The defending NWSL champion Washington Spirit have fired coach Kris Ward, the club announced Monday.

The club provided no further context regarding the move, which comes with just six matches remaining in the regular season.

BREAKING: Kris Ward has been relieved of his duties as the @WashSpirit head coach. pic.twitter.com/NYRVqaHpP7

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) August 22, 2022

Ward, 42, stepped into the role of interim head coach last August. He took over for Richie Burke, who was suspended and later fired following an investigation into abuse allegations. Ward ended up leading the club on a run to its first NWSL championship, and he was hired as the permanent head coach in December.

While Ward guided Washington to an NWSL title and then to a Challenge Cup final appearance in the 2022 preseason, the team’s performance since then has been abysmal.

The Spirit have not won a game since their season opener on May 1. Their 17-game winless streak includes nine draws and six losses in the regular season, as well as a draw and a loss to close out the Challenge Cup.

The club sits in 11th place in the 12-team league with 12 points. NJ/NY Gotham FC also has 12 points, but brings up the rear in the standings due to goal differential.

Ward recently called out the conditions at the team’s own home field, calling it an “abomination” that a professional game had to be played at Segra Field. The Spirit split time between Segra, a 5,000-seat stadium in Leesburg, Va., and Audi Field, a 20,000-seat stadium in Washington.

Six Spirit players feature on the USWNT roster, which led to questions about the Spirit’s poor showing.

USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski was asked Monday about the status of the Spirit, and he said USWNT staff were “happy” with Spirit players’ performances for the national team.

“I don’t think they are in the best form that they can be,” he said. “But also we are very happy with how they perform when they are in our environment. We’re monitoring their form and how they are doing in their environment.

“There may be a point where we feel like somebody doesn’t deserve to be in our camp. But as of right now we trust them, they are all good players, they are all young players, players with a lot of potential that we believe will help us be successful going forward.”

The Spirit have not named an interim head coach. Until they do, first-year assistant Angela Salem will oversee practices, the Washington Post reported.

While The Athletic’s Pablo Iglesias Maurer reported “rumblings” that general manager Mark Krikorian could guide the team in its final four games, he is not expected to replace Ward, a source told the Washington Post. Krikorian joined the club following a long career at Florida State that included multiple NCAA titles.

The 2025/26 PWHL season schedule arrived on Wednesday, with the pro hockey league preparing to hit the ice coast-to-coast for the first time ever when its third season begins on Friday, November 21st.

In celebration of the PWHL's two new West Coast teams, the season-opening doubleheader will feature the first-ever game between incoming expansion sides Seattle and Vancouver, who will face off after the back-to-back reigning champion Minnesota Frost takes on the Toronto Sceptres.

"We can't wait for puck drop to see the impact our new and returning players will make, and to deliver a competitive season with even more games for fans to enjoy," said PWHL EVP of hockey operations Jayna Hefford in a league statement.

While each team will again play 30 games on this season's schedule, the increase of the PWHL lineup from six to eight teams means that the 2025/26 campaign will span 120 total games — a 30-game increase over the league's second season.

The 2025/26 PWHL regular season will run through April 25th, though the league will pause play from January 29th to February 25th to allow for the 2026 Winter Olympics, with more than 50 PWHL players expected to compete for international glory in Italy.

How to buy tickets for the 2025/26 PWHL season

While season passes for each of the league's eight teams are available now, single-game tickets to all 120 PWHL clashes will go on sale on October 14th.

All tickets for the 2025/26 season will be available online.

Former San Diego Wave president Jill Ellis is back in the headlines, with the NWSL club's owners — private equity billionaire couple Lauren Leichtman and Arthur Levine — filing a lawsuit against Ellis on Monday for allegedly promising to stay on after the team's 2024 sale, only to resign days later in order to accept a new job as FIFA's Chief Football Officer.

According to the lawsuit, Ellis leveraged her longstanding friendship with Leichtman and Levine to convince them to purchase the San Diego Wave at a then-record price of $120 million, with the Levine Leichtman Family Office calling Ellis "a very attractive asset" that helped push the deal — and its nine-figure sticker price — across the line.

Though Ellis and other negotiators allegedly assured Leichtman and Levine that she would helm the NWSL club "for many years to come," Ellis resigned just two days after the sale closed, reportedly telling the new owners that she had "no intention of continuing any involvement with Wave FC."

Monday's court filing claims that Ellis and other unnamed defendants committed intentional misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, concealment, and false promise, and requests damages as Ellis's departure allegedly resulted in an estimated $40 million in lost revenue.

Ellis's attorney deemed the suit "meritless," calling it retaliation for the former USWNT manager's ongoing pursuit of $1.2 million in deferred payments reportedly guaranteed by her original contract with the San Diego Wave.

As for the team, the NWSL club is staying out of it, releasing a statement saying, "This is a legal matter between the Levine Leichtman Family Office and Jill Ellis. San Diego Wave FC is not a party to this lawsuit."

World No. 3 tennis star Coco Gauff is through to the semifinals in Beijing, downing Germany's No. 66 Eva Lys in straight sets on Thursday to continue her title defense at the 2025 China Open.

With the quarterfinal win, Gauff booked her first WTA semifinals spot in nearly four months, last appearing the late rounds during her 2025 French Open championship run in June.

The 21-year-old overcame several obstacles in her current quest to become the first-ever back-to-back women's champion at the China Open, including a pair of heated three-set battles against Canada's No. 25 Leylah Fernandez and Switzerland's No. 16 Belinda Bencic in the Round of 32 and 16, respectively.

Not all top-ranked WTA stars were as lucky, however, as No. 2 Iga Świątek exited the Round of 16 after ceding a final-set bagel to No. 17 Emma Navarro on Wednesday.

Gauff and Navarro aren't the only US stars showing out on the 2025 China Open court, as No. 4 Amanda Anisimova punched her semis ticket by ousting Italy's No. 8 Jasmine Paolini on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Navarro will meet No. 7 Jessica Pegula in an all-US quarterfinal battle on Friday — guaranteeing that three of the four tournament semifinalists will hail from the US.

Along with her China Open success, Gauff also secured her spot in the 2025 WTA Finals this week, marking her return as the end-of-season tournament's reigning champion while also becoming the youngest player to qualify for the event in four straight years since Maria Sharapova in 2007.

Considered the most prestigious tennis event except for the four Grand Slams, the eight-player 2025 WTA Finals will kick off in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on November 1st, with Świątek and world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka also taking part.

How to watch the 2025 China Open

The 2025 China Open quarterfinals will wrap early Friday morning, with England's No. 81 Sonay Kartal facing Czechia's No. 27 Linda Noskova at 3 AM ET before Navarro takes on Pegula at 6 AM ET.

Friday's winners will contend with each other alongside Gauff and Anisimova in Saturday's semifinals.

All tournament matches will stream live on the Tennis Channel.

Indiana Fever star Kelsey Mitchell appears to be in the clear, with the 29-year-old guard posting an injury update following her early exit in the third quarter of Tuesday's Game 5 semifinal in Las Vegas.

After trainers and medical staff carried Mitchell off of Tuesday's court and sent her to the hospital, reports originally described her condition as extreme lower-body cramping.

Following the Fever star's hospital discharge, Mitchell revealed on Wednesday that doctors diagnosed her injury as a rare muscle condition called rhabdomyolysis.

"I went into sense of numbness/paralyzing feeling with no movement from my lower extremities for up to 5 to 7 seconds," she said. "It was an out of body experience for me and I thank God for covering me at a time like that."

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Often brought on by overexertion, rhabdomyolysis involves muscle tissue breaking down and releasing harmful proteins into the bloodstream, causing muscle stiffness and potentially leading to serious kidney damage.

"My muscles stopped producing positive blood to my bloodstream, my body locked up from a physical standpoint and from there fatigue and cramping settled in," Mitchell explained before relaying that she is now "moving at a slow pace" and expected to make a full recovery.

"I played literally til my wheels fell off," she added. "THANK you for the prayers, love, respect, and support throughout all of this."