As the U.S. women’s national team takes on Germany this week in their final two games of the year, they’ll be balancing further squad development and a positive result. The U.S. could use a win after their October trip to Europe yielded two straight losses. Meanwhile, the team has been settling on a preferred starting XI as they await the returns of a number of key players from injury in 2023.

If head coach Vlatko Andonovski views the Germany games as an opportunity for further squad evaluation, a handful of players could use the playing time to prove their value. The competition within the team will only grow as the months tick down to the 2023 World Cup.

Taylor Kornieck

Kornieck was something of a surprise addition to the USWNT’s Concacaf W roster in July, but her play with the San Diego Wave this year explains why the U.S. is interested in her skill set. Kornieck’s prowess in the air, particularly on set pieces, is somewhat obvious (she’s a towering 6-foot-1), but she’s also proven to be an impressive line-breaker with the ball at her feet. The U.S. is still figuring out what to do at the holding midfielder position when Lindsey Horan isn’t on the field, and after Kornieck missed the last international window with an ankle injury, she could use time to carve out a role.

Sam Coffey

The USWNT’s defensive midfield has been in need of answers in recent months, meaning the opportunity for Coffey to make her mark on the team has only grown. Coffey played well beyond her years in her rookie season and during the Thorns’ 2022 NWSL Championship victory, and she’s familiar with both a rigid and a free-flowing midfield philosophy from Portland. Coffey has been fast-tracked as one of the USWNT’s key options for the No. 6, and this week could be the time to solidify the concept.

Trinity Rodman

Rodman is a generational talent, but she hasn’t had as much time with the USWNT attack as the other forwards vying for a spot in the team’s starting XI. In October, she played on the right wing while Sophia Smith filled in for Alex Morgan, but now that Morgan and Mallory Pugh are both back in the fold, Rodman has to figure out where she fits within Andonovski’s attacking rotations. She’s already an asset as a connecting player, and she bounces off the attacking midfield well. But if Andonovski feels his current starters need more time to build chemistry, balancing Rodman’s development at the international level becomes tricky.

Ashley Sanchez

Sanchez, like Rodman, is part of the USWNT’s present and the future. She was tasked with providing an attacking spark in the midfield at Concacaf W this summer, but she has featured more off the bench in 2022. Sanchez is a creative player who can be brought on to run at opponents with enthusiasm, but she hasn’t gotten a chance in games that require a stronger off-the-ball defensive plan. She’s also likely competing with Rose Lavelle for minutes, and Lavelle has been excellent in 2022. Getting a shot against a crisp midfield like Germany’s would be an indicator that Sanchez is ready to adapt to greater challenges.

Ashley Hatch

Hatch quietly had another strong NWSL season in 2022, scoring nine goals for the Washington Spirit, but the USWNT’s reliance on the 27-year-old has waned in recent months. Alex Morgan has gradually overtaken Hatch in the role of post-up, central forward on the team’s depth chart, and Andonovski’s decision to play Hatch in just one half when Morgan was out with an injury in October raises a few questions about what happens when Catarina Macario returns to the team next spring. Hatch has had a knack for goal at the international level, and her level of inclusion this week could suggest where she sits on the USWNT depth chart.

Casey Murphy

I don’t envy the task of rotating the three USWNT goalkeepers through these games. Alyssa Naeher needs time to continue to gel with a new-look defense, and Adrianna Franch has more than earned another look on the field. But the development of Casey Murphy hasn’t been as linear as expected in 2022, and more big-game experience could be crucial for evaluation. Murphy obviously has the ability to be an elite shot-stopper at the international level (her matches against Australia a year ago were examples of her high ceiling,) but she’s also shown some nerves this year. With Franch making a surge, the competition at goalkeeper is more interesting than ever.

Kristie Mewis

Three of the players on this list had rough club seasons with the Spirit this year, and Kristie Mewis likewise had a difficult year with last-place Gotham FC. Andonovski cited form when he left Gotham teammate Margaret Purce off the last two USWNT rosters, and Mewis has been competing for minutes off the bench with Lavelle and Horan tabbed as midfield starters. Mewis is very good in dead-ball situations, and her ability to chase a game late has provided a spark to the midfield in the past. But she needs to be able to showcase the form that got her back on the USWNT in 2021, with limited minutes to do so.

Claire Watkins is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

25-year-old American pro golfer Nelly Korda secured her spot in LPGA history on Sunday, notching her fifth-straight title at this weekend's Chevron Championship in The Woodlands, Texas.

Ranked No. 1 in the world by Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings, Korda joins Nancy Lopez (1978) and Annika Sörenstam (2005) as just the third LPGA player to rack up five consecutive tour wins. She is also the third No. 1-ranked player to capture The Chevron Championship victory since the rankings debuted in 2006, accompanied by Lorena Ochoa and Lydia Ko.

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The Florida native shot three-under 69 in Sunday's final, besting Sweden's Maja Stark despite Stark's valiant come-from-behind attempt in the 18th. Korda finished with a four-day total of 13-under 275, celebrating her two-stroke win by cannonballing into Poppie's Pond, much to the crowd's delight. She left The Club at Carlton Woods with $1.2 million from an overall purse of $7.9 million.

It wasn't long ago that the two-time major champion's current winning streak seemed unimaginable. After maintaining her No. 1 position for 29 weeks, Korda underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from her left arm in 2022. She returned to the course not long after, but failed to win a single tournament in 2023 before seeing a surge in form during the first four months of 2024. As of today, she hasn't lost a tournament since January.

Korda will attempt a record sixth-straight win at next week's JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles, where she'll vie for a cut of the $3.75 million purse.

USWNT regulars Sophia Smith and Mallory Swanson furthered their cases for Olympic inclusion with their respective club victories on Saturday and Sunday.

After a roller coaster of a week that saw former Thorns head coach Mike Norris reassigned and a flurry of last-minute roster reshufflings as Friday's trade window closure loomed, the NWSL sprung to life over the weekend with standout performances from ninth-place Portland and third-place Chicago, among others.

After her blocked attempt at goal set up a volleying sixth-minute opener from veteran Christine Sinclair — now the only player in history to record a goal in all 11 NWSL seasons — Smith swiftly netted her own in the 27th minute off a breakaway run that eluded Houston's backline. The goal represented Smith's third of the season as well as her 35th for the Thorns, ultimately leading to the home side's first win of the season in a 4-1 routing of the Dash.

But that wasn't Smith's only stat of the evening. The star forward also lapped former Chicago Red Star Sam Kerr to become the youngest player to reach 50 NWSL goal contributions across all games, chalking up 40 goals and 10 assists at the age of 23 years and 254 days.

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"Obviously it feels good to get a win," said Smith in a post-match press conference. "But this is the standard the Thorns have always had. So a win is great, but a win is the expectation — we're hungrier than ever after the way we started."

170 miles up the road, Lumen Field similarly showcased some promising Olympic prospect footwork on Sunday. In Chicago's 2-1 victory over the lagging 13th-place Seattle Reign, striker Mallory Swanson racked up an impressive counterattack assist on fellow forward Ally Schlegel's fourth-minute goal. Swanson went on to find the back of the net herself before halftime, lacing an explosive ball into the top corner in the 31st minute, her second of the season after returning from a lengthy sidelining injury.

Speaking of injuries, fellow USWNT favorites Alex Morgan and Tierna Davidson were not as fortunate as their national squad teammates this weekend. Each exited their club matches early, Morgan with an ankle knock in San Diego's loss to Orlando and Davidson with an apparent hamstring incident early on in Washington's win over Gotham.

LSU came out on top at the 2024 NCAA women's gymnastics championship in Fort Worth on Saturday, besting Cal, Utah, and Florida to capture their first-ever title.

The Tigers' win was far from a landslide. LSU took the first rotation handily thanks to 2024 All-Around winner Haleigh Bryant's team-leading 9.9375 backed by four additional 9.9+ scores from her teammates. But Utah then responded with three strong beam performances of their own, causing the Red Rocks to slide confidently into second place by the end of the second rotation.

By the halfway point, all four teams fell within .288 points of one another before Utah overtook the pack with a dominant floor showing after three rotations. LSU then went on to ace the beam event with Konnor McClain's meet-leading 9.9625 score, coming away with the highest collective score ever awarded to the event in NCAA championship history. The achievement propelled the Tigers to victory, ensuring them the title after the final rotation.

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"This team is full of individuals that have incredible character and integrity and love for each other and all the things you hear from coaches when they sit at a podium like this in a moment of victory, but I promise you it's a real thing," said LSU coach Jay Clark in a post-meet press conference. "I'm just so happy for them."

Contributing to Saturday's atmosphere of excitement was the absence of last year's champion and this year's heavily favored Oklahoma Sooners. Hot off earning the highest team score in NCAA history just last month, the top-ranked Norman squad suffered a shocking loss in the semifinals, where five major mistakes contributed to a third-place finish and a season-low team score of 196.6625.

With Oklahoma out, it was truly anyone's game.

"Every team was out there fighting for their lives — all four teams, it could have gone any of four ways out there," Clark told reporters. "As much as I feel for what happened to Oklahoma in the semifinals, I think it made for a championship that became so packed with emotion because every team out there believed they could do it. It was just tremendous."

LSU is now the eighth program in the sport's history to earn an NCAA women's gymnastic championship.
They share the honor with Georgia, Utah, UCLA, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, and Michigan.

Cameron Brink already has her rookie of the year pick for the upcoming WNBA season, and it’s Indiana-bound star Caitlin Clark. 

In the latest edition of Kelley on the Street, host Kelley O'Hara caught up with Brink in New York hours before the Stanford phenom went No. 2 overall to the Los Angeles Sparks at the 2024 WNBA Draft. When O’Hara asked who would win the WNBA's rookie of the year, she answered without pause.

"Caitlin Clark," she said, while a fan commented that she thought Brink would take home the award. Brink later added that the extra foul granted to WNBA players will be "good for me."

"I hope it’s me," Charisma Osborne, who was later drafted by the Phoenix Mercury, said when asked her ROY prediction. "But, I don’t know — we’ll see."

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