Anne Peterson

Retiring star Megan Rapinoe was honored by club team OL Reign in front of a National Women’s Soccer League record crowd of 34,130, many of whom wore pink wigs in her honor. With her family and fiancé Sue Bird looking on, Rapinoe started for the Reign in a scoreless draw against the Washington Spirit as Lumen Field’s public address system played “Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone” when she took to the field. Rapinoe had already played her final match with the U.S. national team last month, but Fr…

LAFC visits the Columbus Crew on Saturday in the MLS Cup title match. Los Angeles can become just the fourth team in league history with back-to-back championships and the first since the LA Galaxy won in 2011 and 2012. LAFC will face a defensive challenge in the Crew, who scored 67 goals in the regular season, more than any other team. They also led the playoff field with 13 goals.

A family that is among the investors in the NBA’s Sacramento Kings has purchased the Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League. Merritt Paulson, whose Peregrine Sports also owns Major League Soccer’s Portland Timbers, put the Thorns up for sale in late 2022 amid a series of abuse and misconduct scandals that rocked the NWSL. A person familiar with the deal says the new owners purchased the Thorns for $63 million. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not au…

Damian Lillard was greeted with a lengthy standing ovation by the Portland crowd when he was introduced on court for Milwaukee’s game against the Trail Blazers. Lillard spent 11 seasons with the Blazers and still has a home in Portland. He played his first game in the city since the offseason trade that sent him to the Bucks. The sellout Moda Center crowd feted Lillard with cheers. He responded with by applauding the crowd and held up his hands in a heart shape before his Bucks teammates danced…

The U.S. national team has fought for years to raise the level of women’s soccer across the globe, but that doesn’t make its inevitable losses to teams it once dominated any easier. The U.S. fell 2-0 to Mexico at the CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup. The loss was only the second time Mexico has beaten the U.S. The only other Mexico victory in the 43-game series was in 2010, a 2-1 win at a World Cup qualifying match. Coming as it did after some difficult times for the U.S. team, the most recent loss was…

Raegan Beers had 19 points and nine rebounds before she was hurt at the end of the third quarter and third-seeded Oregon State advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a 73-51 victory over No. 14 Eastern Washington on Friday night. Oregon State will face sixth-seeded Nebraska, which held off No. 11 Texas A&M 61-59. Beers, who was averaging 17.7 points an 10.4 rebounds this season, fell to the court as time expired in the third quarter, clutching her right ankle and crying in pain…

North Carlina State’s Sweet 16 game against Stanford in the women’s NCAA Tournament is bit of a harbinger of what’s to come. That’s because next season the perennially talented Cardinal are headed to the Atlantic Coast Conference. Second-seeded Stanford plays No. 3 seed N.C. State on Friday night in the Portland 4 Region, before top-seeded Texas plays No. 4 seed Gonzaga. Stanford is among five Pac-12 teams — most of any conference — that have advanced to the Sweet 16 as the league’s days dwindle…

For Cameron Brink, one benefit to playing near home in the NCAA Tournament is the home cooking. The Stanford All-American is back in the Portland area where she won a pair of state championships in high school. The second-seeded Cardinal face No. 3 North Carolina State on Friday in a Sweet 16 game. On Wednesday, she got to enjoy her grandma’s pot roast. But on Thursday she was back to work for the Cardinal, who are making their 29th Sweet 16 appearance.

JuJu Watkins and the top-seeded Trojans face fifth-seeded Baylor on Saturday in the NCAA Tournament. Third-seeded Connecticut plays No. 7 Duke in the later game as teams vie for a spot in the Elite Eight. An AP first-team All-American as a freshman, Watkins is averaging 26.9 points this season, second only to Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who set the game’s all-time Division I scoring record this season. Watkins was a local kid, but now her celebrity reaches beyond Southern California. She’s even in a t…

Aziaha James made a career-high seven 3-pointers and scored 27 points, and third-seeded North Carolina State earned its first trip to the Final Four of the women’s NCAA Tournament since 1998, beating top-seeded Texas 76-66. The played with 3-point lines at different distances on opposite ends of the court. River Baldwin added 16 points for N.C. State, which will face unbeaten South Carolina in the national semifinals in Cleveland. Freshman Madison Booker finished with 17 points to lead the Longh…