For the first time since 2010, the Minnesota Lynx end the season outside the playoffs.

The Lynx had an opportunity to clinch a spot after surging late in the season, but they were unable to close it out in their season finale against the Connecticut Sun in what was ultimately Sylvia Fowles’ final game in the WNBA.

As Minnesota heads into the offseason, the team faces the unenviable task of replacing a generational talent. How will they move forward without Fowles?

Minnesota Lynx: Year in Review

What went right?

Despite starting a grisly 3-13, the Lynx rebounded in the latter half of the season, clawing their way into contention for a playoff spot. There were flashes of what the Lynx could be – including a 102-71 win over league-leading Las Vegas – but never the full package.

Sylvia Fowles was once again a bright spot for the Lynx, contributing 14.4 points and 9.8 rebounds per game while adding 1.2 assists and 1.0 blocks per game in the season dubbed “Syl’s Final Ride.” Aerial Powers and Kayla McBride were right there beside her, averaging 14.4 points and 13.3 points per game respectively.

And it’s not like the Lynx didn’t lack fight. In the team’s finale against the Sun, Lindsay Allen scored a career-high 26 points on 6-of-7 shooting from 3-point range. While missing the playoffs for the first time since 2010 in Sylvia Fowles’ final season is certainly a blow, they scrapped all the way to the end.

A crowning moment 👑

Sylvia Fowles takes the court for the final time in the regular season. pic.twitter.com/AEmFgWOH9v

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) August 14, 2022

What went wrong?

While the Lynx ended the season with a shot at the playoffs, the slow start nearly doomed them. At 14-22, the Lynx finished just a game ahead of the Sparks (13-23). The only other team they beat out was Indiana, and the Fever went on an 18-game losing streak to end the season.

Outside of Fowles, the team’s defense was lackluster all season, which head coach Cheryl Reeve singled out as a reason why they fell short of a postseason bid.

“We are exactly where we were supposed to be,” Reeve said. “We weren’t good enough to be in the playoffs.”

Aerial Powers and Kayla McBride, who were signed to the team in an attempt to gain a scoring edge, averaged 38% and 40% from the field.

And while Napheesa Collier made it clear she intended to play with Fowles one last time – and worked her way back 74 days after giving birth – the fact that she was back in the starting lineup and averaging 22.8 minutes per game to end the season showed the team’s desperation as much as her grit.

Looking forward

With Fowles setting off into retirement, eyes will turn to Collier as the next franchise leader.

And while it is nearly impossible to replace a player of Fowles’ caliber, the Lynx have a shot at the No. 1 overall pick in the draft lottery, which will give them the best possible chance to bring in a new face of the franchise.

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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