NWSL, Liga MX Femenil to start new tournament

The National Women’s Soccer League and Liga MX Femenil will kick off a new partnership with a summer cup competition, starting in July.

The interleague tournament will feature all 14 NWSL teams and the top six Liga MX clubs from 2023. Using total points earned in the Clausura and Apertura tournament, the six clubs from Mexico will be Tigres, America, Chivas, Monterrey, Pachuca and Tijuana.

The tournament will begin July 19 and consist of 30 group-stage games, followed by the semifinals the week of Aug. 4 and the championship match taking place the weekend of Oct. 25-27.

Each team will play a minimum of three games.

Angel City FC, which will be in Group B, will start play July 20 against America at Cal State Fullerton’s Titan Stadium (7 p.m.). ACFC’S second group game will be July 26 against Bay FC at Paypal Park in San Jose (7:30 p.m.) and the final group stage game will be Aug. 1 against San Diego Wave at Titan Stadium (7 p.m.) —Damian Calhoun

FOOTBALL Lions player sought on domestic violence warrant

Detroit Lions defensive back Cameron Sutton is wanted on a domestic violence warrant in Florida, where authorities on Wednesday asked for tips to help find him.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, which includes Tampa, said on the X social media platform that the warrant is for domestic battery by strangulation, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

TENNIS Former No. 1 Halep loses in return

Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep returned to professional tennis after getting her doping suspension reduced on appeal, playing her first match in about 1 1/2 years late on Tuesday — a 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 loss to Paula Badosa at the Miami Open.

Halep, a 32-year-old from Romania, who reached No. 1 in the WTA rankings in 2017, had not played on tour since testing positive for the banned drug roxadustat at the 2022 U.S. Open, where she lost in the first round to Daria Snigur of Ukraine 6-2, 0-6, 6-4.

A four-year ban that was handed down in 2023 was cut to nine months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport two weeks ago. Two days later, the Miami

Open gave Halep a wild-card invitation that allowed her to enter the tournament’s field.

HOCKEY Ducks hitting historic lows

Gustavsson recorded his third shutout this season, Kirill Kaprizov extended his point streak to eight games with the 150th goal of his NHL career and the Minnesota Wild beat the Ducks for the second time in six days, 4-0 on Tuesday night. John Gibson made 28 saves as the Ducks dropped their seventh straight and were blanked for the third time in four games.

It is the first time in the Ducks 30year franchise history they have had two losing streaks of at least seven games in the same season. The Ducks had an eight-game skid in November after starting the campaign with nine wins in its first 15 games.

BASEBALL Snell joins Giants, could pitch in opening series

Blake Snell joined the San Francisco Giants just nine days before their opener and the two-time Cy Young Award winner hopes he will be ready to start during the first series at his old team, the Padres.

“We’ll throw a bullpen tomorrow and go from there,” he said Wednesday at his first news conference with the Giants, a day after finalizing a $62 million, two-year contract.

Right-hander Logan Webb, runnerup to Snell in last year’s NL Cy Young vote, starts the opener. Snell could pitch later in the four-game series.

Snell was 14-9 with a 2.25 ERA last year for the Padres, winning the NL Cy Young to go along with his 2018 AL Cy Young with the Tampa Bay Rays.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL Clarks leads women's All-america team

Caitlin Clark has been a mainstay on The Associated Press All-america team the past few seasons.

The NCAA’S all-time scoring leader from Iowa was honored for the third straight year Wednesday, becoming the 11th player to earn the distinction three times. She was a unanimous choice from the 35-member national media panel that chooses the AP Top 25 each week.

Clark was joined on the first team by Stanford’s Cameron Brink, Uconn’s Paige Bueckers and freshmen Juju Watkins of USC and Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame. They are only the fourth and fifth freshmen to make the AP team since it began in 199495, joining Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris, Uconn’s Maya Moore and Bueckers.

Clark joins a select group with her third first-team honor: South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson and Aliyah Boston, Baylor’s Brittney Griner, Tennessee’s Chamique Holdsclaw, Duke’s Alana Beard, Paris, Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu, Kentucky’s Rhyne Howard and Uconn’s Breanna Stewart and Moore. Paris and Moore did it four times.

Clark, who earned second-team honors as a freshman, led the nation in scoring averaging 31.9 points per game as well as being tops in assists with 8.9. The Iowa native became the first Division I player to have consecutive 1,000-point seasons and to also top 3,000 points and 1,000 assists for her career.

• Kansas guard Kevin Mccullar Jr. has been ruled out of the NCAA Tournament because of a bone bruise on his knee. The news comes two days before the fourth-seeded Jayhawks play No. 13 seed Samford in the first round. The Jayhawks are expected to have second-team All-american Hunter Dickinson back. He dislocated his shoulder in their regular-season finale against Houston.

MISCELLANY College Football Playoff, ESPN reach deal

The College Football Playoff and ESPN have announced a deal that will give the network exclusive rights to the expanded postseason through the 2031 season. The agreement puts the national championship game on ABC starting in 2026. Financial terms were not announced, but as previously reported the new six-year agreement will pay the CFP and participating conferences $1.3 billion annually and nearly $8 billion in all. The major conferences and Notre Dame agreed on a new revenue-sharing plan last week that allowed the CFP to finalize the deal with ESPN.

• UFC parent company TKO Group Holdings reached a $335 million settlement regarding two antitrust lawsuits brought by former fighters in the organization, according to TKO’S disclosure to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The agreement was reached March 13, and the payments will be paid out over time rather than in a lump sum and will be tax deductible.

The two class-action lawsuits by former UFC fighters were led by Cung Le, filed in 2014, and Kajan Johnson, filed in 2021. Several other fighters also were mentioned in the suits. They alleged the UFC attempted to act as a monopoly and thus limited the fighters’ ability to maximize their earnings.