March is Women’s History Month! What better way is there to celebrate women than to watch and support women’s sports and female athletes? We’ve gathered women’s sports you can cheer for this Women’s History Month. And this year is extra special, because this list includes leagues in their inaugural season. The sports world has grown to include more opportunities for women in the last few years, bringing more equality and higher rates of equal pay to those athletes.
So, here’s our breakdown of the biggest upcoming sports you should cheer for:
NCAA March Madness Tournament
Not only does March mean Women’s History Month, it also means the Super Bowl of collegiate basketball: The NCAA March Madness Tournament. Sunday, March 16, was Selection Sunday— the bracket was set for first round of games to start this week, March 20 (check this out if you want to know more about Selection Sunday). To get an idea of what the bracket looked like, you can check out who ESPN ranked as the top 5 female college basketball players for this season:
- Juju Watkins, sophomore guard, University of Southern California
- Paige Bueckers, senior guard, University of Connecticut (Bueckers is predicted to be taken as the number 1 draft pick in the 2025 WNBA draft)
- Hannah Hidalgo, sophomore guard, Notre Dame (Hidalgo was just named a semifinalist for defensive player of the year)
- Kiki Iriafen, senior guard, University of Southern California
- Madison Booker, sophomore forward/guard, Texas Longhorns
If you’re interested, you can check here after Sunday, March 16, to fill out a bracket—here is NCAA’s official bracket. The championship will be played on April 6. Check the above link out if you want to know where to watch the games.
Unrivaled Championship Weekend
In other basketball news, Unrivaled, the women’s 3×3 basketball league— still in it’s first year of play— has reached championship weekend! The league, founded by New York Liberty player Breanna Stewart and Minnesota Lynx player Napheesa Collier, began play in January. This weekend were the semi-finals, pitting the Laces, against the Rose and Vinyl, against the Lunar Owls. On March 17, the Vinyl will play the Rose for the first championship win! Last week, the league made news by welcoming a huge investor, also known as one of the greats of current NBA players, Stephen Curry. He joins the investments of retired soccer star Alex Morgan and tennis player Coco Gauff.
Who’s left in the semi-final?
The Laces boast players like Kate Martin, Jackie Young, and Alyssa Thomas. The Rose has atheltes like Angel Reese, Kahleah Copper, and Chelsea Gray. Vinyl is home to players like Rhyne Howard, Aliyah Boston, and Dearica Hamby. The Lunar Owls roster includes Unrivaled founder Napheesa Collier, Allisha Gray, and Cameron Brink, among others.
The semi-finals games aired on Sunday, March 16. The Vinyl will play the Rose In the championship game on Monday, March 17. All will air on TNT and stream on Max. Check the schedule out here.
National Women’s Soccer League
The NWSL season began this past weekend, on March 14. All of the 14 teams played in a game during the first weekend of the season, March 14-16. The Orlando Pride are the reigning champions of the league but anything could happen. While we can’t predict this season’s breakout stars, here are the 14 teams you could choose to root for this season:
- Angel City FC
- Bay FC (Bay has made headlines in the last few weeks for welcoming new partial owners including New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu)
- Chicago Stars FC
- Houston Dash
- Kansas City Current (celebrating their second year in CPKC Stadium, the first stadium built exclusively for women’s soccer)
- New Jersey/New York Gotham FC
- North Carolina Courage
- Orlando Pride
- Portland Thorns FC
- Racing Louisville FC
- San Diego Wave FC
- Seattle Reign
- Utah Royals FC
- Washington Spirit
Check out the NWSL schedule here. You can also find streaming platforms for each of the games alongside the schedule.
Women’s National Football Conference
The WNFC is the most advanced professional women’s football league in the United States. This off-season saw multiple new teams join the league, including the Jersey Shore Wave, the Atlanta Truth, and the Chicago Winds. Also during the off-season, Victory+ became the exclusive provider for watching WNFC games.
The season begins with Week 1 on March 29. Check out the schedule here.
The Women’s Football Alliance (WFA) begins play for their season on April 26. This is a different women’s tackle football league in the United States. If you’re looking for more women’s football, that’s your place to go.
Ongoing Seasons:
Professional Women’s Hockey League
In it’s second season, the PWHL season continues on. If you’re ever looking for something to watch, all PWHL games stream on their YouTube channel, among other platforms (check the schedule here).
If you happen to be in the places the PWHL teams hail from (Montreal, Toronto, New York, Boston, Ottawa, and Minnesota), it is easy to watch a game live, the PWHL has taken their games on the road. Their, “Takeover Tour,” has already graced Seattle, Vancouver, Denver, Québec City, Edmonton, Buffalo, and Raleigh, there are still more stops to come, including two more games in March. Check more out about this here if you’re near Detroit or St. Louis.
League One Volleyball
LOVB Pro is currently in its first season of play. While LOVB (pronounced “love”) was founded in 2020, this season of LOVB Pro is their launch into professional volleyball play. There are six professional teams: Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Madison, Omaha, Salt Lake. You can watch the games here. And you can check out the schedule here.
If you’re craving more sports, you can check out Togethxr’s calendar of sports in March, including rugby, surfing, and running.
Togethxr calendar: (will make this section look prettier when I get into WP lol)
You can also download the Togethxr calendar to your own calendar here.
For another fun opportunity surrounding women’s sports, the movie See Her Be Her (2024), is on a screening tour of AMC movie theaters around the country, including some screening dates in April and May— celebrate women’s sports by buying tickets to the event! The documentary follows seven female baseball players as they forge a new path for other female baseball players. The screening event also includes a Q&A. If there is not screening near you, you’re also able to watch the movie on Amazon Prime.
Jason Sudeikis also announced this week, on an episode of New Heights, that he’d return to play Coach Ted Lasso in Ted Lasso season 4. What’s new? Ted is coaching a women’s team. It’ll be a little while, but we can’t wait to see it.
While March is not the only month you can and should celebrate female athletes, we’re lucky to celebrate the month dedicated to Women’s History with a huge month for women’s sports. Just remember, the spring and summer will bring back leagues like the WNBA for even more professional basketball and Athletes Unlimited professional softball. So once you’re done cheering for March sports, April, May, and June aren’t far behind.
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