STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — After amassing a 64-14 record across four seasons at St. Joseph’s, Hannah Prince on Tuesday was named the head field hockey coach at Penn State.
Prince, 33, had served as the Hawks’ head coach since 2022. St. Joe’s made the NCAA Tournament in each of her four seasons — success that included two Atlantic 10 regular-season titles and four A-10 tournament titles. In 2024, the Hawks won a program-record 20 games and reached the NCAA championship game, a first in any team sport in school history.
“I am deeply grateful to Saint Joseph’s University and to Vice President and Director of Athletics Jill Bodensteiner for trusting me with the opportunity to lead the field hockey program on Hawk Hill over the past four seasons,” Prince said Tuesday in a statement. “The student-athletes are truly the heart of this program. This team means more to me than I can put into words, and it has been an honor to coach such a resilient, kind, and committed group. I will miss them tremendously and will always be proud to be a Hawk. I wish the program nothing but continued success in its next chapter.”
Following the historic 2024 campaign, Prince and her staff were named the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Mid-Atlantic Region Coaching Staff of the Year. She then led the team to its fifth straight A-10 tournament title and another NCAA Tournament, where St. Joe’s beat Drexel before falling to North Carolina.
“I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to lead the Penn State field hockey program,” Prince said. “ … I am honored to join an athletic department with such a strong tradition of success and pride. I am excited to work with our field hockey student-athletes, bringing my passion for the game every day as we uphold the values of Penn State.”
Prince’s coaching career, which began at New Hampshire in 2015, includes stops as an assistant at St. Joe’s and Princeton and later as an associate head coach at Louisville.
Before coaching, Prince was a four-year starter at Massachusetts, where she won three A-10 titles. She was named NFHCA first-team all-region and first-team all-conference and also has represented the United States in international competition, winning a gold medal at the 2017 Pan American Cup.
Prince’s Hawks teams were mainstays in the NCAA Tournament and in the NFHCA rankings. Now, she’ll look to bring the Nittany Lions back to contention. They last reached the NCAA Tournament in 2022 and finished with a 7-10 record in 2025.
“Nittany Lion Field Hockey has a proud and storied tradition, and I am ready to pour my passion and energy into building a program that competes for championships,” Prince said.
NEW YORK — The WNBA and its players’ union agreed to a moratorium for league business Monday.
The moratorium, which was confirmed by the league, was necessary because the sides failed to reach a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement or an extension of the current one by Friday night’s deadline.
The sides are continuing to negotiate in good faith on a new CBA and are far apart on salaries and revenue sharing.
The moratorium will halt the initial stages of free agency in which teams would seek to deliver qualifying offers and franchise tag designations to players.
Before the moratorium, the WNBA, under U.S. labor law, had a status-quo obligation to allow teams to send out qualifying offers under the expired CBA agreement. Sunday was the first day that teams would have sent out offers to players.
While the moratorium makes sense for both sides, they are still far apart on key issues.
The league’s most recent offer last month would guarantee a maximum base salary of $1 million in 2026 that could reach $1.3 million through revenue sharing. That’s up from the current $249,000 and could grow to nearly $2 million over the life of the agreement, a person familiar with the negotiations told the AP earlier this month. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.
The moratorium will halt the initial stages of free agency in which teams would seek to deliver qualifying offers and franchise tag designations to players.
Under the league’s proposal, players would receive in excess of 70% of net revenue — though that would be their take of the profits after expenses are paid. Those expenses would include upgraded facilities, charter flights, five-star hotels, medical services, security and arenas.
The average salary in 2026 would be more than $530,000, up from its current $120,000, and grow to more than $770,000 over the life of the agreement. The minimum salary would grow from its current $67,000 to approximately $250,000 in the first year, the person told the AP.
The proposal would also financially pay star young players like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers, who are all still on their rookie contracts, nearly double the league minimum.
Revenue sharing is one of the major sticking points in the negotiations.
The union’s counter proposal to the league would give players around 30% of the gross revenue. The player’s percentage would be from money generated before expenses for the first year and teams would have a $10.5 million salary cap to sign players. Under the union’s proposal, the revenue sharing percent would go up slightly each year.
U.S. women’s soccer team captain Lindsey Heaps will join NWSL expansion team Denver Summit in June, ending a four-year tenure at France’s OL Lyonnes to move to her hometown’s new club.
The move had been speculated about on both sides of the Atlantic for some time, but was not finalized until now. Heaps will depart OL at the end of the ongoing European season, in which she will almost certainly win a fourth French league title and could add a second Champions League crown.
From the moment the Denver team was announced last January, the Golden, Colo., native knew she wanted to play there someday.
“One thing I wanted to do was kind of take the Denver aspect out of it, and really look at it from a football perspective — what the ownership was doing and what we were trying to create here at Denver Summit,” Heaps said Monday. “As hard as it was to to take the Denver and the home aspect out, it was something that was very intriguing to me. And it aligned with everything that I wanted to do, and I wanted it to be the right move for my career.”
Once Heaps was satisfied with that, the emotional part was easy. Along with being closer to her husband, San Diego FC sporting director Tyler Heaps, she’ll get to play in front of her parents, the rest of her family, and many friends in Denver far more often than she can now.
“It was amazing once it finally became real,” she said. “The feeling of going and being able to play in my home state, and for such an incredible community, and also a club that just wants to do things in the right way — I’m very, very thankful and I’m just excited to get going.”
She later added: “Knowing that I could play in my home state with my family and friends close by, obviously closer to my husband as well, it is really hard to pass up that opportunity with everything being said.”
‘Always seek a new challenge’
She previously played in the NWSL from 2016 to 2021 with the Portland Thorns, after starting her career with Paris Saint-Germain in 2012 — famously becoming the first major American women’s soccer prospect to spurn college as a teen.
Lindsey Heaps, a native of suburban Denver, will come home to join Denver Summit FC.
Heaps won the 2017 NWSL championship and two regular-season titles with the Thorns, and with the U.S. won the 2019 World Cup and 2024 Olympics. Her 170 U.S. caps rank 19th all-time, tied with Carla Overbeck.
The timing of the announcement will be noted by fans who have a close eye on the battle between the NWSL and European clubs for U.S. stars. Sam Coffey still seems to be on the cusp of moving to Manchester City, and the former Penn State star was at the team’s home game Sunday.
Trinity Rodman’s future, meanwhile, remains undecided. The NWSL’s “High Impact Player” (HIP) provision designed to keep her in the league remains contentious, and the NWSL Players Association wants to take the league to arbitration over it.
It was no surprise that the subject came up again Monday.
Trinity Rodman’s uncertain future is the biggest story in the women’s soccer world right now.
“I think the most important thing I want to put out there is, with other national team players, younger players, my message is always: one, you want to do the right thing for you,” Heaps said. “But also, that you should always seek a new challenge. I always give the advice that I think it is so special to go play in a different environment, in a different culture.”
She also applied the principle to players from European nations who’ve come to the NWSL, such as the San Diego Wave’s French veterans Kenza Dali and Delphine Cascarino. Heaps has played with both over the years.
“I think it is so special to see how they’re thriving and doing so well,” she said.
The HIP controversy
Heaps qualifies for HIP status, which means she can be paid beyond the league’s salary limits. Denver GM Curt Johnson said the team had wanted to sign Heaps no matter what and for some time, but will use the status on Heaps’ contract if it stays in place.
Lindsey Heaps at work with the U.S. women’s national team when it came to Chester in October.
“This was something that predated the HIP rule,” he said. “Our intention was to sign Lindsey, then the HIP rule came along.”
The rule doesn’t take effect until July 1, which puts teams in the awkward position of having to sign contracts now that are backloaded to incorporate the status — while also waiting to see how the arbitration plays out.
Each team will have a pot of $1 million to spend beyond the salary cap on players who qualify. There is no limit on how many players per team can be given the status, but there is a natural limit on how many ways it makes sense to divide the cash.
“When a player is assigned the HIP category, the salary cap charge is in the salary cap, and then there’s a pool of money outside the salary cap, is how it works,” Johnson said. “But we’re moving forward with the assumption that this will fall in the HIP category, and hopefully we’re moving on to finding our next player that fits that category.”
He deferred the rest to the league. A spokesperson there confirmed how Johnson described things, and declined further comment.
On Sunday, South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito was named to the United States’ 2026 Winter Olympic Team headed to Italy.
The U.S. contingent was announced during Making the Team: Presented by Xfinity live on NBC and Peacock. This was the first time the figure skating team was named live on television, in the same manner as gymnastics historically is.
Levito was announced by 1960 Olympic champion Carol Heiss Jenkins before she skated last year’s beautiful Moon River short program.
Joining Levito on the team are Amber Glenn, 26, of Plano, Texas, and Alysa Liu, 20, of Oakland, Calif.
All three skated clean programs in the short and the free skate, or long program. Glenn won both segments, capturing her third straight national title.
“It was an absolutely epic evening of skating,” two-time Olympian and commentator Johnny Weir said Saturday on NBC. “Last night all three women made me believe there could be a chance for each of them to stand on that [Olympic] podium.”
Isabeau Levito performs during the women’s free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis. She won the bronze medal.
Liu, the silver medalist, is a 2022 Olympian who retired from skating shortly after those Games. She made a big splash by returning to the ice last year, winning the world championships in her first season back.
The three are good friends, which is a change from the win-at-any-cost rivalries of the past. That era was punctuated by the 1994 Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding matchup at the U.S. Championships in Detroit, when Harding’s ex-husband plotted to have Kerrigan hit in the knee.
On Friday night, Levito and Liu watched and cheered on Glenn, the last to skate, and the three celebrated together in the kiss and cry, where skaters and their coaches wait to receive scores, after Glenn’s win was confirmed.
But this time is extra special, because Milan is the hometown of her mother, Chiara Garberi, and where her grandmother and other relatives still live. They will be able to watch her compete next month, Levito said in the news conference Friday night.
South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito was announced as an Olympian on Sunday. She skated during the “Making Team USA” performance following the announcement.
Even before nationals began, the Olympic spots were Levito, Glenn, and Liu’s to lose. The three had been dominating the women’s event for the last two years, the time period U.S. Figure Skating takes into account when selecting a team.
But none gave in to the pressure.
All said they are more excited than nervous about the Olympics.
“I am just so excited and stoked about the [Olympic] village,” Levito said at Friday night’s news conference, when their spots were inevitable but not official. “I just know it’ll be the time of my life. I don’t even think I’m going to be worried about the reason I’m there for. That’s when I thrive best, when I’m distracted.”
The rest of the Olympic figure skating team includes: Ilia Malinin, Maxim Naumov, and Andrew Torgashev in the men’s event; Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea and Emily Chan and Spencer Akira Howe in the pairs event; and Madison Chock and Evan Bates, Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik, and Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko in the ice dance event.
Pairs was the biggest question mark because two of the U.S. medalists are not U.S. citizens. They are Alisa Efimova, who won nationals with Misha Mitrofanov, and Daniil Parkman, who, with Katie McBeath, won the bronze medal. Both of those pairs were named to the teams going to the Four Continents Championships and the World Championships, which don’t require skaters to be citizens of the countries they represent.
Although some of Lindsey Heaps’ games in Europe aren’t easy for American fans to watch, the chances that do come along show why she’s so comfortable there.
The 31-year-old midfielder plays for her club, France’s OL Lyonnes, as more of a facilitator than the do-it-all general she’s often been cast as with the United States — not just by fans, but by coaches over the years.
It’s easy to focus on Heaps not scoring, especially given that she started her career as a forward before moving into midfield. But her last game for OL, against Spain’s Atlético Madrid in the Champions League, showed a different side of Heaps.
She completed 42 of 44 passes that night, continuing a pace of a 90% pass completion rate in Champions League games this season, and had eight defensive recoveries. The players around her did most of the creating, especially midfielder Melchie Dumornay and wingers Tabitha Chawinga and Kadidiatou Diani.
Any team would dream of having OL’s squad of superstars. The club was the standard-bearer in Europe long before American businesswoman Michelle Kang bought it in 2023 (she also owns the NWSL’s Washington Spirit and England’s London City Lionesses), and it has remained at that level.
No team in France comes close to OL’s 18 league titles, all won in the last 19 years — as in, every season except one. Nor is any team in Europe close to OL’s eight Champions League triumphs from 2011-22, even though Barcelona is the continent’s top team right now.
Heaps has three league winners’ medals and one from the European Cup, and could add to both totals this season. OL is running away with the French league, and earned a round-of-16 bye in the Champions League thanks to an unbeaten group stage run.
“It’s unbelievable, I think this year especially,” she told The Inquirer. “New coach, new culture a bit, standards, competitiveness. The training is unbelievable in everything that we’re doing, and obviously you see it on the pitch as well. But we take each game at a time, and we just keep rolling.”
Lindsey Heaps (left) on the ball during last month’s OL Lyonnes-Atlético Madrid game in the UEFA women’s Champions League.
A high value on high standards
That new coach is a familiar name: Jonatan Giráldez, who joined OL from the Washington Spirit in the summer. It was a controversial move, since Kang was accused of taking from one of her teams to boost another.
But that claim is above Heaps’ pay grade.
“Honestly, I think I speak for everyone on the team: he is such a quality coach,” Heaps said. “You just learn so much, and even for me, I want to continue learning, or looking at the game in a different way, or tactical adjustments, or things like that. … He wants us to win so badly, and he wants us to do so well as players, and he cares about us — he cares about how we do and how we perform, but also us as people.”
“A very, very important player,” he said of Heaps. “Her role on the field is beyond the tactical, because she’s able to understand a lot of situations on the field — when the team has the ball, when the team doesn’t have the ball. … I’m very happy to have her in the team.”
Jonatan Giráldez on the sideline at Subaru Park when the Washington Spirit played a game there in 2024.
Heaps mentioned the team’s “training environment” a few times in the interview, praising the high standards there. That counts for a lot, especially among U.S. national team stalwarts.
For lack of a better way to put it, the top American players have long relished getting their butts kicked on a daily basis, whether by the NWSL’s competitive balance or the famed ferocity of U.S. practices.
Heaps is the latest in a lineage from Mia Hamm through Abby Wambach, Heather O’Reilly, Julie Ertz, and Carli Lloyd, all of whom spoke just as bluntly (and sometimes more so). Now Heaps wants to pass it on to a new era.
She gets to do that in Lyon, not just with the national team. The club’s squad includes 22-year-old American midfielder Korbin Shrader and 18-year-old Lily Yohannes, the latter of whom is starting to meet the hype as a generational talent.
Lily Yohannes (center) at work with the U.S. women’s soccer team in Chester in October.
‘The best midfielder in the world soon’
Unfortunately, Yohannes hasn’t gotten to play much in the Champions League this season. She didn’t play at all against Atlético Madrid, where the tactical matchup would have been a great lesson.
Heaps also wanted that, but she preached patience.
“We all need to remember that she’s 18 years old,” she said. “At the end of the day, she needs to keep doing her thing, because she’s been playing so well — she’s been playing well with the national team, she’s training well here. And like I said before, it is just such a competitive environment.”
But Heaps is not immune to the buzz around Yohannes, and didn’t mind indulging in some.
“I know these games mean a lot for her, but her ceiling is so, so high,” she said. “I just said to her that no matter what, in a few years from now, you’re going to remember games like this that maybe you don’t come into. But you’re going to be a starting player and a non-stop player, and I believe the best midfielder in the world soon to come.”
Yohannes has played her entire career in Europe, and Heaps has played eight of her 14 professional years there. The American contingent across the Atlantic keeps growing, with Penn State product Sam Coffey soon to join it at England’s Manchester City.
Will playing overseas fit other Americans as well as it does Heaps? The question is always on the table, but it’s in bright lights above Trinity Rodman’s head right now. Her standoff with the NWSL over getting paid what she’s worth — with Kang on her side, trying to structure a contract within the league’s salary rules — has naturally led to European suitors chasing her.
It might also reveal a truth that Europe’s chattering class doesn’t like admitting. Very few European clubs are truly at a high enough level to be right for elite U.S. talents.
Lyon is one for sure, but there would be an even bigger uproar if Rodman moves there. Barcelona is another, but the Spanish giants don’t sign Americans. Manchester City, Arsenal, and Chelsea measure up in England, but Chelsea’s roster looks too loaded to have room for Rodman right now.
Trinity Rodman’s uncertain future is the biggest story in the women’s soccer world right now.
‘Do what’s best for her’
Beyond them? Paris Saint-Germain was in that class, but has fallen hard this year. Germany’s Wolfsburg is far from its past glories, and Bayern Munich still has a ways to rise. Real Madrid and Manchester United have stars, but their ownerships aren’t trusted to build truly top programs.
The highest tier is really just the first five clubs you read above, and that’s not much.
Then add in Rodman’s huge commercial impact, which would be diminished going abroad — less so in England, but still notably.
Many clubs outside England also have poor attendances. OL averages just over 5,000 in a 59,000-seat stadium despite all its stars. PSG plays almost all its French league games at a 1,500-seat field within the bigger club’s practice facilities, far out in the Paris suburbs. Both are a far cry from the 15,259 that Washington averaged this year, or the even bigger crowds in Los Angeles and Portland.
Not for nothing, then, did U.S. legend Tobin Heath — who played for PSG, Manchester United and Arsenal amid many years in American leagues — recently say Rodman should stay in the NWSL.
Tobin heath during her playing days with Manchester United in 2020.
“I advise a lot on players going or staying, and 95% of the time, I will usually say go,” she said in an interview on fellow former superstar Megan Rapinoe’s podcast. “I think that her game will be 1000% louder here. I think she can be the face of the league.”
At the time Heaps was asked, the NWSL was still putting together its new High Impact Player rule. She had heard about it, but the details hadn’t all been published yet — including the controversial rules on how players qualify. So Heaps chose her words carefully, but she had plenty of them.
“I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” she said, tying in what she has seen over the years from MLS’s Designated Player rule. (Her husband Tyler is San Diego FC’s sporting director.). “If you want some of the best players in the world to come and play in the NWSL, some things do have to change. … We want to continue growing the league. So, what’s the best way of doing that? We’ve got to get the best players there.”
It was also easy to think Rodman’s situation would be settled by now. Heaps wondered if it might not just come down to salary, but she encouraged Rodman to do what she feels is right.
“Trinity needs to do what’s best for her,” Heaps said. “The money is kind of on the side of it — obviously, that’s a big thing for us professionals. But Trinity, she’s going to make the decision that’s best for her, and I think that’s the most important.”
Now it’s just a matter of dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s. The team going to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, won’t be announced until Sunday. But South Jersey figure skater Isabeau Levito did everything necessary to make the team.
Levito, 18, placed second in the free skate and third overall Friday night at the 2026 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis, after placing third in Wednesday night’s short program. But this was by no means any failure on her part. The top five women skated clean programs on both days.
At the end of the evening, Amber Glenn won her third consecutive national title, landing triple axels in both programs. Alysa Liu, the 2025 world champion and a two-time national champion, won silver. Two-time national champion Bradie Tennell placed fourth, which in the United States also is a medal, the pewter.
Levito, who lives and trains in Mount Laurel, charmed in both of her programs, set to Italian music. Friday’s long program was a light but dramatic piece, to “Cinema Paradiso” by Ennio Morricone. Every note was accentuated and every toe pointed.
She opened with a triple flip-triple toe combination and moved through the program without missing a beat. She pumped her fist after she finished skating.
Isabeau Levito skates in the women’s free skate at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis. She won the bronze medal.
“She truly is a ballerina, but what I love most about Isabeau is that there is iron below; there is grit,” NBC commentator and 1998 Olympic champion Tara Lipinski said. (Lipinski, like Levito, was born in Philadelphia.)
“I can’t wait to see that on Olympic ice,” added NBC’s other commentator, two-time Olympian Johnny Weir. (Weir is from Coatesville.)
In the end, Levito earned 148.73 points in the free skate and 224.45 points overall. Her overall score is a new personal best.
“I feel like [my free skate] reflected the training I put in,” Levito said in a news conference after the competition. “It was my first time competing in an Olympic year being age eligible for the Olympics.”
Levito, Glenn, and Liu are expected to be the women’s team representing the United States in Milan — which also is Levito’s mother’s hometown and where her grandmother and other relatives still live. Levito understands and speaks Italian.
Silver medalist Alysa Liu (left), gold medalist Amber Glenn, bronze medalist Isabeau Levito, and fourth-place finisher Bradie Tennell pose with their medals after the women’s free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in St. Louis.
Unlike other sports, the national championships are not an Olympic qualifier. It is the last of a series of events over two years that are considered in the equation that determines the team.
Tessa Janecke has dominated college hockey since arriving at Penn State in 2022.
Following a 47-point rookie campaign, Janecke earned the College Hockey America conference’s Freshman of the Year award. In the last two seasons, she was named a second team All-American.
And Friday of last week, the senior became the first Penn State player named to the United States Olympic women’s ice hockey team. The Winter Games, in Milan, Italy, have opening ceremonies on Feb. 6, though the team’s first game is Feb. 5.
In a collegiate career filled with stellar goals and nearly 100 wins, being a member of Team USA marked a monumental achievement for the Orangeville, Ill., native — one she had envisioned since the first time she put on skates.
“[Making the Olympic team] was always my dream,” Janecke said. “Going to college games and seeing those players on national teams, players I’m now playing with, I think [it shows] that no dream is ever too big if you work hard for it.”
Tessa's headed to Milan!
She becomes the first Nittany Lion ever to be named to the USA Women's Ice Hockey Olympic roster🇺🇸
— Penn State Women’s Hockey (@PennStateWHKY) January 2, 2026
Janecke said she was “relieved” when she found out that she made the team. She gave the news to her parents and teammates, phone calls she labeled as “very cool moments” with those who had made her achievement possible.
The 5-foot-8 forward made her USA Hockey debut in 2022, winning a silver medal at the International Ice Hockey Federation under-18 Women’s World Championships. She later won two gold medals and a silver medal across three appearances at the IIHF World Championships.
In 38 appearances with the U.S. senior national squad, Janecke has scored 13 goals and added 15 assists. Her highlight moment came this past April, when she scored the game-winning overtime goal to give the United States a 4-3 victory over Canada and secure a gold medal at the IIHF World Championships.
Bottom line: Janecke is no stranger to the international stage. And in Milan, she is eager to add another gold medal to her collection.
“Everything is going to come down to the gold medal game,” Janecke said. “So cutting out noise and focusing on the people in the locker room is going to be what’s most important.”
In four seasons at Penn State, Janecke has tallied 181 points, with 75 goals and 106 assists, all the best in program history, which began play on the Division I level in the 2012-2013 season. As a junior, she became the university’s all-time points leader, setting the record for both the men’s and women’s programs.
Halfway through Janecke’s senior campaign, her trophy case is packed.
Tessa now owns the record for both the most career goals (75) and career assists (106) in program history
— Penn State Women’s Hockey (@PennStateWHKY) January 3, 2026
She is a two-time Atlantic Hockey America Player and Forward of the Year and a two-time All-AHA first team selection. In Janecke’s four seasons at State College, Penn State is 98-31-6 with three NCAA Tournament appearances.
Now in Italy, she’s looking forward to representing something more.
“It’s always an honor to throw on your flag, to take in that moment and appreciate what has led you to that moment,” Jackecke said. “You just have to be grateful for how you’ve gotten there in the past and how it’s set you up for these moments.”
Janecke will miss “about a month” of Penn State’s season for the Olympics. But she remains confident that her team can sustain its success during her absence.
And she has the backing of Jeff Kampersal, Penn State women’s hockey coach, who lauded his star forward’s opportunity to “make history” at the Olympics.
“We are proud of Tessa making the USA Olympic Team,” Kampersal said. “Coming to Penn State, Tessa wanted to make history, not join history … [There is] no question Tessa has elevated all standards in our program. We appreciate her loyalty, and we are proud of her.”
Penn State’s Tessa Janecke in action during the Nittany Lions’ 5-2 win over St. Lawrence on Sept. 26 at Pegula Ice Arena.
The U.S. women’s team opens Olympic play on Feb. 5 against Czechia before dates with Finland, Switzerland, and Canada in the preliminary round. The quarterfinals, semifinals, and gold medal game are scheduled for Feb. 13-19.
“This is going to be [played] on a much bigger scale, a lot more eyes on you,” Janecke said. “We have to go in there with the right mindset. There can’t be a moment too big or one that we’re not prepared for.”
Villanova maintained second place in the Big East women’s basketball standings with a 67-50 victory over Xavier on Thursday afternoon at the Finneran Pavilion.
On Sunday, Villanova (13-3, 6-1 Big East) was handed its first conference loss by Marquette, which snapped a 10-game winning streak. The loss also dropped Villanova from No. 28 to No. 34 in the NCAA’s NET rankings.
But the Wildcats bounced back against the Musketeers, thanks to junior guard Kelsey Joens. The Iowa State transfer scored a career-high 18 points on six three-pointers with four rebounds.
Villanova’s Kelsey Joens finished with a career-high 18 points against Xavier on Thursday.
The Wildcats’ three-point shooting propelled their win. Villanova made 15 of 32 three-pointers, while Xavier shot 4 of 13.
Sophomore guard Jasmine Bascoe added 15 points along with four rebounds and seven assists. Bascoe is the conference’s third-leading scorer, averaging 17.5 points.
Dropping threes
The Wildcats shot 5-for-9 from deep in the first quarter, which set the tone.
Villanova started to break away at the end of the first quarter, scoring eight consecutive points to take a 17-11 lead. To open the second, Villanova’s scoring run stretched to 11-0.
From there, the Wildcats maintained a double-digit lead and entered halftime with a 33-20 advantage.
Villanova held Xavier (9-7, 2-5) to 35% shooting from the field, including 2-for-9 from deep, and exploited its errors, as the Wildcats scored 18 points off turnovers in the first half.
Bascoe controls the court
The Musketeers picked up their shooting in the second half. Xavier went on an 8-0 run across 2 minutes, 35 seconds, shrinking Villanova’s lead to seven.
Bascoe took care of Villanova’s response. With two minutes left in the third quarter, she notched a steal and drove to the basket for an uncontested layup. Bascoe then assisted a Joens three-pointer to end the quarter.
Though the U.S. men’s soccer team will command the lion’s share of the spotlight this year, the women’s team isn’t scaling anything back.
That starts Jan. 17, when Emma Hayes gathers 26 players for the program’s annual winter training camp in suburban Los Angeles. It will kick off the 41st year of the women’s team’s existence, and will include games against Paraguay on Jan. 24 in Carson, Calif., and Jan. 27 against Chile in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Because the camp takes place outside of official national team windows, all 26 players will come from the NWSL. And because Gotham FC is playing in FIFA’s inaugural Women’s Champions Cup in London at the end of the month, the club’s many national team stars — such as Rose Lavelle, Emily Sonnett, and Jaedyn Shaw — were not called up.
They’re in Europe already, training for a few weeks in Marbella, Spain, before heading north to England. (In fact, they’re at the same complex where the Union will be for part of their preseason camp later this month.)
Rose Lavelle (left) and Gotham’s other U.S. national team stars are preparing for FIFA’s Women’s Champions Cup tournament.
That said, Hayes’ squad has a few veterans and many newcomers, which is no surprise. January camps outside of World Cup years often are that way.
But one name stands out: Trinity Rodman. It’s her first national team call-up since April because of injuries, and she will arrive as a free agent — officially “unattached” on the U.S. roster — since her Washington Spirit contract expired at the end of December.
Rodman’s future is by far the biggest story in the women’s soccer world right now. All signs are she’d like to stay in Washington, but she’d also like to be paid what she’s worth — and she’s worth a lot.
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said at the league’s championship game in November, when Washington lost to Gotham, that “we want Trinity in our league, and we will fight for her.”
NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman
Spirit owner Michele Kang also has shown she wants to keep Rodman in town. Kang put together a back-loaded contract offer that would fit within NWSL salary rules by cashing in on the next cycle of broadcast rights. But Berman vetoed it, with Bloomberg reporting in early December that she said it “violated the spirit of the rules.”
This sparked an enormous outcry from fans, media, and the players’ union. The union filed a grievance claiming the decision violated “at least five different sections” of the collective bargaining agreement, according to The Athletic.
The league soon retreated some — but only some. It proposed a new “High Impact Player” status that would allow teams to pay stars up to $1 million beyond the salary cap, and in early December, the league’s board of governors approved the change.
It quickly emerged that the new rule was not so simple, and that blew up in the NWSL’s face. Unlike Major League Soccer’s Designated Player rule, the NWSL’s version put restrictions on what kinds of players can earn the status.
Michele Kang seems to be trying to keep Trinity Rodman in Washington, and Rodman seems to want to stay there.
They included being ranked in voting for honors bestowed by the media, including France Football’s Ballon d’Or top 30, the Guardian’s top 100, and ESPN’s top 40.
Many women’s soccer journalists have no interest in having influence over players’ salaries like that. It also matters that those rankings’ voting pools skew heavily toward Europe, including journalists, coaches, and former players.
This promptly was called out by one American soccer industry veteran for having “outsourced the valuation of players for an American soccer league to European media.”
The league also counts SportsPro Media’s “Top 150 Most Marketable Athletes.” That promptly was bashed by fans as being even more subjective than journalists’ opinions. (It also drew attention that in the league’s press release, this item was first on the list of criteria.)
Trinity Rodman has become one of the NWSL’s biggest stars.
Another metric on the list is being in the “top 11 minutes played for the USWNT” over the last two years for field players, or No. 1 in minutes for goalkeepers. This puts players’ eligibility for a big paycheck in Hayes’ hands, with her starting lineup and substitution choices.
Hayes was asked Thursday what she thinks of having that power.
“Nothing will change with me and the way that I’m doing things, regardless of any ruling that’s put in place,” she said. “To be honest with you, it’s probably going to be a little bit longer until they resolve what that criteria is — whether it ends up being that or something else, you’d have to ask them. But from my perspective, nothing changes with regards to how I will operate.”
Hayes also said she “didn’t know” the rule was coming before it was announced, and that she found out about it from the national team’s longtime PR chief, Aaron Heifetz.
U.S. women’s soccer team manager Emma Hayes
The NWSL Players Association has continued to oppose the rule, and said Wednesday that it is preparing to take the league to arbitration. The league claimed it has the right to impose the rule without collective bargaining and said it consulted the union on the rule. The union disagrees on both counts.
“A league that truly believes in the value of its players would not be afraid to bargain over it,” the NWSLPA said in a statement when the rule was announced.
It would prefer that the league just raise the cap by $1 million for this year. ESPN reported that the league’s base salary cap for this year is $3.5 million “before additions for revenue sharing.”
How many of the league’s 16 teams would favor that isn’t known, nor is it known what the vote of clubs would have to be to make that happen.
Trinity Rodman at last year’s NWSL championship game, which the Washington Spirit lost to Gotham FC.
What is known is that Rodman will report to national team camp without a club affiliation, and it isn’t clear where she’ll end up. Many European clubs reportedly have expressed interest, although the list with the roster room and the quality Rodman deserves is pretty short.
The other big absence from this squad is midfielder Sam Coffey. The reason for that was revealed a few hours after the roster was announced: The Guardian reported that she is in “advanced talks” to join England’s Manchester City, and that the deal is “close to completion.”
Manchester City leads the Women’s Super League standings and is seeking its first title since 2016 after many runner-up finishes. Second-place Chelsea has Catarina Macario, Naomi Girma, and Alyssa Thompson, and third-place Arsenal has Emily Fox.
Defenders (8): Jordyn Bugg (Seattle Reign), Avery Patterson (Houston Dash), Izzy Rodriguez (Kansas City Current), Tara Rudd* (Washington Spirit), Emily Sams (Orlando Pride), Gisele Thompson (Angel City), Kennedy Wesley (San Diego Wave), Kate Wiesner (Washington Spirit)
Midfielders (8): Croix Bethune (Washington Spirit), Hal Hershfelt (Washington Spirit), Claire Hutton (Kansas City Current), Riley Jackson (North Carolina Courage), Lo’eau LaBonta (Kansas City Current), Sally Menti (Seattle Reign), Sam Meza (Seattle Reign), Olivia Moultrie (Portland Thorns)
Forwards (7): Maddie Dahlien (Seattle Reign), Jameese Joseph (Chicago Stars), Trinity Rodman (unattached), Yazmeen Ryan (Houston Dash), Emma Sears (Racing Louisville), Ally Sentnor (Kansas City Current), Reilyn Turner (Portland Thorns)
* — The former Tara McKeown got married a few weeks ago.
USWNT schedule
Jan. 24: Vs. Paraguay in Carson, Calif., 5:30 p.m. (TNT, truTV, Universo, HBO Max, Peacock)
Jan. 27: Vs. Chile in Santa Barbara, Calif., 10 p.m. (TBS, Universo, HBO Max, Peacock)
March 1: Vs. Argentina in Nashville, 5 p.m. (TNT, truTV, Universo, HBO Max, Peacock)
March 4: Vs. Canada in Columbus, Ohio, 6:45 p.m. (TNT, truTV, Universo, HBO Max, Peacock)
March 7: Vs. Colombia in Harrison, N.J., 12:30 p.m. (TBS, truTV, Telemundo 62, Universo, HBO Max, Peacock)
ST. LOUIS — Two-time defending champion Amber Glenn set the record for a women’s short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Wednesday night, giving her a narrow lead over world champion Alysa Liu heading into the free skate.
South Jersey native Isabeau Levito was third with 75.72 points on the opening night of the national championships, which are the last opportunity for skaters to impress the U.S. Figure Skating officials who will decide the team for the Milan Cortina Olympics on Sunday.
Liu had broken the record mere minutes before Glenn’s skate with a score of 81.11 points, earning a standing ovation from a crowd packed into the home of the St. Louis Blues. But then Glenn took the ice and was flawless from an opening triple axel to a finishing combination spin, earning 83.05 points, a hug from coach Damon Allen and a standing ovation of her own.
“I knew that I came here to do my job,” Glenn said, “and I was happy to see that scores were up, scores were good, and I was able to keep them going up. I felt a responsibility to keep it going better and better and better.”
Glenn wound up being the best.
The dance competition gets started Thursday night alongside the men’s short program.
Levito, the 2023 champion and a former world silver medalist, had to withdraw from nationals last year because of injury. But she looked as if she had never missed a day, performing with style and grace to a medley of music honoring Sophia Loren.
“I felt really happy with myself that I did my job,” said the 18-year-old Levito, who lives and trains in Mount Laurel. “I feel like I’m in a really good place right now.”
Isabeau Levito, here competing at Skate Canada, performed a short program honoring Sophia Loren on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old Glenn, who four years ago missed nationals and a shot at the Beijing Games because of COVID-19, channeled her trademark power and emotion into a program set to “Like A Prayer” by Madonna. Glenn followed her axel with a triple flip-triple toe loop, and her triple loop merely catapulted her into a rollicking finish to an energetic program.
Allen was waiting for her rinkside, dressed in a maroon suit to match Glenn’s dazzling maroon dress.
“Of course I feel ecstatic. The score was huge,” Glenn said. “My grandma passed last year, and she was with me from Day 1, and I just felt it today, and I’m not usually one of those people that says it, but I felt like I had something help me today.”
Glenn’s showcase came on the heels of a similarly splendid performance from the 20-year-old Liu, who finished sixth at the Beijing Games, then stepped away from the sport entirely because of burnout, but is in the midst of a remarkable comeback.
Last year, she became the first American world champion since Kimmie Meissner in 2006.
Now, Liu is among a few U.S. hopefuls trying to deliver women’s Olympic gold for the first time since Sarah Hughes in 2002.
Liu performed the same short program from last year’s world championships, opening with a whirling triple flip, landing a solid double axel and finishing with what coach Phillip DiGuglielmo called her best triple lutz-triple loop of the season.
“I’m really happy with the lutz,” Liu said. “That was good. That was real good.”
Earlier in the night, Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov began defense of their U.S. pairs title with a near-perfect short program, leaving them nearly eight points clear of the field as they hold out hope of making the American team for the Winter Games.
While the 28-year-old Mitrofanov was born in the U.S., his 26-year-old partner was born in Finland. And despite the couple having wed in early 2024 and Efimova getting a green card approved that summer, she still is waiting for the U.S. to decide whether to waive a three-year waiting period to become a citizen — one of the requirements to represent a nation in the Olympics.
But time is running out before U.S. Figure Skating must announce its Olympic team on Sunday.
“We’re hoping maybe a last-minute miracle might happen,” Mitrofanov said.
Efimova and Mitrofanov seemed to glide inside Enterprise Center on Wednesday night. They opened their short program with a beautiful triple twist, landed their side-by-side triple toe loop in sync, their throw triple loop covered a long expanse of ice, and they finished by pumping their firsts as their music came to a close.
They wound up with a season-best 75.31 points, while Audrey Shin and Balazs Nagy were second with 67.67, Ellie Kam and Danny O’Shea right behind with 67.13, and Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez were in fourth with 67.03.
“We’re definitely very proud with how we skated tonight. The crowd was amazing,” Mitrofanov said. “We really trusted each other. We trusted our training. I was a little more nervous than normal, to be honest, and I was proud of Alisa holding my hand throughout.”
