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From Unrivaled to college rivalries to Olympic sports, we preview some women's sports highlights for 2025

maggie hendricks
Contributing writer
·4-min read

If 2024 was the year of women in sports, 2025 is the year to grow on. The year will be filled with plenty of opportunities to watch women compete on every level in every sport.

League One Volleyball will start its inaugural season on Wednesday, while the second season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League is underway. Basketball fans can enjoy women’s hoops in the NCAA, WNBA, Unrivaled and Athletes Unlimited. The NWSL will keep kicking as the Orlando Pride try to defend their title. Softball will be on the collegiate field and professionally via Athletes Unlimited, while the U.S. rugby team will try to win its first World Cup title since 1991. Coco Gauff, who's making moves off and on the court, will try for another grand slam, too.

With so much going on, here are the biggest dates I’m circling on my calendar for 2025. It’s not comprehensive, and your calendar may look different.

Most of the new Unrivaled basketball league, which begins on Jan. 17 in Miami, will be 3-on-3 basketball, which is already a thrilling brand of the game. But it’s rare that the best basketball players in the sport face off in a one-on-one contest. Just imagine the possibilities: Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, the league’s founders and two of the WNBA’s best, going head to head ... the youth of the sport facing off with the sport’s veterans ... how could you not be excited?

In the last weekend of the NCAA regular season, the Big Ten — that still feels weird — will treat basketball fans to a rivalry that transcends conferences. UCLA (currently ranked No. 1) and USC (No. 4) are two of the best in women’s basketball with stars on both sides (Lauren Betts for UCLA, JuJu Watkins for USC), and this game will be a fun preview of where they stand heading into the NCAA tournament.

The United States will play host to the figure skating world, with the best skaters headed to Boston's TD Garden at the end of March, less than a year before the 2026 Winter Olympics. Amber Glenn is the American skater to watch, as she has been on a tear this season. Glenn won both of her Grand Prix assignments and then a gold medal in the Grand Prix Final in December. Her triple Axel is not to be missed. Glenn will be challenged by 17-year-old Isabeau Leviteau, the world silver medalist in 2024.

If you loved watching some of gymnastics’ best during the Paris 2024 Olympics, then you should get excited about the NCAA gymnastics season. Though you can start watching the action around the country now, the season will culminate in April in Fort Worth, Texas. LSU, including star Livvy Dunne, will try to defend its first-ever title from 2024, while Olympians like Jade Carey (Oregon) and Jordan Chiles (UCLA) will try to add to their trophy cases.

It’s been 16 years since a brand-new WNBA franchise debuted, and the excitement around the new team in the Bay Area is palpable. We know some of the Valkyries’ roster, with Kate Martin and Kayla Thornton joining the team through the expansion draft. After free agency and the draft, we’ll have a better idea of who the Valkyries will be under head coach Natalie Nakase and GM Ohemaa Nyanin, and who will come running out onto the court on May 16 against the L.A. Sparks, presumably with “Flight of the Valkyries” blaring out at the Chase Center.

Different from rugby sevens, where the U.S. won bronze during the Paris Olympics, the rugby World Cup will crown the world’s best rugby union team. The U.S. hasn’t been on the podium since winning silver in 1998. Though the sport is somewhat different than sevens, one star of the Olympic team is trying to make the union team. Ilona Maher is playing league rugby in England, and is hoping to be on the team when the U.S. starts its bid to win the World Cup in August.

It hasn’t even been a month since the thrilling 2024 NCAA volleyball championship, with Penn State taking the memorable win over Louisville. Still, it’s not too early to get excited for next season, and that will start with the First Serve in Lincoln, Nebraska. The teams haven’t been set yet, but Nebraska is hosting and this event drew some of the top teams in the country last year.