Notre Dame seed projections for NCAA Tournament

Might as well reserve your seats for the first two rounds in South Bend now.

Many are concerned about [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag]’ availability for the NCAA Tournament. Still others are concerned that her questionable status will affect Notre Dame’s seeding. But if you look at what experts are projecting, you’ll notice that Miles’ status is a minor factor at best.

Before Miles went down, the Irish were a surefire lock to host the first two rounds of the tournament. But between that unfortunate turn and the Irish getting blown out by Louisville without Miles in the ACC Tournament, doubts began to linger. Since then, it has become clear that those doubts were based purely on emotion. One only needed to take a step back and realize that the Irish built an impressive body of work during the regular season.

Miles or no Miles, the Irish’s projected seeding remains consistent, and barring a sudden shift in attitudes by the selection committee, it appears March Madness indeed will make a stop in South Bend. If you don’t believe that, look at these projections:

Q&A: Dawn Staley on why it’s the perfect time for her new podcast, South Carolina and, of course, sneakers

Dawn Staley’s new podcast

Dawn Staley has been around the world. She’s seen a lot of things.

She’s lived a lot of life from her time coming up as a young hooper in the rough and rugged streets of North Philly to her coaching Team USA’s Women’s Basketball Team to yet another gold medal in the cozy confines of Tokyo last summer.

She’s done all of this while also being a Black woman stuck in a spotlight she never necessarily asked for. That’s what her journey has looked like. And while she’s been on her journey, she’s met countless others who have been on theirs as well.

And that’s why the South Carolina basketball coach is launching her new podcast, NetLife with Just Women’s Sports. She’s ready to share the details on her journey and give other women in sports a platform to share theirs. She’s already kicked things off with an episode featuring Lisa Leslie.

Through sharing, she hopes, she can continue to elevate more women in sports. “I just feel like I have a story to tell,” Staley told For The Win.

We asked her why, after such a wild 2021, this was the right time to launch a pod. Below is our conversation. Enjoy. (This interview has been condensed and edited).

Without injured Paige Bueckers, here’s who is stepping up for UConn basketball

What we know so far about who UConn is without the reigning National Player of the Year.

Shortly after Paige Bueckers went down with a non-contact injury in the final minute of UConn’s Dec. 5 home game against Notre Dame while leading by 18 points, Geno Auriemma told reporters Bueckers was still in the game partly because “she’s a pain in the ass to have on the bench because all she does is complain about why she’s not playing.” But he also admitted, “I don’t like our team without her on the court.”

One week and two Bueckers-less games later, an ugly loss followed by an uplifting win, we’ve gotten a glimpse of who UConn is without its star player.

The Huskies’ 57-44 loss to Georgia Tech was the first time since 2006 that a UConn squad had scored fewer than 45 points in a game and the first time since 2012 that it had lost to an unranked opponent. It also dropped UConn to No. 7 in the AP poll this week, its lowest ranking since 2007.

After the loss, Auriemma told the media, “We’re disorganized as a group right now, from the coaching on down, everybody. There’s just no sense of [having] a plan of how we’re going to execute, how we’re going to get a bucket, who’s going to get it for us.”

RELATED: Paige Bueckers’ very rare knee injury, explained

Auriemma and his staff are no doubt hoping this marks their low point of the season, especially now that they are down to eight active players after two entered the transfer portal, and Azzi Fudd, Nika Mühl and Aubrey Griffin are out with their own respective injuries. All four injured players are expected to make full recoveries this season, with Bueckers’ return timeline being the longest. The sophomore is expected to miss eight weeks as she recovers from a successful surgery to repair an anterior tibial plateau fracture and a lateral meniscus tear.

(David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports)

The diminished squad followed up the Georgia Tech loss with a much-needed confidence boost when they beat UCLA 71-61 last Saturday. But its biggest challenges are on the horizon, the first of which comes Sunday against No. 6 Louisville’s strong defensive squad.

“I think the biggest thing that’s an issue is consistency. Just because we see them put it together at the end of the UCLA game, they’re going to have to try to do that coming off an exam week against a better team in Louisville,” says Alexa Philippou, who covers the program around the clock for Connecticut’s Hartford Courant.

With three other top-ten matchups on the calendar before Bueckers is expected back, the Huskies’ response to this identity crisis will be put to the test repeatedly. Here’s what we know so far about who UConn is without the reigning National Player of the Year.

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Meet Dawn Staley and South Carolina’s ‘Fab Four’ top-ranked recruiting class

With the “Fab Four” freshmen, South Carolina basketball is in good hands.

When Bree Hall’s parents dropped her off at college, they didn’t cry. Neither did she. Everyone knew she was in good hands, and South Carolina had felt like home long before she stepped on campus.

“There was just so much confidence in where I was, there was nothing to cry about,” Hall says.

Hall was walking into a situation that would make any basketball player jealous. First, there’s the history of the Gamecocks women’s basketball program: a national title in 2017 and three Final Fours in the past seven years. Then there’s the present: a team with talented, experienced players like Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke and Destanni Henderson, poised for a run at the national championship. And the future: at least seven more years of head coach Dawn Staley, whose value is priced at $22.4 million, but even that might be an undersell.

And if all of that isn’t enough to put a young hooper’s mind at ease, Hall and South Carolina’s three other freshmen can turn to a group chat affectionately named “The Fab Four.”

(AP Photo/Sean Rayford)

Staley eventually gave the moniker to South Carolina’s freshmen class, made up of Hall, Raven Johnson, Saniya Rivers and Sania Feagin. The nickname is a perfect description for the top-ranked recruiting class in women’s basketball this season, but when they started talking via text, the Fab Four wasn’t even the Fab Four yet. They were four high school seniors trying to weigh their options and pick the correct team and school.

Staley encouraged the players to talk even before they signed with the Gamecocks. The recruiting process can be an intimidating one. And unless a recruit has parents or siblings who went through the same thing, it can be isolating.

So Staley had a message for the recruits she hoped would one day become Gamecocks: Talk to each other, and help each other find the right fit, even if it’s not South Carolina.

“We all looked at our offers together and started doing pros and cons lists,” Rivers says.

Eventually, one school came out on top, and it was the same for all four of them.

“Next thing you know, we all committed at about the same time,” Rivers says.

When they did, the nickname came about, and Rivers, Feagin, Hall and Johnson renamed their group chat to reflect their newfound South Carolina identity.

Together they are Staley’s Fab Four, but separately, they are four individuals whose twists and turns led them down the same path.

RAVEN JOHNSON

There are two key pieces to Raven Johnson’s personality. The country’s No. 2-rated freshman (and No. 1 point guard) describes herself as a girly-girl who is also fiercely competitive. The first piece made her think she would hate basketball, and the second made her fall in love with the game.

“I was like, basketball is a boy’s sport. It’s too rough,” she says with a laugh. “But my grandpa told me, ‘You’re just not gonna do no cheerleading.’ ”

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Raven’s grandfather took her and her twin brother, Richard, to the gym, where they played one-on-one. In that moment, Johnson’s competitive streak took over. She realized that she wanted to win, but not at just anything: She wanted to win at basketball.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, basketball is the sport for me,’ ” she says.

This year, however, Johnson will be playing cheerleader for her team after sustaining a season-ending knee injury against South Dakota on Friday.

But Gamecock fans might want to keep an eye on the sidelines to see what kind of street clothes Johnson is sporting. Because before she was one of the Fab Four, Johnson had another nickname, and it’s one she still uses: Hollywood.

During one of her first AAU practices as a tween, Johnson walked into the gym fresh off of a shopping spree at Justice.

“I was wearing glittery shoes — I think they were Chuck Taylors — glittery pants and a matching jacket to go with it. I just thought I was cute,” says the Atlanta native. “They took one look at me and said, ‘Yeah, your nickname is gonna be Hollywood.’ ”

She’s not wearing Justice anymore, but Johnson still embodies her nickname, so much so that she even has it in her Twitter handle. Hollywood likes anything beauty-related, she says. Lately she’s upgraded from Justice to Fashion Nova and takes pride in mixing up her look.

“I can go from wearing a dress to sweats and a cute little crop top,” she says. “I can wear pretty much anything as long as my hair is done and my face looks cute.”

SANIYA RIVERS

One of the first Christmas gifts Saniya Rivers remembers getting was a Fisher Price basketball hoop. The sport, she says, is in her blood. Her older sister, Nanna Rivers, played at North Carolina State, her dad played for a few years at Elon and her mom was a standout at UNC-Wilmington.

Rivers grew up in Wilmington, the town where Michael Jordan famously didn’t make his varsity team. So Rivers has been attached to basketball since the beginning, and it to her.

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The No. 4 freshmen in the country received her first scholarship offer — from South Carolina — when she was in eighth grade.

Rivers was playing AAU for a team that coaches didn’t really have their eyes on, but she was tearing it up. On the last day of the tournament, Rivers was playing in the championship game and recognized Staley sitting in the front row.

“We ended up losing, but I got a phone call later that night with the offer, so that was big,” Rivers says.

For Rivers, South Carolina is step one in a plan she’s had since about the time she received that first offer. She has a love-hate relationship with her hometown. She’s received great support from people, but she’s also dealt with others trying to bring her down.

“All I’ve ever wanted growing up was to make it out and go to college and make it to the pro leagues,” Rivers says. “I want to give back to my city when I make it.”

SANIA FEAGIN

For Sania Feagin, the choice to go to South Carolina wasn’t something she needed to think about; it was something she just knew was right.

“I put my trust to the Lord, and he guided me to where he felt was best for me,” she says.

Feagin grew up with faith and family as the cornerstones of her life. And through the two, basketball came naturally. When she was a young kid, her parents — who both competed collegiately — would play in various rec leagues, and when they finished, Feagin would run onto the court to get as many shots up as she could before they packed up and went home.

“I was ball-happy,” she says of her first days playing. “I would get it and just take off. I wanted to score.”

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And basketball didn’t go away when they left the gym. Some of Feagin’s favorite memories are of playing in her driveway with her entire family — parents, siblings and even cousins. They’d play knockout, war, or adults-versus-kids matchups. And even with a family full of collegiate athletes, they knew when to turn the competition off.

“Those games were always just fun,” Feagin says. “It was never doing nothing too much. We just had a good time.”

When she’s with her family, Feagin keeps things relatively low-key. Outside of basketball, one of her preferred hobbies is babysitting her 1-year-old nephew.

“When I was taking care of him before I came to school, he was so small, and he would cry all the time,” she says. “He couldn’t even crawl. Now, he barely even cries. He’s running around. He’s a handful.”

BREE HALL

When she was six, Hall remembers playing sports with the kids in her neighborhood. It didn’t matter what the game was because she loved them all. But when she picked up a basketball, parents and local coaches noticed. Hall was just having fun, but to those adults, she had a future in the game.

So as she grew, her dad, Bryan, started taking her to the gym to run drills. Unlike her fellow freshmen, who grew up with basketball players for parents, Bryan was just a helping hand and cheerleader for his daughter, the No. 14-ranked freshman this season.

“He was absolutely not a basketball player,” Bree says with a laugh. “He was that guy at the Y or the nearby gym that you would call, like, your local LeBron, but he never even played in high school.”

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South Carolina first piqued the Ohio native’s interest when she was a sophomore in high school. Her AAU teammate, Zia Cooke, had committed to the Gamecocks, so Hall visited the school.

“I watched them play against UConn, and they ended up winning,” Hall says. “And [Henderson’s] family was there, and they sat me down and gave me some good advice about the recruiting process and about how this was probably the place for me.”

THE FUTURE OF SOUTH CAROLINA

Once the Fab Four officially committed to South Carolina, the fun started.

They texted about serious things, like the COVID-19 pandemic that had marked all of their high school careers, but mostly the chat remained light-hearted.

“Before we had that group chat, we didn’t really know each other,” Hall says. “But before we got to campus, we were all so excited, talking about what colors we were going to have in our rooms and where we could get our nails and hair done.”

Hall, Feagin and Rivers live together, while Johnson lives with sophomore Kamilla Cardoso, her former AAU teammate who, as a transfer from Syracuse, is also new to the team.

Last year, the four freshmen watched as South Carolina made its way to the Final Four and lost a nail-biter to Stanford. They all agreed that watching the Gamecocks was surreal and found themselves switching back and forth between cheering on their future teammates and trying to analyze where they might fit in on the court.

When they got to campus, fitting in with their teammates socially was a breeze. The Gamecocks like to listen to music together, have movie nights and occasionally break into ultra-competitive rounds of UNO.

“It’s not just on the court,” Rivers says. “Cards get thrown. It gets ridiculous.”

But transitioning from high school and even AAU ball to college basketball proves to be a lot more difficult than fitting in with a new group of friends.

But you don’t go to South Carolina expecting to easily slide into playing time.

“I’m going to be honest, high school and college are two different types of ball games,” says Johnson, who won four straight state championships at Westlake High School. “You have one or two players on the team who are really, really good, but in college the pace is different. You got more players, the whole team is good.”

Many skills players could pull off in high school suddenly don’t work in college. Rivers, for example, said she’s in the process of changing her shot because she noticed it getting blocked too much during preseason practices.

Until Johnson went down with a knee injury, she, Rivers, Feagin and Hall — four five-star recruits who had their pick of programs — were all fighting for a sliver of game action.

Because even before signing the best class in the country, South Carolina was already stacked. The Gamecocks not only returned their starting five, but also their sixth and seventh players off the bench. And they added the 6-7 Cardoso, one of the most sought-after transfers in the offseason.

So yeah, this is a whole different ball game, but it’s one the freshman class is ready for. They all know what coming to a program like South Carolina means. It’s not about instant college stardom, but the opportunity to play for a legendary coach and to compete with some of the country’s best players.

“I enjoy it because nothing is going to come easy,” Feagin says. “I know I’m going to have to work hard. Like for me, going against Aliyah [Boston] in practice every day is going to push me. Because she is bigger, stronger and more experienced than me. So that is going to make me a better me.”

Before long, Feagin will play the role of Boston for a new recruit. So will Rivers, Johnson and Hall. For now, they’re a group of talented freshmen. But soon, South Carolina basketball will belong to the Fab Four.

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USWNT legends, sports world pay tribute to Carli Lloyd for her storied career

“You have raised the standards for all.”

USWNT legends paid tribute on Tuesday as one of their own, Carli Lloyd, appeared in her final international game. It was a 6-0 victory over South Korea, and although Lloyd didn’t score a goal, she described it to USA TODAY Sports as “one of the most special nights I’ve ever had in my life.”

Lloyd has had a storied career alongside storied players, who penned their gratitude to Lloyd for all she had done for the USWNT and U.S. soccer.

Brandi Chastain thanked Lloyd “for sharing your impeccable career full of skill, unapologetic desire and care for the USA crest!”

Mia Hamm, who sits one ahead of Lloyd on the all-time leading goal scorers list, congratulated her on a “historic career.”

“You have raised the standards for all,” she wrote.

Kristine Lilly shared a throwback featuring Lloyd and Megan Rapinoe, congratulating Lloyd on “a great career.”

Heather O’Reilly said Lloyd “earned” the right to enjoy her last game “with grit and focus and FIRE in your soul.”

“Have faith and peace that those around you will carry on that flame now because you showed them how,” she continued. “The team will forever be better because you were on it!”

Lloyd retired from the USWNT as the second-most capped player in team history with 316 appearances (behind Kristine Lilly’s 354). She is best known for showing up on the biggest stage, having scored the game-winning goals in two Olympics and her iconic hat trick in the 2015 World Cup Final.

In addition to some USWNT legends, Lloyd’s teammates, other athletes and the sports world celebrated her illustrious career.

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Megan Rapinoe explains how Sue Bird inspired her mid-career transformation

Megan Rapinoe’s diet switch-up included “Sue’s famous breakfast sandwich.”

Megan Rapinoe is in top form at 36 years old and doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. Just this summer, the soccer legend scored two goals against Australia to help the national team win bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.

The USWNT star reveals that her remarkable career longevity is thanks in large part to her fiancée Sue Bird.

Rapinoe stopped by the Snacks podcast to talk with teammates Lynn Williams and Sam Mewis about the diet and exercise changes she made at age 30 when Bird walked into her life.

“I feel like that’s kind of just about the time where your body just kind of changes anyways,” says Rapinoe about the end of her 20s, when she was coming off her third ACL tear.

“You go the first part of your career, and you can kind of just do what you’re doing… but then there comes this time where you need to change something or you just get old really fast.”

That’s when future WNBA Hall of Famer Sue Bird entered the picture.

“I got really lucky because I met Sue, and Sue is five years older than me, and she kind of went through this period.”

As part of her own return from injury, Bird had implemented a new diet and exercise regime.

“Of course, I was smitten, in love, and I was like, ‘I’ll just pretty much do whatever Sue’s doing,’” remembers Rapinoe.

At the time, Rapinoe was also getting considerably less playing time with the national team after kneeling in support of Colin Kaepernick.

“I was a little on the outs with Jill [Ellis] and the National Team because of the whole kneeling situation. They didn’t really take well to that.”

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Because she wasn’t being invited into national team camp, Rapinoe had a lot more time to experiment with her diet and exercise.

“I was just like, working out and eating the way Sue did,” says Rapinoe, “It wasn’t like I drastically changed everything, but it was more what I was eating and when.”

The diet switch-up included “Sue’s famous breakfast sandwich,” which consists of an english muffin, over hard eggs, onions, and sauteed spinach. It also meant cutting out a lot of carbs, especially earlier in the day.

Even with the strict diet in place, Rapinoe says she still finds time for charcuterie boards, wine, pizza and fried chicken every now and again, saying, “You can’t drive yourself nuts” if you get too obsessed with your diet.

Listen to the full conversation with Rapinoe for more on her historic career and her life with Bird here.

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Abby Wambach apologized for failing to ‘speak out’ during her playing career

Soccer legend Abby Wambach is taking ownership for failing “to speak out publicly or defy the status quo” when she was a player.

Soccer legend Abby Wambach is taking ownership for failing “to speak out publicly or defy the status quo” when she was a player.

“Over the years, I played on more than one team owned or coached by men who I witnessed be emotionally and verbally abusive and dehumanizing,” she wrote in a Twitter post. “I am so deeply sorry to all the players who have been hurt inside the sport we all love.”

Multiple players have come forward in recent weeks and months, detailing allegations of abuse by coaches within the NWSL.

Most recently, Sinead Farrelly and Mana Shim came forward to detail allegations of abuse by former North Carolina Courage Coach Paul Riley.

“I wish that, during my playing days, I’d had the courage of Sinead, Kaiya and Mana — to speak out publicly and demand change,” she said. “I stand with them now, and along with them I call for the transparency, accountability, and justice that our sport has long needed.”

In the past, Wambach has been criticized for supporting former magicJack owner Dan Borislow, who was accused of mistreating his players. Wambach both played and coached for Borislow.

After the Women’s Professional Soccer league (the NWSL’s predecessor) voted to terminate the magicJack franchise over its owner’s behavior, the subsequent legal battle led the WPS to first cancel the 2012 season before ultimately folding later that year. The NWSL was founded in 2013 as its replacement.

Chelsea Gray beat Draymond Green at dominoes during the Tokyo Olympics

Chelsea Gray isn’t just competitive on the basketball court — she’s also known to be a passionate gamer.

Chelsea Gray isn’t just competitive on the basketball court — she’s also known to be a passionate gamer. The Team USA guard sat down with Las Vegas Aces teammate A’ja Wilson on Tea with A & Phee to relive their time at the 2020 Tokyo Games, which included plenty of board games.

“I was beating Draymond (Green) in dominoes,” Gray said. “He thinks he’s the best of all time.”

Gray then reminisced on Wilson’s unique approach to UNO, conceding that her skills are “above average” but calling her strategy “sneaky.”

While the two admitted that the Olympics consisted of a lot of downtime, Tokyo wasn’t all fun and games.

“There was definitely pressure,” Gray said. “You don’t want to be that team that loses.”

Gray admits she tried to play it cool but tells Wilson that the lead-up to the competition was stressful.

“I just needed the first game and the ball to go up. After the first game, I was good, but leading up to it, I was like, ‘man, this is coming with some heavy shoulders.’”

Adding to the anticipation, Gray made history before ever taking the court, becoming the first Duke women’s basketball player to make an Olympic team.

“I didn’t know that,” says Gray, telling Wilson that she learned of the news during an interview and “got the chills right away.”

“My college career was cut a lot shorter than I wanted it to be so to be able to do that was super dope.”

Coming home with a gold medal certainly made her alma mater proud, a feat that Gray says “no one can take away.”

Listen to more tales from Chelsea Gray and A’ja Wilson’s Olympic journey on Tea with A & Phee podcast.

New York Liberty’s Walt Hopkins sounds off on WNBA refs over ‘lack of respect’ for young team

The Liberty lost to the Mercury in a WNBA playoff single-elimination game, and their coach wasn’t happy.

New York Liberty coach Walt Hopkins isn’t disagreeing with the call and no-call in the final second that both went the way of the fifth-seeded Mercury, which beat the No. 8 Liberty on Thursday in a first-round single-elimination WNBA playoff game.

Rather, Hopkins said afterward that in general the Liberty got the short end of the stick, both in this game and all season long.

“There are a lot of things I want to say about the officiating in the WNBA and about the lack of respect this team’s gotten all season,” Hopkins said. “But I can’t say that because referees are above reproach. They don’t have to go to a press conference after games. They don’t have to explain the mistakes they made, why they did what they do.

“I don’t know where the accountability’s gonna come from, but it needs to happen. It was a bad season. The way they treated us was bad.”

He added that he thought the treatment of the Liberty by the referees is due to the fact that they have so many younger players.

However the only young player to start in Thursday’s game was second-year guard Sabrina Ionescu. The rest of the team’s starters all have at least five years of experience in the WNBA. Sami Whitcomb and Natasha Howard, who both started in Thursday’s game, each have at least two WNBA championships to their name.

While the final seconds saw two calls in particular that affected the game, Hopkins asserted he was more concerned with others that occurred throughout the game. Thursday night saw the Liberty get called for 22 fouls, while the Mercury were fouled just 15 times.

“There were multiple plays where we didn’t just get calls, a free throw discrepancy … it was 18-7 tonight,” Hopkins said.

“If anyone wants to say it’s because we shoot a lot of threes, well we outscored them in the paint, 34-30. It’s not because we don’t go to the rim. It’s because we don’t get respect because we’re a young team.”

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USWNT’s Alyssa Naeher dreamed of playing hoops under Geno Auriemma

“I wanted to go to UConn.”

Alyssa Naeher may be a star soccer player now, but the USWNT keeper’s first love was basketball.

Naeher tells host and USWNT teammate Kelley O’Hara in the season premiere of the Just Women’s Sports Podcast that she split time between soccer and basketball growing up, with the latter often winning out.

“That’s what I thought I would do with my life. I prayed every morning when I was a kid, my parents can attest to it, of wanting to make the WNBA. I wanted to be a professional basketball player. I wanted to go to UConn,” says Naeher, a Connecticut native.

A proud member of the UConn Huskies Club as a kid, Naeher says it was her dream to “play basketball for Geno (Auriemma).”

Deep into her burgeoning soccer career, Naeher continued to play basketball in high school and even joined an intramural team in college.  Ali Krieger, a fellow USWNT legend, happened to be on the same Penn State intramural team, which — no surprise — won the league.

Naeher’s passion for basketball still ended up impacting her soccer career, pushing her to move from a field player to goalie.

“Because I always liked basketball, I always liked being in goal, because I could play with my hands and I liked diving around in the mud and getting dirty.”

A soccer camp at age 13 solidified Naeher’s passion for goalkeeping, with an enthusiastic coach sealing the deal.

“It was just the way that he was talking about it,” says Naeher, adding, “Then we had that first session and I was like, ‘That was awesome. That was fun. I want to do this.’ And I was like, “You can take me out [of the field player drills],’ and I started training more specifically in goal.”

The rest, as they say, is history.

Listen to Kelley O’Hara’s full conversation with USWNT teammate Alyssa Naeher on the Just Women’s Sports Podcast.

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