Fresh off of a league title with Paris Saint-Germain on Friday, USWNT defender Alana Cook is on her way back to the United States.

OL Reign announced today the permanent transfer of the defender from PSG, having signed Cook through 2023 with a club option for 2024. She had previously played with the Reign during the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup on a short-term loan from the French club. During her stint, she made three appearances for 270 minutes. 

“I’m extremely excited to be coming back to the Reign,” said Cook in a team release. “My first time playing for the Reign over the summer for the Challenge Cup, I really enjoyed myself. The group was amazing, staff and players alike, so I’m just very excited to be getting back in with the group and hopefully get going pretty quickly and get aligned with the goals of the club and the goals of the team.” 

With PSG, Cook made 21 league appearances for 1,630 minutes as well as nine UEFA Champions League appearances, including scoring a goal against eventual tournament champions FC Barcelona. 

Before making her way to Washington, Cook will travel to Houston where she will compete with the USWNT in their Summer Series friendlies against Portugal, Jamaica and Nigeria. There she’ll get a chance to play alongside new club teammates Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle while trying to make the final 18-player Olympic roster.

Wild card entrant Alexandra Eala of the Philippines continued her epic 2025 Miami Open run on Wednesday, as the world No. 140 took down No. 2 Iga Świątek in a 6-2, 7-5 straight-set stunner.

Without massive power as part of her game, the 19-year-old leaned hard on her fast feet and intelligent shot-making, earning 43 of her 77 points from serve returns.

"My coach told me to run, to go for every ball, to take all the opportunities I can because a five-time [Grand] Slam champion is not going to give you the win," said Eala.

At the same time that Eala was disrupting Świątek's rhythm, the tournament's defending champion struggled with her serve and ultimately committed 32 unforced errors in the loss.

"She was really aggressive and she kept her focus, and some of these shots were pretty out of nowhere," commented Świątek after the match, as she joined a growing list of big-name departures from the Florida competition.

Eala emblazons her name into Filipina sports history

As one of the sport's top junior prospects, Eala won the girls' doubles title at both the 2020 Australian Open and 2021 French Open, before taking the girls' singles championship at the 2022 US Open.

Even so, "being a successful junior doesn’t mean you are going to be a successful professional," Eala acknowledged.

Her dramatic Miami Open run begs to differ, as Eala dismissed two other Grand Slam winners from the tournament en route to her Wednesday’s quarterfinal date with Świątek.

First, she sent Latvia's No. 25 Jeļena Ostapenko — the 2017 French Open winner packing in Friday's Round of 64, then dispatched 2025 Australian Open champ No. 5 Madison Keys in Sunday's Round of 32 — both in just two sets.

Her trio of Miami Open wins over Top-30 players now counts as the total tally for her entire country, with Eala also becoming the first-ever Filipina to advance to a WTA semifinal.

With the WTA's next rankings updates, she will also become the first player from the Philippines to crack into the Top 100 — a mark Eala will launch past as her victory over Świątek already guarantees her at least a No. 75 ranking.

"I'm just in disbelief right now," Eala said in her on-court interview. "I'm so happy, and so blessed to be able to compete with such a player on this stage."

How to watch Alexandra Eala in the 2025 Miami Open semifinals

The Filipina teen's next hurdle in her historic run is US star No. 4 Jessica Pegula, who she'll face at 8:30 PM ET on Thursday, with a Saturday championship date against world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka guaranteed for the victor.

Thursday's semifinal between Eala and Pegula will air live on The Tennis Channel.

With just 16 teams remaining in this year's March Madness tournament, NCAA programs that have fallen from contention have athletes jumping into the transfer portal, which opened to all college basketball players on Monday.

Multiple players are now seeking to make an offseason move, including this season's Division I leading scorer, Florida State junior guard Ta'Niyah Latson.

After averaging 25.2 points per game throughout her 2024/25 campaign, the National Player of the Year semifinalist jumped into the portal on Thursday, three days after the No. 6-seed Seminoles fell 101-71 to No. 3-seed LSU in Monday's second round.

The All-ACC standout is exploring her transfer options — and the potential NIL windfall a move could bring her — though remaining at Florida State is reportedly still very much on the table.

Another top prospect eyeing an exit is Cotie McMahon, who joined the transfer race on Wednesday following her No. 4-seed Ohio State's 82-67 second-round March Madness loss to No. 5-seed Tennessee.

The 2023 Big Ten Freshman of the Year and two-time All-Big Ten First Team selectee looks to carry her career-best 16.5 points per game average elsewhere for her final year of collegiate eligibility.

More top teams see players take to the transfer portal

Other freshly eliminated programs have also seen portal movement, with players from No. 4-seed Kentucky, No. 7-seed Louisville, and No. 8-seed Georgia Tech all testing the transfer waters.

Notably, the program with the most athletes fleeing is No. 9-seed Indiana, who has seen five of their nine non-graduating players enter the portal in the last three days — including every Hoosier who earned minutes off the bench in the team's two March Madness matchups.

With athletes weighing everything from playing time to NIL paydays to postseason potential, the current NCAA landscape boasts multiple factors motivating decisions to either jump ship or weather the storm.

As the 2025 March Madness tournament rolls on, expect even bigger college basketball names to throw their hats into the transfer ring, as players seek out top programs ahead of the 2025/26 NCAA season.

After a planned seven-week break from the LPGA Tour, world No. 1 golfer Nelly Korda is back in action, with the US star beginning her 2024 title defense at the 2025 Ford Championship on Thursday afternoon.

While last year’s inaugural event saw Korda in the midst of a historic five-tournament winning streak, the 26-year-old has been more strategic with her participation this year, sitting out the tour’s recent Asia swing after kicking off her 2025 campaign with two Top 10 finishes.

"I mean, it’s always nice to take time off where you’re not injured and you're kind of trying to hopefully become better and catch up on maybe some lost time," she told Golfweek on Wednesday.

Incorporating rest is a strategy world No. 3 Lydia Ko is also employing this year, as the New Zealander travels to the Phoenix, Arizona, event after a three-week break of her own. Ko is also packing winning momentum in her golf bag this weekend, having snagged her 23rd career title at the 2025 HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore on March 2nd.

Joining Korda and Ko on this weekend's Ford Championship links are all 10 of the LPGA's top-ranked golfers, who will be competing together for the first time this year at the event.

That means Australia's world No. 5 Hannah Green, the US star No. 6 Lilia Vu, and South Korea standout No. 8 Jin Young Ko will all be competing for a chunk of the $2.25 million purse.

Top LPGA golfers take aim at low-scoring history

With Phoenix's warm climate known for producing low golf scores, this weekend's at the 2025 Ford Championship athletes will also take a swing at history by chasing the near-impossible single-round score of 59.

"That's kind of like the trend of golf here in Arizona," said Korda about the area's ideal setting for the sport. "I mean, the weather is usually perfect. The grass is usually perfect as well. So that all sets up for low scoring ability, and then it's hot, so it flies really far. So the par 5s are pretty reachable."

Korda once came close to the elusive score during her 2021 Olympic gold medal-winning run in Tokyo, though a few extra late swings saw her finish the round at 62.

"I came pretty close at the Olympics, then I doubled my last one," she explained. "It was like starting to creep into my head and I was like, yeah, I don't even think about it, no."

If any of this weekend's LPGA stars do snag a sub-60 round, they'll become just the second LPGA player to ever do so, joining former pro Annika Sörenstam, whose historic 59 came in Phoenix in 2001.

How to watch Nelly Korda at the 2025 Ford Championship

Running through Sunday's fourth and final round, the 2025 Ford Championship tees off on Thursday, with streaming coverage beginning at 6 PM ET and broadcast coverage airing at 7 PM ET.

All rounds of the tournament will air on the Golf Channel.

Viewership stats from March Madness are in, with the first two rounds of the 2024/25 NCAA women’s basketball tournament ranking as ESPN’s second most-watched on record across all platforms.

Trailing only 2024’s Caitlin Clark-fueled historic postseason, 2025’s slate of 32 first-round games averaged a 43% increase over 2023's edition, with ABC enjoying its second-highest first-round viewership ever.

ABC's first-round average of 1 million fans came in part because 1.1 million tuned into No. 2-seed UConn's 103-34 thrashing of No. 15-seed Arkansas State last Saturday, securing the network it's third-highest single-game first-round viewership on record.

In a non-championship round that saw the highest average margin of victory in March Madness history — a differential well over 26 points — last weekend's first round also gave ESPN its second-best viewership stats since 2008.

March Madness second round scores even higher

As the competition's temperature rose in last weekend's second round, so too did viewership, with ESPN's platforms snagging a 60% overall boost over the same round in 2023, earning an average of nearly 1 million viewers across the 16 games.

Yet again, the Huskies led the charge, with UConn's 91-57 blowout win over No. 10-seed South Dakota State drawing an average of 1.7 million fans to ESPN on Monday night — an audience large enough to rank as the fifth most-viewed second-round game in history.

Joining UConn's victory in the NCAA tournament's Top 10 most-watched second-round games are No. 1-seed South Carolina's 64-53 Sunday win over No. 9-seed Indiana and No. 1-seed USC's 96-59 defeat of No. 9-seed Mississippi State on Monday.

The defending national champion Gamecocks' second March Madness matchup jumped into that elite echelon by averaging 1.4 million viewers on ABC, with the Trojans's heartbreaking yet heroic win garnering 1.3 million average fans on ESPN.

All in all, while last year’s historic peaks won’t be easy to replicate, this year’s numbers indicate consistent year-after-year growth across a wider variety of teams — signaling that this season’s strength lies in its breadth of star power, as both superstars and unique storylines compete in every bracket quadrant.