After a quarterfinal round that was all chalk, this weekend's NWSL semifinals have massive nail-biter potential, with the league's top four teams facing off in two highly anticipated pairings.

Will Gotham get rowdy at Audi?

The stakes couldn't be higher as No. 2 Washington kicks off ​the tightly contended​ 2024 semis against No. 3 Gotham FC in front of another raucous sellout crowd in DC on Saturday — the East Coast powerhouses' first-ever postseason clash.

Having both having advanced from strikingly similar quarterfinal matchups last weekend, the teams enter the match with a split 5-5-4 record against each other over the last four seasons. Even more, the squads finished the regular season tied at 56 points apiece.

The Spirit remain the only team to defeat Gotham twice this year, though both those meetings occurred early in the season. Since their second loss to Washington in June, the NJ/NY squad has fallen just once in NWSL play — to No. 1 Orlando on September 1st. Along with the Pride, Gotham leads the league as the toughest team on the road, a claim that will be tested by a Spirit side that hasn't lost at home since July.

Saturday's semifinal will be a battle between one of the league’s most prolific offenses against one of the NWSL’s stingiest defenses. With the league's second-highest goal tally under their belt, Washington is arguably the most dangerous NWSL team in transition. But if Gotham's backline can stifle the Spirit's attack, their unmatched depth could keep their back-to-back championship dreams alive. 

Budding rivals set for NWSL semifinal fight night in Florida

Orlando and Kansas City's freshly minted rivalry will come to a head on Sunday, when the NWSL's No. 1 squad hosts this season's top goal-scorers in Sunday's semifinal showdown.

Both teams began the year on impressive unbeaten runs, until the Pride snapped KC's 17-match streak just before the Olympic break in early July.

The Current then became the only team to hold Orlando scoreless at home in the pair's September 13th draw — the only home match the Pride failed to win since opening the year with three draws in March.

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The Pride's league-leading defense and the Current's ultra-organized midfield make Sunday's semi a guaranteed thriller, with the winner likely decided by the NWSL's most prolific scorers, KC's Golden Boot winner Temwa Chawinga and star Orlando striker Barbra Banda.

After needing medical attention late in KC’s quarterfinal, there are lingering concerns about Chawinga’s ongoing knee injury affecting her semifinal fitness. Meanwhile, Banda snapped a five-match scoring drought with a decisive brace last weekend, and if she can keep that momentum, Orlando will be tough to beat.

How to watch the 2024 NWSL semifinals this weekend

With the November 23rd NWSL Championship match on the line, Gotham and Washington will kick off the 2024 NWSL semifinals at 12 PM ET on Saturday, airing live on CBS.

The weekend's NWSL semifinal closer between Orlando and Kansas City will take the Pride's pitch at 3 PM ET on Sunday, with live coverage on ABC.

Wisconsin volleyball is off to the attendance races, with the No. 7 college squad averaging 8,620 fans per match this season to become this NCAA's best-attended program — narrowly beating Big Ten rival No. 1 Nebraska's 8,602 current average.

Other than the Badgers and Cornhuskers, no other college volleyball team has surpassed 6,000 fans per match this year, but Wisconsin is well on track to surpass even their own dominant attendance history in the sport.

If they finish the season in the top attendance spot, the Badgers will snap a six season streak logging the second-best average crowds per year.

Even more, Wisconsin is on their way to blasting through their program-best mark, set when 7,761 fans per match filled the bleachers in 2022.

The growing demand for Badger volleyball is also translating into significant revenue boosts for school.

"We're really, really excited; we're going to exceed $2 million in volleyball ticket sales for the first time ever," Wisconsin deputy athletic director Mitchell Pinta told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel earlier this week. "And we're largely sold out for the rest of our matches at the Field House for the remainder of the season."

Should the Badgers reach that $2 million mark, they will see a massive 25% increase over the $1.6 million the team garnered just two seasons ago, and a near 18-fold growth from the $111,809 in volleyball ticket sales that Wisconsin logged in 2013.

Ultimately, the sky's the limit for both Wisconsin volleyball — and the sport at-large.

"If there's a saturation point on the demand for Wisconsin volleyball, we certainly have not seen it yet," said Pinta.

How to watch Wisconsin volleyball in action

With conference play kicking off this weekend, No. 7 Wisconsin will host unranked Big Ten foe Rutgers at 8 PM ET on Friday, before paying a visit to also-unranked Iowa at 3 PM ET on Sunday.

Both Big Ten battles will stream live on B1G+.

WSL side Liverpool opened their 2025/26 League Cup campaign with an emotional 5-0 win over WSL2 club Sunderland on Wednesday, dedicating the shutout victory to former manager Matt Beard after the 47-year-old's sudden passing last Saturday.

The match marked the Reds' return to the pitch following the postponement of their Sunday regular-season game against Aston Villa due to Beard's passing.

"It's a good win for Matt. We played with a lot of emotion," Liverpool defender Jenna Clark said afterwards, calling Wednesday "a really emotional night and an emotional few days for everyone involved with the club."

"We have pulled through together as a team the best we could and you saw that on the pitch tonight," Clark added.

Beard won back-to-back WSL titles with Liverpool in 2013 and 2014, departing the Reds in 2015 for a two-year stint with the NWSL's Boston Breakers.

He made his return to Liverpool in 2021, lifting the club back into the top-flight WSL by earning promotion his first season back at the helm.

"Matt will leave a huge void in the women's game," USWNT head coach and former Chelsea boss Emma Hayes said in a statement earlier this week. "He was one of a kind, and his loss will be felt by all. My heart goes out to his family, but I want to take the time to acknowledge what a special man he really was."​

How to watch Liverpool this weekend

Liverpool will continue their 2025/26 WSL campaign against Manchester United this Sunday, kicking off live at 7 AM ET on ESPN+.

The 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup culminates on Saturday, when host nation England battles for their first tournament title in more than a decade in a top-tier final against Canada, who are hunting their first-ever world championship trophy.

The Red Roses' long dominance on the Rugby World Cup pitch has led them to eight finals in the competition's nine editions, with England emerging victorious twice — in 1994 and 2014.

On the other hand, Canada will make just their second-ever appearance in the World Cup final this Saturday, as the Maple Leafs aim for a decidedly different outcome from their 21-9 loss to England in the 2014 championship game.

The top-ranked Red Roses will also be looking to avenge their narrow 34-31 loss to New Zealand in the tournament's most recent 2022 edition when they square off against No. 2 Canada in front of an sold-out crowd inside London's Twickenham Stadium — with another women's rugby attendance record on the line.

"You feed off of that energy, especially knowing what this game is going to be," England defense coach Sarah Hunter said. "It's a cliché, but [the crowd] almost becomes the 16th person in those moments where you need them."

How to watch the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup final

England and Canada will battle in the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup final at 11 AM ET on Saturday, with live coverage airing on Paramount+.

While the No. 1 Kansas City Current have officially run away with the 2025 NWSL Shield, the race for top playoff seeding rages on, as the No. 2 Washington Spirit fights to hold their ground against an unpredictable No. 9 Houston Dash this Sunday.

Bolstered by star Trinity Rodman's return from injury, the Spirit enter the weekend on a nine-game unbeaten streak, going up against a motivated Dash side sitting just two points outside of postseason contention.

"Every game we just need to be a lot more clinical in the final third," Rodman said after last weekend's 2-2 draw with No. 11 Angel City. "We're doing all the hard stuff and then it's [lacking] quality at the end."

Washington isn't without top-table challengers, with No. 3 Gotham FC riding their own five-game unbeaten streak into a Friday night match against the No. 4 Portland Thorns, who sit tied for points with both the Bats and the No. 5 San Diego Wave in the NWSL standings.

"At this stage, almost everyone still has a real chance to make the playoffs, which is great for the league," said Gotham manager Juan Carlos Amorós after the Bats' 1-1 draw with Bay FC last Sunday. "But it also means nothing can be taken for granted."

How to watch the Washington Spirit and Gotham FC this weekend

No. 3 Gotham FC kicks off this weekend's NWSL action when they host the No. 4 Portland Thorns at 8 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage on NWSL+.

Then in Sunday's NWSL action, the No. 9 Houston Dash will visit the No. 2 Washington Spirit at 1 PM ET, airing live on Paramount+.