U.S of HER WAY
What’s happening in American sport.
BASKETBALL
Unrivaled
Rose BC, on the back of a huge performance from US star Chelsea Gray, punched their ticket for Tuesday morning’s championship game with a win over Laces BC. Rose were missing the league’s inaugural Defensive Player of the Year Angel Reese. That has opened the door for Naz Hillmon, a star import of the past two WNBL seasons, to play a role with Rose.
They will play Vinyl BC for the title. Vinyl, who finished fourth in the regular season, played the first placed Lunar Owls, who had lost just once during the 14 game season. Led by the recently crowned league MVP Napheesa Collier, Lunar Owls took a 10pt lead into the final break, meaning they needed just 11pts to win the game, while Lynx needed 21.
But Vinyl closed the gap and timed their run perfectly, with former WNBL MVP Jordin Canada making some crucial shots on her way to 20pts, before 3x3 Olympian Dearica Hamby scored the winning basket as Vinyl won by a solitary point.
Rose and Vinyl will meet for the title on Tuesday morning AEDT, and there’s a guarantee of a WNBL import winner, with the now defunct Melbourne Boomers’ two imports from 2023-24 - Jordin Canada and Naz Hillmon - facing off on opposite sides as they look to make history.
College
March Madness is here and the brackets were set on Monday to decide the next national champion of women’s basketball.
The four top seeds in the various brackets are: UCLA (Spokane 1), USC (Spokane 4), South Carolina (Birmingham 2) and Texas (Birmingham 3).
Juju Watkins and Kiki Iriafen’s USC secured number one above Paige Buecker’s UConn.
Among some of the Aussies, Georgia Amoore’s Kentucky will play Liberty, Last-Tear Poa and LSU drew San Diego State, and Agnes Emma-Nnopu’s second seeded TCU are up against FDU.
FOOTBALL
NWSL
The opening round of the NWSL started with a bang over the weekend, with defending champions Orlando Pride making a statement. Brazilian legend Marta and her team poured on six goals against Chicago, with Barbra Banda scoring a double.
From a Matildas perspective, Aussie duo Mackenzie Arnold and Katelyn Torpey both started in Portland Thorns’ first up loss, Cortnee Vine came off the bench for North Carolina Courage in their draw, while Alanna Kennedy started in the midfield for Angel City in her club debut.
Kennedy’s Angel City teammate, USWNT star Sydney Leroux announced on the weekend that she will be taking a mental health break, with no timeline on her return to the game.
TENNIS
Russian teen Mirra Andreeva (pictured below) played an incredible two weeks of tennis in California to claim the unofficial fifth grand slam, defeating World number one Aryna Sabalenka in the final on Monday morning. Mirra also defeated world number two Iga Swiatek in the semis. Having won Dubai a couple of weeks earlier, the 17 year old has now claimed two WTA 1000 events in quick succession, having never won one before February. Andreeva is just the third player to defeated both the World number 1 and 2 players in the same event, the other two being Steffi Graf and Serena Williams.
The WTA tour now moves from the west coast to the east, with the Miami Open hosting the world’s best players. For the Australians, Ajla Tomjlanovic is listed in the main draw, while Kim Birrell and Maya Joint won their first Qualifying matches.
RUGBY UNION
The new Women’s Elite Rugby competition kicks off this weekend, with New York exiles to host the first ever match against Boston Banshees on Saturday afternoon US time. The following day Chicago Tempest will take on TC Gemini.
ICE HOCKEY
PWHL
Aside from the action off the court, the league celebrated a monumental milestone this morning, with the New York v Minnesota clash marking 1 million fans who have attended matches. It’s a massive achievement for a league in its second season which has only been running since January 2024.
On the ice, during the week top placed Montreal suffered an upset loss to bottom placed New York, while Boston had a big 5-2 win over Ottawa to keep the race for first place alive.
VOLLEYBALL
Pro Volleyball Federation
Omaha Supernovas had two wins during the week, including one over Orlando Valkyries, which whom they share top spot.
Bottom placed Columbus Fury had a much needed win over Vegas Thrill, dominating 3 sets to nil.
COLLEGE SPORT
Athletics - NCAA Indoor Championships
Ahead of next week’s World Indoor Championships, the best college athletes were in action over the weekend.
Arkansas’ Isabella Whittaker certainly made a statement, winning the 400m in the second fastest time in history in that event.
Of the Aussies, Hayley Kitching didn’t make it out of her heat in the 800m, while Amy Bunnage was 14th in the 3000m but was unable to finish the 5000m.