The Minnesota Lynx entered their first game of the 2021 WNBA playoffs with confidence after a resilient regular season.

Battling through injuries and player absences during an 0-4 start, the Lynx reversed course and started climbing in the WNBA standings. They finished the season third overall with a 22-10 record and received a first-round bye, setting up a second-round, single-elimination matchup with the sixth-seeded Chicago Sky.

The Sky took a four-point lead into halftime of the Sept. 26 game and never looked back, pulling away in the second half for an 89-76 win on Minnesota’s home court.

Just like that, the Lynx’s season was over. With it came renewed questions about the WNBA’s playoff format, which features two rounds of single-elimination games followed by best-of-five semifinals and Finals series.

“It has become clear that the current playoff format no longer serves the product the athletes are putting out on the floor every night,” Lynx point guard Layshia Clarendon said days later. “The players and the fans deserve a better playoff experience that honors the hard work put in throughout the regular season. I’m confident the league sees this as well and will act accordingly!”

The single-elimination playoff experience was different for Phoenix Mercury guard Skylar Diggins-Smith. The Mercury came into the playoffs as the fifth seed after overcoming a slow start to win 10 of their last 13 regular season games. They rode that momentum to wins in the first two rounds and a place in the semifinals against the No. 2 Las Vegas Aces.

“Obviously, it’s tough with this format. If you don’t really get a top-four or a top-two position, you gotta play in one of these games,” Diggins-Smith told reporters after the Mercury upset the No. 4 Seattle Storm in the second round. “We made it to a series, we earned a series, and that’s really all it is. It’s not like we won a championship or anything. That’s what we’re after. On to the next.”

Sky tying it up! pic.twitter.com/pWRr52Xbgd

— Phoenix Mercury - X (@PhoenixMercury) September 26, 2021

The WNBA playoffs weren’t always set up this way.

In 2015, the Lynx were a favorite to win their third WNBA championship. Before they could play for the title, however, they had to win two best-of-three playoff series against the Los Angeles Sparks and the Mercury.

Back then, the playoffs featured eight teams split and seeded into Eastern and Western conferences. The conference semifinals and finals series filtered into a best-of-five WNBA Finals, and no team had to play a single-elimination game. Even though Game 1 of the 2015 Finals between the Lynx and Indiana Fever was the most watched on ESPN/ABC networks since 1998, viewership for the first two rounds of the playoffs was down 13 percent over 2014. WNBA playoff ratings overall had taken a hit.

At the end of the season, the WNBA Board of Governors got together to review and discuss all aspects of the league, including the playoffs. They formed a consensus and, in January 2016, the board announced a new playoff format ahead of the league’s 20th anniversary: The top eight teams with the highest regular-season winning percentage would make the playoffs and be seeded based on their overall records, doing away with conferences. The first and second rounds would be single elimination, and teams would be re-seeded after each round. The top two seeds would receive first- and second-round byes.

The goal was to inject excitement into the WNBA playoffs, increase viewership and attract new fans in the 20th year of the WNBA.

The playoffs have remained the same ever since.

“I like this format. I like single elimination for both of the first two rounds. I think it’s compelling television and will help the ratings,” said WNBA analyst Debbie Antonelli. “I thought some players looked tired in Round 2, and we don’t want sloppy play in a crowded sports television market in September and October.”

Crowded sports market is an understatement. By the time the WNBA playoffs begin in September, the NFL is already in full swing, the MLB is gearing up for its postseason and the NBA is getting ready to start its preseason.

Given the fall sports landscape, it’s understandable that the WNBA would want to figure out a way to make the playoffs more appealing to viewers. But have the single-elimination games actually helped with ratings? Not necessarily.

According to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, the second-round game between Seattle and Phoenix drew 311,000 viewers on ABC, making it the most-watched single-elimination game since the Lynx played the Sparks in the first round in 2018 (343,000 on ESPN2).

“So, the single-elimination games have not been overwhelmingly big draws, and the Game 5s in the semifinals — when they do occur — tend to do better,” said Lewis, who also noted that Chicago’s double-overtime win over Connecticut in Game 1 of the semifinals outperformed all single-elimination games since 2016.

But ratings are only part of the playoff conversation. The league has to think about travel schedules, since WNBA teams fly commercial, and team owners have to consider whether they’ll be able to sell enough seats during first- and second-round multi-game series in order to make it worthwhile. Extending the WNBA postseason also means running up against television scheduling conflicts and competing with fall pro sports for viewership.

“How many regular season games from a business aspect of an organization are needed or wanted for our league, for our teams? And then from there, what do playoffs look like with that footprint?” asked Storm head coach Noelle Quinn. “I think that’s the biggest thing that I’m learning — there’s some strategy that goes into it, like there’s a reason why the playoffs have continued to be the way that they are. There are talks about changing it, but within that change, how does that impact the days of our season and could that be changed?”

Proposals for playoff re-formatting include decreasing the number of playoff teams from eight to six, keeping the first-round single-elimination games and making the second round a three-game series or structuring each round as series.

“I think if we keep eight teams in the playoffs, I like the format (as it is),” said Antonelli. “The only way to make it fair to the three and four seeds is to have less teams. I think the decision for the league is eight teams or six teams in the playoffs. Six teams would be half the league — that would seem fair to me. But if we’re going to have eight teams, I love single elimination in the first two rounds because of television.”

Added Quinn: “The single-elimination game for the first round maybe brings some excitement, but the third and fourth seed … I mean, you look at Minnesota and what they did at the end of the year, you look at how Phoenix started playing at the end, it just gives teams a chance to duke it out in the playoffs with a series and creates these rivalries.

“At least a second-round series, I’m kind of leaning towards now as well. Best out of three, whatever it is, I think those top seeds deserve that. And I’m not just saying it because we were in that spot.”

🐐 x 2⃣ pic.twitter.com/sJMdxKbYKF

— Seattle Storm (@seattlestorm) September 26, 2021

Sue Bird, who may have played the last playoff game of her illustrious career in Seattle’s second-round loss, has been vocal about the WNBA’s current postseason format. She would prefer the WNBA playoffs have no byes, no single eliminations — just toss the ball up and see who comes out on top in the hard-fought series.

“If it’s gonna be eight teams, it has to be series. Because you’re gonna have a player like Arike Ogunbowale and you’re only gonna see her once?” Bird said, referencing the Dallas Wings’ first-round ouster this year.

“You don’t even have a chance to really get going in a single-elimination game. And I get the excitement, so there is that aspect for fans. But I think it’s more exciting to see a player like (Ogunbowale), a young player, an exciting player, whose team finishes wherever they finish — six, seven, eight — and you get to see her three times? Two or three times? That’s also exciting from an entertainment standpoint.”

When the 2021 playoffs end and a new champion is crowned, the WNBA will reevaluate the playoffs along with every other checklist item from the summer. Whether they address the calls for format changes depends on a variety of factors. Regardless of the outcome, it’s hard not to think that single-elimination games limit the amount of quality basketball, reach and exposure of the WNBA.

In a multi-series format, maybe the Minnesota and Chicago matchup would have gone to three games. Maybe Bird would still be bumping up against Diana Taurasi instead of packing up her locker. Maybe the semifinal matchups would look a lot different than they do now, with the Sky and Mercury each one win away from advancing to the Finals. Maybe not. The fun thing about a series is it gives players, coaches, owners and fans more than just one game.

In the end, maybe that’s what everyone who invests time in the league deserves.

Lyndsey D’Arcangelo is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports, covering the WNBA. She also contributes to The Athletic and is the co-author of Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League. Follow Lyndsey on Twitter @darcangel21.

No. 7 USC took down No. 4 UConn on Saturday, winning 72-70 in a battle between two bonafide NCAA basketball championship contenders still figuring out a consistent flow of play.

USC led by as many as 18 in the first half. However UConn came storming back, briefly pulling ahead in the fourth quarter before the Trojans outlasted the Huskies to secure the narrow victory.

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JuJu holds on to secure USC win

With UConn superstar Paige Bueckers tight on her heels, USC standout JuJu Watkins registered a game-leading 25 points, alongside six rebounds, five assists, and three blocks.

Bueckers and Huskies freshman Sarah Strong split scoring duties for UConn, notching 22 points each with Strong adding 11 rebounds.

After opening the season at No. 2, this highly touted UConn squad has dropped pivotal games against Notre Dame and now USC to go 0-2 in Top 10 matchups. It's a pattern legendary coach Auriemma will hope to correct before the Huskies face their next ranked opponent in early February.

"I thought the execution part in the first half was just as bad as I've seen in a few years here in Connecticut," Huskies boss Geno Auriemma said after the loss.

"This is a really significant win, and it's a really significant win because of the stature of UConn's program and what Geno Auriemma has done for our sport," commented USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb.

Weekend upsets shake top-ranked NCAA basketball teams

Elsewhere, upsets dominated the NCAA basketball conversation this weekend, with Top 25 contenders falling short as this season's undefeated list continues to shrink.

No. 15 Michigan State saw their first loss on Friday, falling to unranked Alabama 82-67 in a low scoring matchup. Afterwards, No. 9 Duke suffered their own unranked loss on Saturday, ceding a tough defensive battle to USF 65-56.

Seventeenth-ranked Georgia Tech remains undefeated with Saturday's ranked win over No. 23 Nebraska, while No. 14 West Virginia lost to unranked Colorado later that day.

Parity is the name of the game this season, with conference realignment, the transfer portal, and other recent shifts impacting a number of programs across the NCAA. And with conference play looming, teams will rely on regional rivalries and schedule strength to prepare them for heightened competition in the new year.

Penn State won the 2024 NCAA Volleyball Championship on Sunday, rising above Louisville's hometown advantage and a monster second set by the Cardinals to claim the program's eighth all-time title and first in 10 years.

In the victory, Penn State head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley became the first woman head coach in NCAA tournament history to win the championship — all while battling breast cancer.

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Penn State tops Louisville in a back-and-forth matchup

Sunday's championship game drew a sell-out crowd of 21,860 to the KFC Yum Center in downtown Louisville, setting a new NCAA volleyball championship record. It was Louisville's second-ever title match, after finishing second to Texas in 2022.

After suffering an ankle injury in​ Thursday's semifinal upset against Pitt, however, Louisville entered the match without senior outside hitter Anna DeBeer. The absence ultimately proved too great to overcome.

The Nittany Lions won the first set 25-23, before Louisville saved 10 set points to dramatically take the second set 34-32.

But the Nittany Lions roared back, overwhelming the Cardinals to win the third set 25-20 before closing out the deciding set 25-17.

A moving win for Penn State's women's volleyball coach

Penn State coach Schumacher-Cawley, who was diagnosed with cancer last fall, stayed with her team throughout the 2024 season.

"I'm very happy for Katie, and it's a big deal for this sport," Louisville head coach Dani Busboom Kelly said. "I'm thankful… that we can move on and that more women will be in this position in the future."

As for Schumacher-Cawley, she remained ever humble.

"I'm inspired by the young kids that are sick," she said after the win. "If I can be an inspiration, then I take that. But I feel good. I'm fortunate to be surrounded by so many great people."

The new-look New York Sirens continue to impress in the early stages of the 2024/25 PWHL season, most recently notching a big 4-2 win over Toronto in the the team home opener on Wednesday.

All four of New York's goals came in the second period — the most in a single period all season — and all were the first goals of the season by each scorer.

Finland international Noora Tulus opened the game's scoring with her first PWHL goal, with teammates Emmy Fecteau, Micah Zandee-Hart, and Jaime Bourbonnais following suit. Both Fecteau's goal and team captain Zandee-Hart's were the first of their PWHL careers.

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Sirens rookie Sarah Fillier and teammate Alex Carpenter both assisted on Tulus's game-opening goal, with each booking a point in their fourth straight contest. Fillier remains in the PWHL's lead with two goals and five assists for a total of seven points, while Carpenter is just behind with six points — though her three goals make her the league's scoring leader.

As for the Sceptres, forwards Hannah Miller and former Siren Emma Woods each made a dent in the scoresheet with goals of their own in the third period, but it wasn't quite enough as Toronto failed to complete the comeback.

Last-place Toronto has now allowed their opponents to breach the scoresheet first in each of their 2024/25 matchups, ultimately losing their last three games in regulation.

New York Sirens to face Minnesota Frost in top matchup

New York's shifting fortune highlights the second-season league's rapidly growing parity. With only one loss through their first four games, the Sirens sit in second place to stake an early season claim on "most improved" after finishing last in the PWHL's inaugural season.

Just above New York on the league's table are the Minnesota Frost. The reigning Walter Cup champions are holding strong as the team to beat, but New York has already proved that it's possible after handing Minnesota an overtime 4-3 season-opening loss on December 1st.

The Sirens' will officially take aim at the top of the PWHL table on Sunday, when New York will try to gift Minnesota a second season loss in the league's pre-Christmas closer. This time, the Sirens will have the crowd on their side as the Frost visit New York's home ice.

How to watch New York Sirens vs. Minnesota Frost in PWHL action

The puck is set to drop on New York vs. Minnesota at 12 PM ET on Sunday, with live streaming coverage on YouTube.

Despite being populated by all four No. 1 seeds, Thursday's 2024 NCAA volleyball semifinals served up the bracket's biggest upsets, as heavily favored Nebraska and overall top seed Pitt were sent packing by their conference foes.

In front of 21,726 fans — a new record for college volleyball's postseason — Louisville shocked Pitt with a 3-1 victory before Penn State ousted Nebraska in a five-set instant classic.

Louisville books second national championship ticket

After dropping their first set to Pitt on Thursday night, it seemed the deck was stacked against the Cards, who had already lost twice to the Panthers in the regular season.

However, buoyed by their raucous home crowd, Louisville surged back, sweeping the next three sets to book their first trip to the national championship match since 2022, when they became the first and only ACC team to ever compete in the collegiate final.

As for Pitt, Thursday's loss was just their second all season, and not even 2024 AVCA Player of the Year Olivia Babcock's astounding 33 kills could extend their title chase. Notably, their national semifinal curse continues, with the Panthers now falling in the NCAA tournament's penultimate round for four straight years.

On the other hand, Louisville's victory was a true team effort, with three senior outside hitters — Anna DeBeer, Charitie Luper, and Sofia Maldonado Diaz — leading the offensive charge with 14 kills each.

The Cardinals' roster was also required to step up in unexpected ways. Just two points into the fourth set, Louisville star DeBeer crumbled to the court with an ankle injury and did not return to the match. The visibly shocked Cards looked to freshman Payton Petersen, who made a massive statement by recording two kills and four clutch digs to help seal the win.

"I wanted to do this for her," Petersen said of DeBeer. "She's meant so much to me."

Penn State roars back to top Nebraska

In Thursday's battle between two Big Ten titans, the message was clear: Never count out the Nittany Lions.

After falling behind the Cornhuskers 2-0 in what increasingly looked like an inevitable Nebraska victory, Penn State emerged from the brink of defeat to pull off the first reverse sweep of the Huskers in the NCAA tournament since 1982.

Following a 5-0 run that helped the Nittany Lions stay alive with a third set win, they flipped a 22-16 deficit into a match-point battle that ended the fourth set 28-26 in Penn State's favor. With the match now equalized, Penn State took control in the fifth, holding off Nebraska 15-13 to clinch their first championship trip since winning their seventh title in 2014.

Star Jess Mruzik led the Nittany Lions' charge with a 26-kill, 12-dig double-double, putting together what Nebraska head coach John Cook called "one of the best performances [he's] ever seen by an outside hitter." 

Like Louisville's Petersen, freshmen also stepped up for Penn State, with Izzy Starck recording six key blocks and redshirt freshman Caroline Jurevicius hammering 20 kills against her former team, having transferred from Nebraska in December 2023.

As for the Huskers, their stacked roster showed out, with outside hitter Harper Murray leading the charge with a 20-kill, 15-dig double-double, plus three aces — the most by any player in either match on Thursday. Middle blocker Andi Jackson also had a standout night, putting together a near-errorless performance to finish with 19 kills.

Four-time All-American libero Lexi Rodriguez added program history to Thursday's mix, closing out her NCAA career as the Huskers' all-time digs leader with 1,896.

Sunday's court will make NCAA history

Louisville and Penn State's semifinal victories have guaranteed that Sunday's 44th NCAA volleyball championship match will go down in the history books.

With Dani Busboom Kelly leading the Cardinals and Katie Schumacher-Cawley coaching the Nittany Lions, a woman head coach will lift the national championship trophy for the first time.

Only two women have ever coached their teams into the college volleyball final, with Florida's Mary Wise doing so in 2003 and 2017 before Busboom Kelly followed in 2022.

For context, the last seven Division I basketball trophies came under women head coaches.

The fact that this glass ceiling still exists is partially due to volleyball having less women in head coaching positions than other NCAA sports. Less than half of Division I's 334 teams are led by a woman, while basketball boasts nearly 68% female leadership and softball claims almost 74%.

Busboom Kelly's ACC exceeds that 50% stat, but the Schumacher-Cawley remains one of only six women leading the Big Ten's 18 teams.

Both of Sunday's sideline leaders know what it takes to win the national championship, with Schumacher-Cawley taking the 1999 title while playing for Penn State and Busboom Kelly doing the same with Nebraska in 2006.

Even so, in some ways, this year's title will mean even more, as the coaches pave the way for future generations of volleyball leaders.

"[There’s] just honestly no better feeling than being led by a female because that could be me someday, that could be one of my teammates someday," Mruzik noted. 

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How to watch the 2024 NCAA volleyball championship match

Sunday's final won't just make women's coaching history, it could see Louisville earn the ACC's first-ever NCAA volleyball title. But to do so, the Cardinals, who fell to Penn State 3-0 in early September, will have to deny the Nittany Lions an eighth national championship.

NCAA volleyball will crown its Division I champion in Sunday's 3 PM ET match, with live coverage on ABC.