USWNT falls to Brazil | TCU snags Olivia Miles | IIHF Worlds hits the ice

Never let ‘em see you sweat.

Fresh-faced USWNT falls to Brazil

A youthful USWNT lost to Brazil 2-1 in San Jose last night, splitting the friendly series and marking Brazil’s first win against the US since 2014 — and their first-ever win against the home team on US soil.

• USWNT forward Catarina Macario kicked things off with a bang, opening scoring less than one minute into the match before former NWSL MVP Kerolin equalized in the 24th minute with a clinical strike.

• A chippy, physical second half played mostly to a stalemate, until Brazil’s Amanda Gutierres snatched the victory with a goal in second-half stoppage time.

Big picture: US manager Emma Hayes took a calculated risk with last night’s starting lineup, putting together the USWNT’s least-capped squad since 2001 including first starts for defenders Gisele Thompson and Avery Patterson.

• “It’s been really good camp — we mustn’t always measure progress by outcome,” Hayes said after Tuesday’s Olympic gold medal rematch. “If I only prioritize short term success, of course, I wouldn’t make that many changes. But I’m not making decisions for the short term.”

Bottom line: With two losses in their last three games, the US appears to be embracing the growing pains of progress, leaving fans with little option but to trust the process as May’s international window approaches.

NCAA transfer portal keeps cooking

Two of the biggest names in NCAA basketball revealed their transfer decisions on Tuesday, as student-athletes continue to weigh their options ahead of April 23rd’s portal closure.

• Prospective top WNBA draft pick Olivia Miles will play out her final year of eligibility at TCU, making the leap to the team that knocked her Notre Dame squad out of this year’s national tournament.

• “I just want to be a pro without being a pro,” Miles told TNT. “Every day on campus I want to be the way a pro would be, so I’m prepared when I do actually go to the league.”

Big moves: While talent drain took its toll, some strong teams grew stronger this week, as 2024/25 DI leading scorer Ta’Niyah Latson announced she’ll be departing FSU to join NCAA championship contenders South Carolina.

• Latson already has connections to the Gamecocks, having played youth basketball with South Carolina guard Raven Johnson — a draft-eligible junior who recently hinted she’ll be sticking around for one more season.

• UCLA lost highly touted freshmen Elina Aarnisalo, Kendall Dudley, and Avary Cain to the portal, though the Bruins will maintain most of their stars — including top high school recruit Sienna Betts, little sister to Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Lauren Betts.

Bottom line: College basketball’s new era can be dizzying, but while the carousel isn’t quite done spinning, a competitive 2025/26 landscape is starting to take shape.

IIHF World Championship hits the ice

The puck dropped earlier today on the 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championship in Czechia, as top hockey talents hit the ice for the annual international tournament.

• After taking silver in 2024, the US opened the tournament this morning, beating Sweden 7-1 to sit top Group A.

• Reigning champs Canada kick off their campaign tomorrow against Finland, coming off 2024’s 6-5 overtime gold medal victory against the US — their third IIHF title in the last four years.

Big picture: Canada and the US remain the 35-year-old tournament’s sole winners, with the bitter rivals facing off in every gold medal match except 2019, when Canada took third.

• Both teams feature experienced squads, with Canada captained by 13-time tournament contender Marie-Philip Poulin while Team USA relies on the leadership of Hilary Knight, now skating her 15th Worlds — a new IIHF record.

Familiar faces: Strengthening North America’s grip on the contest even more is the PWHL, with the second-year domestic league sending 57 players to this year’s World Championship.

• PWHL players produced all seven goals for the US this morning, including two goals each by Minnesota’s Kelly Pannek and Ottowa’s Hayley Scamurra.

• The PWHL kicked off its final international break of the season on April 3rd, with plans to resume after the Championship’s conclusion on April 26th.

Tune in: The 2025 IIHF World Championship runs through April 20th, with live coverage on the NHL Network.

On an all-new episode of Sports Are Fun! presented by Intuit TurboTax, host Kelley O’Hara and crew land in Tampa, bringing the best and brightest in women’s sports to NCAA Final Four Weekend — all with an extra side of fun.

• Taped in front of a live audience, Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie, WNBA stars Aaliyah Edwards and Kelsey Mitchell, and UCLA standout Gabriela Jaquez all showed up to talk through the biggest weekend in college basketball.

• “The first thing is, we just need to set the tone, play our game, focus on us. Because we've been doing great things. Second thing would be to limit the touches inside… And the third thing, which is like a UConn motto, is just play hard, play smart, and have fun,” said UConn alum Aaliyah Edwards ahead of her alma mater’s eventual championship win.

Watch more: “Live at the Final Four” on Sports Are Fun! with Kelley O'Hara

NWSL releases full CBA

The NWSL Players Association published their most recent collective bargaining agreement in full on Tuesday, detailing league rules for compensation, player trades, and other deciding factors through 2030.

• Ratified in August 2024, the CBA includes already-implemented bold strokes like establishing league-wide unrestricted free agency and a pathway towards revenue sharing as well as abolishing the draft.

Diving deeper: The unedited document goes a step further, outlining protections for player data privacy rights, connecting housing stipends to market costs, and setting regulations around name and likeness usage.

• The minimum salary is set to grow from $48,500 to $82,500 plus bonuses by 2030, though a revenue surge could see those terms renegotiated before the contract’s end.

March Madness ends on a high note

UConn’s NCAA championship win over South Carolina on Sunday weighed in as ESPN’s third most-watched title match in Women’s March Madness history, averaging 8.5 million viewers with a peak of 9.8 million.

• While the 2025 grand finale fell short of 2023 and 2024, this year’s tournament finished as the second most-watched on record, with a total of 8.5 billion minutes consumed.

• Sunday’s matchup also towered over the 2022 championship, showing a 75% increase in viewership and demonstrating a sharp uptick in the sport’s widespread popularity.

Quote of the day

Dallas Wings guard Dijonnai Carrington
giving projected No. 1 WNBA draft pick Paige Bueckers props for her NCAA championship win with UConn.