St. Thomas Aquinas is accustomed to success. The Overland Park, Kansas powerhouse is the reigning 5A state champion, and its success goes back even farther than that.

The Saints have won 17 national titles, including seven in a row from 2010-17. They have been a mainstay near the top of national polls, even nabbing the No. 2 spot in one ranking in 2005.

This year’s team is living up to that tradition, having finished the regular season with a 12-0-2 record, including a win over last year’s 6A state champs.

Defender Assa Kante is a Kansas commit and one of five seniors who will continue their soccer careers in college. She is joined by Abby Hansen (Missouri State), Shandon Carr (Washburn University), Maria Jensen (MidAmerica Nazarene University) and Mara Loughman (Benedictine College). Sophomore Sydney Watts has also committed to play for Vanderbilt.

With that talent and experience, the Saints hope to add another state championship trophy to their cabinet this spring after moving up one spot in the latest JWS high school soccer rankings.

(Note that these rankings do not include teams from Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina.)

Girls soccer final pic.twitter.com/H944Avsrf1

— GoAquinasSaints (@GoAquinasSaints) May 7, 2022

1. Valor Christian (Colo.), 14-0

The Eagles capped a perfect regular season with a win over previously unbeaten Pine Creek and then opened the postseason Tuesday with a commanding 8-0 win.

2. South County (Va.), 12-0-1

In a matchup of undefeated teams, South County beat Fairfax on Friday and followed it up with a 4-0 win Tuesday.

3. Gretna (Neb.), 19-0

The Dragons are just two wins away from a state championship and an unbeaten season.

4. Colonial Forge (Va.), 13-0

The Eagles are one win away from an undefeated regular season.

5. Valley (Iowa), 14-0

Anna Van Wyngarden has been involved in nearly half of Valley’s 50 goals this season with 12 goals and another 12 assists.

6. St. Thomas Aquinas (Kan.), 12-0-2

The Saints ended the regular season undefeated thanks to a 1-1 tie Friday, and now turn their attention toward defending their Class 5A state championship.

7. Liberty North (Mo.), 17-0

Florida commit Megan Hinnenkamp had a hat trick, and the Eagles ended the regular season undefeated with a 4-0 win over Lee’s Summit West. It was the Eagles’ second win this season over Lee’s Summit West, which has won or tied its 17 other games.

8. Colgan (Va.), 13-1-1

The Sharks have allowed just two goals since a 3-1 defeat to Colonial Forge on March 23.

9. Legacy (Colo.), 15-1

The Lightning opened the postseason with an emphatic 10-0 win as junior Kendall Rippley (Air Force commit) scored five goals and added an assist, and senior Juliauna Hayward (Colorado commit) collected five assists and a goal.

10. Yorktown (Va.) 13-1-1

The Patriots followed a scoreless draw Monday with a 6-2 win on Senior Night two days later.

11. Wando (S.C.), 17-1

After a 4-2 win over Chapin in the Lower State Finals, the Warriors are just one win away from back-to-back Class AAAAA state championships.

12. Fort Zumwalt South (Mo.), 20-1

The Bulldogs enter the playoffs on a nine-game winning streak and as the defending 3A state champions.

13. Bentonville (Ark.) 16-1-2

The Tigers’ undefeated season came to a crashing halt with a 3-0 loss to Bentonville West. Bentonville now begins state tournament play this Friday.

14. Triad (Ill.), 18-1

The Knights have allowed just five goals all season and posted 14 shutouts.

15. O’Fallon (Ill.), 17-1

The Panthers are putting that mid-season loss to Triad behind them, and the reigning Class 3A state champions appear primed for another playoff run.

16. Hudsonville (Mich.), 10-0-1

Hudsonville has given up just three goals this season, and just one in the last nine games.

17. Grandview (Colo.), 13-1-2

The Wolves ended the regular season with a 2-0 win over fellow 5A power Columbine to earn the fourth seed in the state playoffs and opened the postseason with another 2-0 victory.

18. Pine Creek (Colo.), 15-1

The Eagles nearly knocked off No. 1 Valor Christian but fell 4-3 in overtime. They bounced back from that defeat with a 4-0 win in the first round of the state playoffs.

19. James Island (S.C.), 19-1-2

A 5-3 win over Hilton Head gave the Trojans their second Lower State championship in as many years. Now, they look to repeat as Class AAAA state champions.

20. Lyons Township (Ill.), 17-1

Last year’s Class 3A state runners-up enter the postseason on a four-game winning streak, having outscored opponents 57-6 this season.

21. Oregon (Wis.), 13-0-1

The Panthers had given up four goals in 13 games before surrendering two Wednesday in a 2-2 draw.

22. Broomfield (Colo.), 13-2

After a disappointing end to the regular season, Broomfield opened the postseason with a victory.

23. Metea Valley (Ill.), 15-2-1

The Mustangs knocked off previously ranked Naperville Central 4-1 to win their first DuPage Valley Conference title.

24. Muskego (Wis.), 9-0-3

The Warriors have given up just four goals all season, but two of those goals have resulted in 1-1 ties. The other was a scoreless draw.

25. Nerinx Hall (Mo.), 16-2-1

The Markers won five of their first eight games. Since then, last year’s Class 4 state finalists have reeled off 11 consecutive victories.

Phillip Suitts is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports. He has worked at a variety of outlets, including The Palm Beach Post and Southeast Missourian, and done a little bit of everything from reporting to editing to running social media accounts. He was born in Atlanta but currently lives in wintry Philadelphia. Follow Phillip on Twitter @PhillipSuitts.

Star US distance swimmer Katie Ledecky is back to her old tricks, registering her fastest 1,500-meter freestyle in seven years — and the event's second-best time in history — at the 2025 TYR Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Wednesday.

The nine-time Olympic gold medalist finished the 30 pool lengths in 15:24.51, just missing the world-record 15:20.48 race time she posted in 2018.

Ledecky now holds the 1,500-meter freestyle's top 22 fastest times in women's swimming history — all of which would have won Wednesday's final race, where she defeated second-place finisher Jillian Cox — a University of Texas freshman — by a full 39 seconds.

Even more, Ledecky didn't slow down after her 1,500-meter performance posting her fastest 400-meter freestyle in nine years the very next day.

In the final lap of the race, the 28-year-old staged a comeback to pass Canadian teenage phenom and 2024 Olympic silver medalist Summer McIntosh and secure the win.

Her time of 3:56.81 just missed the US record of 3:56.46 that Ledecky previously claimed along with a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

"I don't know if I ever thought I was going to be 3:56 again," Ledecky said in her post-race broadcast interview. "I'm just really happy with all the work that I've put in to get to this point."

How to watch Ledecky at the 2025 TYR Pro Swim Series

The 2025 TYR Pro Swim Series continues through Saturday, with Ledecky competing in Friday's 200-meter freestyle final prior to racing in the 800-meter freestyle on Saturday.

Both races will begin at 6 PM ET on their respective days.

Live coverage of the meet will stream on Peacock on Friday before shifting to the USA Swimming Network on Saturday.

The English Football Association (FA) announced Thursday that it will ban trans women athletes from playing women's soccer starting with the 2025/26 season, with the governing body's new policy officially going into effect on June 1st.

Previously, the FA allowed trans women athletes to play on women's teams as long as they had "blood testosterone within natal female range."

The move comes after April 16th's landmark ruling from the UK's highest court, which states that gender equality protections only apply to what the court called "biological women" — and that trans women do not legally meet that definition.

The Scottish FA followed suit, also releasing its decision to ban trans women athletes from competitive play on Thursday.

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Notably, there are currently no trans women playing anywhere on the UK's professional football pyramid. However, some 72 trans athletes played in FA grassroots matches over the last decade.

Today, an estimated 20 to 30 trans players participate in that growing grassroots system, an initiative created to advance the FA's four "game-changer" priorities — one of which is to "see a game free from discrimination."

“We understand that this will be difficult for people who simply want to play the game they love in the gender by which they identify, and we are contacting the registered transgender women currently playing to explain the changes and how they can continue to stay involved in the game,” the association said in Thursday's statement.

"It is clear these abrupt changes have been made on legal advice following the recent UK Supreme Court ruling, as there remains no football-specific peer-reviewed research or evidence that shows the existing policies constitute a safety risk," stated advocacy group Pride Sports in response. "One consequence of these bans will, inevitably, be a rise in incidents of transphobia in football."

This weekend's NWSL action features top-table battles, Cinderella hopefuls, and a whole slew of teams hunting redemption wins to open May's league play.

Perched at the top of the NWSL standings, the Kansas City Current sits tied for points with the second-place Orlando Pride, while just four points separate the remaining six teams currently above the postseason cutoff line.

With last week's rollercoaster results setting up redemption arcs for this weekend's slate, the 2025 NWSL season's seventh matchday is full of bounce-back opportunities, a tight race to the top, and a California clash:

• No. 3 Washington Spirit vs. No. 9 Angel City FC, Friday at 8 PM ET (Prime): Both the Spirit and Angel City are coming off disappointing losses, with once-unbeaten LA slipping out of the Top-8 on a two-match skid. Can either contender regain their early season form?

• No. 7 Seattle Reign FC vs. No. 1 Kansas City Current, Friday at 10:30 PM ET (Paramount+): The Reign are hanging tough after two weeks of adding points, but they'll face a redemption-hunting Current squad determined to rebound from their first season loss last weekend.

• No. 6 Portland Thorns vs. No. 2 Orlando Pride, Saturday at 7:30 PM ET (ION): The Thorns have gained points in five of their last six games, and Portland will need all that resilience against a challenging Pride side that's more than capable of mounting their own comebacks.

• No. 5 San Diego Wave vs. No. 8 Bay FC, Sunday at 8 PM ET (Paramount+): The weekend's marquee matchup pits the Wave — quietly finding their identity under new coach Jonas Eidevall — against Bay FC in a California clash where neither team can afford to lose much ground.

It's back-to-school weekend for the WNBA, as teams travel to stars' old collegiate stomping grounds to tip off a series of preseason exhibitions.

While preseason matchups don't carry the same weight as opening day, the league raised the stakes this year to give fans a taste of what's to come during the gap between March Madness and the May 16th 2025 WNBA season tip-off.

Kicking off the preseason party is this year's No. 1 draft pick Paige Bueckers, who will make her professional debut when the Dallas take on Las Vegas on Friday. The showdown will occur at Notre Dame's Purcell Pavilion, as both teams boast Fighting Irish alumni in the Wings' Arike Ogunbowale and the Aces' Jackie Young and Jewell Loyd.

Later on Friday, reunited LSU teammates Angel Reese and Hailey Van Lith will return to the Baton Rouge court when the Chicago Sky tips off against the Brazil Women's National Team.

After facing the Washington Mystics on Saturday, Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever will travel to the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year's alma mater Iowa for their own date with Brazil on Sunday.

Fever fans will be particularly grateful that Sunday clash will receive national airtime, as resale tickets for the sold-out game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena are averaging upwards of $440 apiece.

To cap off the weekend, Sunday will also see the new-look Connecticut Sun will battle a Seattle Storm squad hungry to jump back into title contention this season.

Though the exhibition results won't matter, testing players in front of a crowd while building excitement for the upcoming 2025 season can be just as crucial for teams as they look to polish their rosters over the next two weeks.

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How to watch this weekend's WNBA preseason games

Friday will see the Dallas Wings take on the Las Vegas Aces at 7 PM ET followed by the Chicago Sky's matchup against Brazil at 9 PM ET, with both games airing live on ION.

Indiana's busy weekend begins with Saturday's 1 PM ET clash with Washington on NBA TV before the Fever face Brazil at 4 PM ET on Sunday, airing live on ESPN.

The weekend's final exhibition pits Connecticut against Seattle at 6 PM ET on Sunday, with live coverage available with the WNBA League Pass.