The last time the Triad High School (Ill.) soccer team lost a game, the world was a much different place. The Knights’ 38-game unbeaten run (37 wins, one draws) stretches back to May 31, 2019.

After the pandemic scuttled the 2020 season before it began, Triad went undefeated last year en route to claiming the Illinois 2A state championship, including a regular-season win over eventual 3A state champ O’Fallon.

The Knights have outscored opponents by 50 goals so far this season, beating teams by an average of more than four goals. They have faced stiff competition, too, besting O’Fallon 1-0 earlier this month.

That stellar run has catapulted Triad to the No. 3 spot in our first spring soccer rankings.

Note that these rankings do not include teams from Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina, as those states are already in or close to their postseasons.

Thank you @TriadHighSchool and @TriadKnights for recognizing both programs tonight! It was great getting the band back together! Reunion tour starts in March 😉 #triadproud pic.twitter.com/f5Y32vAJQt

— Triad Lady Knights Soccer (@TriadGirlsSoc) December 24, 2021

1. Broomfield (Colo.), 9-0

The defending Class 5A state champions last lost May 10, 2019 and have outscored opponents 26-3 this season.

2. Naperville Central (Ill.), 9-0

With multiple future Division I players on the backline, headlined by Missouri-bound Sophia Skoubis and North Dakota commit Sarah McCracken, the Redhawks have not allowed a goal this season.

3. Triad (Ill.), 12-0

The Knights aren’t showing any signs of slowing down with a 13-0 win on Tuesday.

4. South County (Va.), 8-0-1

The Stallions bring back eight starters and 16 players overall from last year’s undefeated state championship squad.

5. Valor Christian (Colo.), 7-0

Oregon commit Ajanae Respass has scored seven goals in six games, and a matchup against No. 1 Broomfield looms on Saturday.

6. Bentonville (Ark.), 13-0-1

The Tigers have already avenged their three losses from last season, including beating the defending 6A champions, Fayetteville.

7. St. Dominic (Mo.), 11-1

The two-time defending state champions are led by senior forward Grace Bindbeutel, who was named the Gatorade Missouri Girls Soccer Player of the Year as a sophomore.

8. Legacy (Colo.), 10-1

The Lightning have to share the spotlight with cross-town rival Broomfield, which beat Legacy earlier this season, but are an impressive team in their own right.

9. Gretna (Neb.), 12-0

The defending Class A state champions have picked up right where they left off, outscoring opponents 67-3 and beating last year’s Class B state champs.

10. Colonial Forge (Va.), 8-0-1

The Eagles opened the season with a tie against last year’s Class 6A runner-up, Patriot, and then beat powerhouse Charles J. Colgan.

11. Fort Zumwalt South (Mo.), 11-0

The reigning Class 3A champions have won all their games by two goals or more.

12. Valley (Iowa), 8-0

Abbey Van Wyngarden is averaging a goal and an assist per game for a team that has won 24 of its last 25 games.

13. Blue Valley West (Kan.), 5-0

Gunning for a fifth consecutive state title, the Jaguars are off to a fast start.

14. Colgan (Va.), 10-1-1

The sole blemishes for the Sharks: a loss to Colonial Forge and a scoreless draw with South County.

15. Broken Arrow (Okla.), 9-1

The Tigers’ only loss was to Georgia powerhouse Westminster.

Free kick to celebrate my birthday! 🥳💪🏻#freshmanszn pic.twitter.com/7hNNShSmC1

— Lyla Marrs (@LylaMarrs) April 13, 2022

16. Bloomfield Hills Marian (Mich.), 4-0

The Mustangs are aiming for their fifth consecutive state title.

17. St. Thomas Aquinas (Kan.), 9-0

The reigning 5A champions have picked up right where they left off last season with a plus-30 goal difference.

18. O’Fallon (Ill.), 10-1

Last year’s 3A state champions have won two straight since losing to Triad.

19. James Island (S.C.), 12-0-2

The Trojans, defending state champions, have won 11 straight after tying two of their first three games.

20. Omaha Marian (Neb.), 11-1

It looks like it will be another banner year for Omaha Marian, which has won 14 state championships and finished runner-up six other times.

21. Muskego (Wis.), 5-0-1

The Warriors have conceded just two goals for an average of 0.33 goals allowed per game.

22. Chapin (S.C.), 17-1

Chapin has yet to be beaten in regulation, with its sole defeat coming on penalty kicks.

23. Yorktown (Va.), 7-1

Yorktown has reeled off seven consecutive wins since a 1-0 loss to South County in the opener.

24. Owasso (Okla.), 12-0

Owasso will face its toughest opponents yet as the regular season winds down, including Broken Arrow.

25. Lyons Township (Ill.), 9-0

Runners-up to O’Fallon last year, Lyons has played lockdown defense so far this season, giving up just one goal.

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.

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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