Ashley Hatch is a forward for the Washington Spirit of the NWSL. 

What were your thoughts on the Fall Series and how your team played? 

It was great to get back out there, and although the format was different it felt like normal. Having a week of practice, preparing for a game, then having another week of practice, and preparing for a game. That was really nice and it felt like it was normal for a little bit, and it was kind of nice to get into that rhythm. I’m a little sad that it’s over. But in regards to how we played as a team, obviously we would have liked to win and score a few more goals. I think overall we’re pretty happy with how we dealt with the unusual circumstances. And I think towards the back end of the fall series, we really started playing well together as a team. We started to really mesh on the field and it was a lot of fun. I wish we could have had another game or two.

You’re heading into national team camp. How did you find out about the call up?

I just got an email notifying me about being invited. It had the camp details and all that jazz. And then after I got the email about 5, 10 minutes later, Richie Burke, our coach, texted me and just congratulated me.

Do you have any personal goals for the camp?

Just to go in there and just play my best. Every camp situation is always an intense environment, because you’re surrounded by such great athletes and soccer players. I’m just focusing on being myself and having fun, but I have fun when I perform well, so performing well is the priority.

Are there any of the veteran names on the list that you’re especially excited to go up against?

I mean, honestly, everyone definitely belongs there, and so I think I’m just excited to be in an even more competitive environment that I’m already in. Obviously it’s going to be fun to play with girls who have been there longer than I have. But I’m pretty excited just to be there.

You have been to a few camps before. With such a young roster, how will your experiences help you do well?

That’s a good question. I think it helps because I know a little bit of what to expect. I’ve had the experience before. It still doesn’t take away from the initial nerves and jitters of training, but I think just having that experience will help me calm those nerves a little bit, and hopefully be able to get into the rhythm of being myself sooner as opposed to halfway through the week.

Are there any younger players that you were especially excited to see make the roster?

Yeah. I mean, obviously Ashley Sanchez, my teammate, I’m super excited for her. I think it will be fun to be there with her. I think she’s super talented, and it’s going to be a great environment for her to push herself and get better. Every camp you go into is an opportunity to become a better player. I’m excited for her. I’m also really excited for Aubrey Bledsoe. She’s not a young player, I think this will be her second camp, but we’ve never been in a camp together before, and I think she is very deserving of it. I’m excited to see her in a more competitive environment, because I think it’ll help her become even better of a keeper than she already is.

This will be your first camp with Vlatko Andonovski. What are your expectations for his coaching style and playing under him? 

I’m excited that I got to go to the ID camp last year, so I got a small glimpse of what he is like as a coach. I think this camp is a lot different than that camp. I think he will have even higher expectations for all of us. I’m excited. He’s a really smart coach, and so is all his coaching staff. I’m excited to hopefully get a lot of feedback on what I can improve on, and what they see with me going forward, and also just learning from them as coaches.

I know when we chatted with you in the past you were very straightforward about your goal of wanting to make the national team. Obviously this camp is one step closer. What would success mean for you in this camp and what are the next steps for reaching your goal?

I feel like success is super hard to define, but obviously there’s other camps in the future. I feel like it would be a sign of success if I was able to get invited to more of those. Or even if I don’t get invited to those, just getting positive feedback that I’m headed in the right direction. Any step in that direction I would be definitely excited about, but I’m also not focusing a ton on that, because I know I need to first take care of business in this camp.

Sweden veteran defender Magda Eriksson is hanging up her international boots to focus on her health, with the 32-year-old officially announcing her retirement from her national team on Sunday.

Eriksson will continue competing at the domestic level for her German club, Bayern Munich.

The longtime captain sat out the most recent international window due to a head injury, watching as world No. 3 Sweden fell to No. 1 Spain in the two-leg 2025 Nations League semifinals.

"It's by far the toughest decision I've ever made," Eriksson said in her social media announcement. "But I'm listening to my body and mind instead of my heart."

"I've landed in the fact that unfortunately it's a decision that has to be made."

After an 11-year career with the Swedish senior national team, Eriksson retires as a two-time Olympic silver medalist, earning those podium finishes in Rio in 2016 and at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games.

Often leading Sweden through major tournaments where early domination dissolved into a third-place finish, Eriksson also helped her team eke onto the World Cup podium in both 2019 and 2023.

"It is heavy news," said Sweden head coach Tony Gustavsson after Eriksson announced her international retirement, calling her "one of our most important players for a long time."

"[Magda's] professionalism, courage, and heart have left a strong mark on the national team," he added.

Chelsea FC's £1 million gamble is paying dividends, as USWNT rising star Alyssa Thompson continued her goal-scoring momentum for the six-time defending WSL champs on Sunday.

The young forward found the back of the net in the ninth minute of the Blues' 1-1 Sunday draw with Liverpool, solidifying her status as a decisive attacking threat for her new club.

"You can see how much talent she has and the quality she brings to the team," Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor said of Thompson earlier this month. "She's improving game after game, becoming more connected to her teammates, and understanding the way we want to play better."

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Thompson left NWSL side Angel City for Chelsea on a then-record £1 million transfer fee in early September, with the 21-year-old going on to notch three goals and one assist in four matches across both WSL and Champions League play.

"Being able to play with players that are the best in the world is an amazing opportunity," said the striker. "I want to learn, grow, and develop a lot. I feel like Chelsea is such an amazing environment to do that in."

Beyond individual accomplishment, Thompson's success underscores Chelsea's depth as they continue to hunt domestic and continental honors on a now-34 match WSL unbeaten streak — while also looking to potentially draw more USWNT stars away from the NWSL.

Women's professional baseball has landed a home base, with Front Office Sports reporting on Monday that the newly formed WPBL will play the entirety of its 2026 debut season at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois.

The incoming league prioritized a neutral venue without an existing baseball team to house its four inaugural clubs — New York, Boston, LA, and San Francisco — for its first campaign, with barnstorming games also planned for each team market.

"Our sport is for everybody," WPBL co-founder Keith Stein told FOS. "It's for middle America, everybody. We thought, 'Our teams are on these two coasts, it would be good to be in the middle of the country.'"

Founded in 2024 as the first professional women's baseball outfit in the US since 1954, the WPBL will hold its first-ever draft on Thursday, with the league's four teams drawing from a pool of 120 eligible players.

The WPBL recently fielded an oversubscribed Series A investment round, telling FOS that they're closing a $3 million raise with another round planned ahead of its August 2026 season-opener.

Each 30-player team will operate under a $95,000 salary cap for the first year, with the league also covering living costs throughout the seven-week season as well as giving players a percentage of sponsorship funds.

How to watch the first-ever WPBL Draft

The 2025 WPBL Draft kicks off at 8 PM ET on Thursday, with live coverage streaming across the league's Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube channels.

Las Vegas Aces boss Becky Hammon spoke her mind last week, telling CNBC Sport that the WNBA might need "a change in leadership" for the league's CBA talks to successfully progress.

"I just think [player relations] might be too fractured at this point, but we'll see," Hammon said, while also noting that she's had only limited interactions with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

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Citing Engelbert's "private conversations...with individual players — or lack of the conversations," Hammon described the commissioner's current relationship with players as "rocky" while describing her widely criticized leadership style.

"I don't know if she can ever regret, retract, and get that traction back from those conversations," the Aces boss posited.

"When the players speak, people need to sit up and listen," she continued. "I think [Engelbert is] sitting up and listening now."

Hammon also voiced support for Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier after the five-time All-Star described the WNBA as having the "worst leadership in the world" in her now-viral 2025 exit interview.

"I completely agree with Napheesa that the players should be making more than coaches," the Las Vegas sideline leader — who publicly earns seven figures per year — continued. "They're due for a huge increase in salary, and it's got to be something that is sustainable. That's the biggest thing you got to remember, that this league is still a young league."

Ultimately, while the 2025 WNBA season is over, CBA concerns loom large over the league's current offseason and 2026 campaign, leaving Hammon and others looking to avoid a lockout as the November 30th extension deadline nears.