Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Tag: Women’s Sports

  • Ex-Villanova star Lucy Olsen continues her growth with the WNBA’s Washington Mystics

    Ex-Villanova star Lucy Olsen continues her growth with the WNBA’s Washington Mystics

    Former Villanova star and current Washington Mystics guard Lucy Olsen has picked up a lot of experience with different teams.

    Moving around so much means she’s learned numerous systems during her years in college and the pros, which is keeping her adaptable as her role shifts in the WNBA.

    “Going from Villanova to Iowa, that was a big jump, system-wise, trying to learn how to fit the system, but also keep your own game,” Olsen said. “That was pretty hard, and then I got another chance at it, coming to the Mystics. Then I feel like just going to another team, you just learn how to adapt faster.”

    Lucy Olsen is carving out a role in the WNBA. Former Villanova teammate Maddy Siegrist showed her how.

    In college, Olsen was the primary ballhandler at point guard and took on most of the scoring responsibility. But in the pros, she often has come off the bench and plays as an off-ball guard, shifting her focus away from scoring to the other things she can do on the floor.

    “Run the play, but also keep looking for the different avenues so that you can be aggressive and then dish it off to someone else,” Olsen said. “I’m reading the defense a little more, and I think [playing in] Australia [in 2025-26] helped with that, being able to see different types of defenses and work on just getting more reps of pick-and-rolls, and how the pros play.”

    Lucy Olsen (center) averaged 23.3 points per game in her final season at Villanova before transferring to Iowa in 2024-25.Charles Fox / Staff Photographer

    After three years at Villanova, the Collegeville native and Spring-Ford alumna transferred to Iowa for her final season. Shortly after her lone season with the Hawkeyes, Olsen was drafted in the second round by the Mystics.

    After her rookie season in Washington, she moved to Australia to play in the Women’s National Basketball League, where she won Sixth Woman of the Year and a WNBL championship with the Townsville Fire.

    Now, she’s back with the Mystics for her sophomore season, and even with just one year of experience, she’s something of a grizzled vet on a roster with eight rookies.

    “Everyone’s so young and eager, and they want to learn,” Olsen said. “I think that helps with the environment and getting better.”

    Before she helped negotiate the WNBA’s ‘life-changing’ CBA, this Philly lawyer hooped at Lower Merion and Penn

    Olsen is working to find her role in Washington and mostly comes off the bench in late-game situations.

    But there’s never been a better time for development in the WNBA. Previously, players had to come to the league fully formed. With extremely limited roster space — entering this season, the maximum number of players hadn’t been higher than 12 per team since 2008 — only a few draft picks each year would make a WNBA roster. Second-round picks like Olsen rarely got a chance.

    Former Villanova star Lucy Olsen goes from Caitlin Clark successor to WNBA surprise

    Between 2009 and 2024, when the Golden State Valkyries tipped off, there were 12 teams in the WNBA. The league then added the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo this year. With three more teams entering the WNBA in the next four years — including the Philadelphia team set to begin play in 2030 — that’s six more full teams’ worth of roster spots as compared to the league in 2024. The roster maximum remains at 12 players, but the new collective bargaining agreement created two optional “developmental” roster spots per team.

    “How young our team is, I feel like that doesn’t happen a lot,” Olsen said. “There is so much opportunity, and there’s so much room for growth. There are more roster spots, so you can learn and actually build your game around the team.”

  • How a goldfish mentality fueled West Chester Henderson to its first girls’ lacrosse state title

    How a goldfish mentality fueled West Chester Henderson to its first girls’ lacrosse state title

    West Chester Henderson girls’ lacrosse goalie Grace Rongaus tries to think like a goldfish in the net.

    “Goldfish are supposed to be not the smartest animals, and they have no memory, so being a goalie, you’re supposed to just ignore all the bad things that happen and move on,” Rongaus said. “Fun fact: Goldfish actually are really incredibly smart, and they can remember faces. So I don’t know how true it is, but that’s what we all say.

    On Saturday, Rongaus’ mantra paid off in the PIAA Class 3A girls’ lacrosse championship at Penn State’s Panzer Stadium. Forgetting any mistakes that could have plagued her psyche, the junior goalkeeper came away with nine saves — eight of which came in the second half — to will the Warriors to a 11-6 victory over Conestoga (21-3). All three of Conestoga’s losses were to the hands of Henderson.

    The title marks the first in program history and comes a year after Henderson made the PIAA tournament for the first time. Last season, Henderson was eliminated by Springfield, 10-4, in the first round. This year, the Warriors played the Cougars in the semifinals. This time, they defeated the Cougars, 9-7.

    Four days after that semifinal win, Rongaus walked off the field as a state champion. Unlike a goldfish, she plans to hold on to that memory.

    “It still [does not feel] totally real, at the same time,” said Rongaus, who is committed to St. Joseph’s. “We work so hard as a team to get to this point. Every day, you go to practice with these girls, and then just one day after, you don’t see them at all anymore. We’re so astonished that we won.”

    Added Henderson coach Robin Keevan: “I’m incredibly proud of my girls, what they’ve accomplished this year, and all the hard work they put in. It paid off, and I think that’s a huge reward for the girls. It was definitely their goal all season.”

    Rongaus was far from the only star on Saturday. Along with the goalkeeper’s heroics, Henderson’s offense shined. The Warriors’ scoring effort was led by four goals from senior midfielder Mary Cate Killoran, who’s committed to Florida State. Seniors Bailey Schalleur (Notre Dame) and Rayne Harkins (James Madison) also logged two goals each.

    Gift Share Neshaminy High wrote its own story — and ended it with its first state baseball title

    “This is just a huge historic moment for the girls’ lacrosse program,” Keevan said. “We’re going to keep on doing what we did the last couple years, and I know the younger girls are already raring to go.”

    In the 2A championship, Twin Valley (25-2) beat Wyomissing Area (24-3) to win its first title. Senior Ellie Kaplan (Michigan) scored four goals and tallied two assists in the Raiders’ 11-5 win.

    ‘Screwed our heads on straight’

    Henderson was a game shy of a perfect season, ending its championship campaign at 24-1. The players say their title run would not have been possible, however, without the Warriors’ 8-7 loss to Great Valley on April 21.

    “We did not play as a team [against Great Valley]; we were arguing and bickering,” Rongaus said. “And that’s how it goes. Teams are going to fight. After losing that game, we were like, ‘OK, this is actually the real deal. Anybody can beat us. We are a beatable team.’”

    After the loss, Keevan and assistant coach Mia Ciancio told the team that they had become complacent.

    Former MLB catcher Ben Davis’ family is full of athletes. His daughter, Riley, might be the best.

    “You could see it through our energy at practice, like we were getting cocky,” Schalleur said. “We weren’t 100% focused and we weren’t putting in all our efforts throughout every little drill.

    “The one loss to Great Valley — that completely screwed our heads on straight. We would not have won [the title] if we did not have our loss. It was at the perfect part of the season, and we needed it.”

    After falling to Great Valley, the Warriors won 12 straight games en route to the championship. However, it will be hard to replicate the team’s success next season.

    The Warriors had 13 seniors, who received their diplomas about a week before competing the title game. Schalleur has already moved to South Bend, Ind., for Notre Dame’s summer sessions.

    “We won the state championship, and then the next morning, I was on a flight,” Schalleur said, laughing.

    Even though her location has changed, her Henderson family will always be a part of her.

    “[After] the championship on Saturday, when the buzzer rang, we all just hugged each other,” Shaelleur said. “I think it’s just super sentimental the fact that I’ve been playing with those girls, a couple of them, for over a decade. Getting to experience that with them is so unreal.”

  • The Anderson Monarchs are going global in soccer: ‘It’s just going to open their eyes’

    The Anderson Monarchs are going global in soccer: ‘It’s just going to open their eyes’

    While some of the world’s best soccer players will be coming to Philadelphia for the World Cup this summer, some of Philadelphia’s young soccer standouts will be leaving the country for an international tournament of their own.

    The Anderson Monarchs’ team of 10- and 11-year-old girls punched its ticket to the Gothia Cup, which is July 12-18 in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Gothia Cup is the largest youth soccer tournament in the world.

    The Monarchs pulled off a 2-1 shootout win — their first-ever shootout — over North Philly United in a Montgomery County-based “Meet the World” tournament sponsored by manufacturing firm SKF on April 18. This secured the Monarchs’ position as one of the 16 teams SKF would be sponsoring for the Gothia Cup.

    The Anderson Monarchs were created to provide experiences for children “that normally wouldn’t get those opportunities,” coach Steve Bandura said. He added that these opportunities allow the players to grow socially and academically, and he expects an opportunity like this to have a lasting effect on the athletes.

    “This is going to be an amazing experience for our girls to get out of South Philly,” he said. “It’s just going to open their eyes and change their perspective on the world, really. And we’re meeting girls from all over on common ground, on the soccer pitch, and I think it’s going to be an incredible experience for them.”

    Mo’ne Davis joins the Savannah Bananas tour on a new team coached by a former Phillies star

    With the sponsorship from SKF, the Monarchs’ entire trip is taken care of. SKF has headquarters in Gothenburg and has been the main sponsor of the Gothia Cup since 2007. Over the years, SKF has brought over 5,000 players to the Gothia Cup, and the qualifying Meet the World tournaments remain their largest corporate social responsibility project, said SKF communications manager Jackie Rahmer.

    “It’s more than just a sponsorship for us. It’s an opportunity to celebrate soccer and have kids come together and build friendships across borders,” Rahmer said. “We just think that’s something that’s very special.”

    One of the Sweden-bound players, Rosanna Olsen, said she and her teammates are taking advantage of their opportunity by preparing as best as they can. Olsen, Mya Davis-Taylor, and some of their other teammates are using YouTube to learn basic Swedish phrases for the occasion.

    And while phrases like “hello” and “goodbye” are harder to learn than Davis-Taylor, a midfielder and goalkeeper, expected, all 30,000 athletes participating in the tournament share one common language, no matter whether they call it soccer or football.

    Olsen, a forward, believes that interacting with some members of these 1,900 teams from 75 countries can help with her own knowledge of the game.

    “I think I’ll learn new ways of playing, and how their mindset is when they’re playing, and their techniques on shooting the ball and passing the ball and other things like that,” Olsen said.

    For players like Olsen, Davis-Taylor, and Aasiyah Ellison, who’s also a goalkeeper and midfielder, this will be their first time leaving the country. And while Davis-Taylor said she’s eager to be on a plane and see the view from the airport, meeting new people and playing soccer is most exciting.

    “We get to stay in the same rooms [as our teammates], we get to meet new people, and then instead of just staying with our teammates, we can make new friends with the other people that are there, too,” Davis-Taylor said.

    Scott Bandura returns to Rickwood Field ‘grateful to be included’ in MLB’s Negro Leagues celebration

    She’ll also get to connect on a deeper level with her own teammates.

    Bandura said there’s a natural sense of camaraderie that comes from playing three sports together year-round, but this tournament will create “bonds that are going to be pretty tough to break.”

    “You’re in a strange environment, but you’re there together,” Bandura said. “I might be 100 years old when we get back from a whole week with the 13 11-year-old girls, but it’s so worth it. There’s so many benefits to this for them, and I think it’s going to draw them even tighter together as a family long-term, like lifelong.”

    The Anderson Monarchs will compete in the Gothia Cup, which runs from July 12-18 in Sweden.Braithwaite Communications

    Cali Nichols, the Monarchs’ striker, is looking forward to seeing how her team will connect on the pitch in Sweden and has been preparing for the adrenaline rush of the tournament. But she’s also looking forward to the downtime and exploring a new place.

    Femi Awodesu, a former member of the Monarchs’ program, now plays for Helsingborgs IF in Sweden, so Bandura hopes a visit with him is on the agenda.

    And for Nichols, seeing all the history of the country is on her personal agenda.

    “Just driving around and seeing all of the monuments that Sweden has, and all of its history, as well as the food,” Nichols said.

    Bandura compared the Monarchs’ opportunity to a rabbit in its hole that looks beyond to see the rest of the world. He hopes that similarly, this opportunity will expand his team’s perception.

    “I want to explore and see what the whole world looks like,” Ellison said.