCLA.

The Bruins only lost two regular-season games this year, a streak that led to a Big Ten conference tournament title, and, eventually, top-ranked entry into this weekend’s tournament start. By securing the first No. 1 overall seed in program history, this group of UCLA players has already proven themselves the most successful in school history — with additional hardware firmly on the horizon.

But junior Kiki Rice has preferred to keep things in perspective, as she told Just Women’s Sports in the quiet days between the regular season’s end and the postseason's launch.

“The reality is we lost two games the entire year, and that's a pretty good record: 27-2,” she said matter-of-factly. “I think most people would be pretty happy with that.”

UCLA did, however, launch their Big Ten tournament campaign with unfinished business, having fallen twice to crosstown rival USC to cede the regular-season conference title. While they got their revenge in the Big Ten tournament title game, UCLA head coach Cori Close wasn’t shy about wanting to meet the Trojans one more time — at the NCAA Final Four in Tampa.

A Final Four battle would give UCLA the ability to draw even with JuJu Watkins and the Trojans this season, claiming the biggest bragging rights of all. But Rice knows that once-in-a-lifetime opportunities start with everyday consistency.

“It’s about resetting, and how we can move on, get better, and learn,” she said. “How we individually can be better for our teammates and be better for our coach.”

March Madness star Kiki Rice of the UCLA Bruins celebrates with teammates during the 72-67 win over the USC Trojans in the NCAA Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament Championship game.
Rice (C) registered 13 points and eight assists in UCLA's Big Ten tournament victory over fellow NCAA No. 1 seed USC. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

All eyes on women's basketball — and UCLA

As the profile of women’s basketball rises at an exponential rate year after year, many college programs have benefited from the broader spotlight. But winning remains one of the best promotional tools available, and UCLA doubled down on that prospect, signing star transfer Lauren Betts last season in a move that culminated in back-to-back Sweet Sixteen appearances. 

This year, though, the Bruins want more. And as the team’s star power continues to emerge, anything seems possible.

Rice has been one of those stars. Literally — she starred in ESPN’s 2024 docuseries Full Court Press, giving fans a chance to see behind the curtain into what makes the 21-year-old tick. And while Betts pulls defensive focus on the court, Rice can make the offense sing. She leads the team in assists and steals per game, carrying a heavy load when games get tough.

As a young player making a name for herself, Rice enjoys the off-court attention. But she’s not immune to the pressure that accompanies greater scrutiny.

“It’s been a lot,” she reflects. “But it's also been something that me, and I think the rest of my teammates, we wanted. It's part of being in women's sports at this time, where it's really growing so much.”

She described the national attention as a welcome change. With attendance, TV viewership, brand deals, and other KPIs on the rise, the Bruins know it’s time to seize the moment. 

“This is what we deserve,” Rice said resolutely. “Let's take advantage of it, and be thankful for it.”

March Madness UCLA star Kiki Rice models Nike sneakers on an outdoor basketball court for her Jordan brand NIL deal.
Rice became Jordan Brand's first-ever NIL signing in 2022. (Nike)

Rice embraces the spotlight on and off the court

But if success on the court fuels exposure off the court, Rice understands the importance of balancing the bigger picture with remaining focused on the task at hand. And that mindset especially rings true in the era of blockbuster NIL deals.

“I want to take advantage of all these opportunities,” she said. “But they take time, and that's time away from school, that's time away from personal relaxation and reset time. That's time away from being in the gym.”

Rice has garnered attention from countless brands over the course of her college career. That includes signing with Jordan Brand as their first-ever NIL contract in 2022. Since that milestone, she’s gone on to work with major players in the women’s sports ad space like Buick, Dove, Neutrogena, and Beats by Dre, among others.

“I've definitely gotten more used to it,” she continued. “But I wouldn't say it's always easy”

Still from AT&T March Madness ad starring UCLA stars Kiki Rice and Lauren Betts.
AT&T cast UCLA stars Kiki Rice and Lauren Betts in their latest March Madness ad campaign. (AT&T)

March Madness AT&T ad highlights UCLA stars

Today’s student-athletes are expected to keep up with their studies and stay fit on the court, while also participating in the larger sports cultural conversation via brand partnerships and media appearances. That’s why fans will see Rice’s face throughout the tournament — and not just sweating it out in UCLA blue and gold.

When the game cuts to commercial, you might spot Rice starring in a new AT&T TV ad alongside Betts, promoting the sport both Bruins love to play. She even got a chance to flex a few comedy muscles onscreen, saying that her experience in front of the camera was nothing but positive.

“To be part of such a high quality production and film that commercial, I had a great time doing it,” she said, adding that Betts has been a friend she can lean on when the balancing act that is modern-day college sports gets too stressful. 

“I feel like she kind of understands, and is going through something very similar,” Rice says of her teammate and AT&T co-star. 

NCAA March Madness star Kiki Rice of the UCLA Bruins shoots against the USC Trojans during the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament Championship game.
UCLA hopes to see USC one more time before March Madness ends. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

Getting UCLA tournament ready from the inside-out

She also credits her family as a major source of support, even if they're many miles away on the East Coast, where Rice became one of the country's top high school prospects. And over the years, she’s taken personal responsibility in creating her own stability. She learned from experience the cadence required to not let fatigue set in at the end of a grueling basketball season.

Rice especially prioritizes taking care of her body, as March’s schedule sees games in quick succession. But she also grounds herself in the moment, viewing March Madness as not just a point of pressure, but one of opportunity.

“We've been talking about the NCAA tournament and Big Ten tournament all season long,” said Rice. “It's just like we talk about in practice: We have a new new season ahead of us, two new seasons coming up.”

But for all Rice’s individual and collective achievements so far, when the Bruins tip off against Southern University on Saturday, the pursuit of greatness begins anew. From falling just short of a regular-season title to edging out USC in the Big Ten tournament, Rice is eager to put a winning stamp on an already historic UCLA season.

“At the end of the day, we're just trying to win,” she said. “We don’t have that long, so we’ve got to take advantage of it.”

USA Rugby Announces Home Games as Women’s Elite Rugby Kicks Off

US rugby player Alena Olsen catches the ball during a 2024 Olympic semifinal.
US Rugby will play a series of home friendlies ahead of the 2025 World Cup. (Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

US women’s rugby stole the spotlight this week, as incoming domestic league Women’s Elite Rugby (WER) prepares for its first-ever season while USA Rugby gears up for a newly announced series of home friendlies.

In the lead-up to the kickoff of the 2025 Rugby World Cup in England this August, the world No. 9-ranked Eagles will be playing a pair of tune-up friendlies, taking on No. 11 Japan in Los Angeles on April 26th before facing No. 2 Canada in Kansas City on May 2nd.

The national team will then play a final send-off match against No. 16 Fiji in Washington, DC, on July 19th before heading to London for the 10th edition of the international tournament.

Momentum continues with new women's rugby league

The Eagles' pre-World Cup tour aims to continue the sport's momentum that the team initially sparked during last summer's Olympic bronze medal-winning run in Paris.

That standout performance prompted increased demand for more consistent women’s rugby programming in the States, with longtime proponents of the sport welcoming fresh fans into the fold with hopes of continuing to grow the game in the US.

Some of the increased demand will be met by WER, as the new league formalized its sanctioning agreement with USA Rugby earlier this week in anticipation of their March 22nd kick-off.

With six teams representing the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York, and the Twin Cities, WER will play a three-month regular season before contesting the league's first playoffs.

"We are confident that the start of WER will be a key moment in the growth of the sport," said WER president Jessica Hammond-Graf in a statement. "We can’t wait for fans to experience the excitement and intensity of high-level, professional women’s rugby in the US."

How to buy tickets to US women's rugby games

Tickets to the Eagles’ World Cup send-off tour go on sale March 28th, while fans hoping to catch WER’s debut season can purchase seats online now.

March Madness No. 1 Seeds Eye Conference Tournament Rematches

Texas's Jordan Lee defends South Carolina's Te-Hina Paopao during the 2025 SEC basketball tournament championship game.
March Madness No. 1-seeds Texas and South Carolina could meet for the fourth time this season in the Final Four. (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)

With the March Madness No. 1 seeds evenly split between the Big Ten and SEC, April’s Final Four becoming a conference tournament championship rematch doubleheader is very much on the table.

The quadrants led by SEC tournament finalists South Carolina and Texas share one side of the bracket, meaning the Gamecocks and Longhorns could meet before the 2024/25 NCAA championship game in an all-conference semifinal.

Similarly, crosstown rivals UCLA and USC top the other two quadrants, putting the LA teams on course for all-Big Ten semifinal.

Both conference pairs have already faced off three times this season, with South Carolina holding a 2-1 2024/25 record over Texas and USC riding into the Big Dance with the same record over UCLA.

Other top teams hunt rematches with NCAA No. 1 seeds

Before the No. 1 seeds lock in on any all-conference semis, however, they must advance past other elite contenders — some of whom have recent beef with the quadrant queens.

No. 3 seed Notre Dame — the only team to fail to snag a No. 1 March Madness spot after reaching the AP Poll's top ranking this season — awaits a possible 2024/25 rematch with Texas in the Elite Eight round, with the Irish eyeing a second season victory over the Longhorns after toppling Texas 80-70 in December.

As for No. 1-seed USC, the Trojans sit on a collision course with No. 2 UConn, setting up what could be a second-straight Elite Eight battle between the pair. The Huskies won last year's encounter 80-73 behind 28 points from superstar Paige Bueckers, before falling to eventual tournament runners-up Iowa in the 2023/24 Final Four.

That said, USC already defeated UConn once this season, with sophomore phenom JuJu Watkins putting up 25 points in the the Trojans' narrow 72-70 December win.

For these potential non-conference games, the rematches are somewhat by design, as top programs try to stack their schedules with the NCAA's best teams each season, both to challenge their rosters and to build their NCAA tournament resumes.

"If you play a good enough schedule, you're always going to run into somebody you've already seen," explained legendary UConn head coach Geno Auriemma earlier this week.

While bracket busters could impede an all No. 1-seed Final Four, no team seeded lower than No. 3 has ever won an NCAA championship, meaning at least a few of these top-tier rematches are likely in the coming weeks.

South Carolina's Ashlyn Watkins boxes out UCLA's Angela Dugalić during a 2024/25 NCAA basketball game.
Top seeds South Carolina and UCLA will begin their Madness campaigns on Friday. (Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

How to watch the Women's March Madness tournament first round

No. 6-seed Michigan and First Four winner No. 11-seed Iowa State open the tournament, tipping off March Madness at 11:30 AM ET on Friday, with live coverage on ESPN2.

The first top seed to take the court in Friday's 16-game slate is South Carolina, who will face No. 16-seed Tennessee Tech at 4 PM ET before UCLA closes out the night against First Four winner No. 16-seed Southern at 10 PM ET.

Both No. 1-seed games will air live on ESPN.

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