Woman Crush(ing It) Wednesday: Brianna Decker

Wow, did anyone out there watch that Mets game last night? I definitely spent three hours of my evening clutching my face and feeling like I was gonna barf, and this post very nearly almost didn't get written after that. But then I decided to get my ish together, because the National Women's Hockey League had its first games this past weekend, and that is EXTREMELY exciting. I mean, a paid professional women's hockey league? I am so here for that. And I'm not going to pass up an opportunity to talk about my favorite female hockey player!

+ Brianna here has been a big deal in the world of women's hockey for a pretty long time now. She grew up playing on boys' teams before playing four years of high school hockey at the acclaimed Shattuck-St. Mary's School, which is known as "the Hogwarts of hockey" and is "to hockey what Harvard is to law." Other alums include Zach Parise and Sidney Crosby. It's no joke. She won three national championships there, scoring 122, 124 and 126 points in her sophomore, junior and senior seasons, respectively.

+ After graduating high school in 2009, Brianna attended the University of Wisconsin. And she basically kind of dominated everything. She holds the program record for highest career plus/minus (the measure of a player's goal differential) with +175. UMMM, holy cow. Her college athletic bio is basically a laundry list of insane accomplishments, including the 2011 NCAA Championship and the 2012 Patty Kazmaier Award (given to the nation's top women's collegiate player).

+ Brianna tried out for her first Olympic team in 2010 and didn't quite make the cut. But it wasn't long before she was making her mark on the senior national team the way she had on the junior level. At the 2012 world championships she led the tournament with a +13 rating, and in 2013 she led the tournament with six goals, was named to the media all-star team and was voted one of Team USA's top three players. She DID make the Olympic team in 2014, scoring two goals and four assists in five games en route to the silver medal (let's... not talk about it). She is, however, a two-time world champion and served as alternate captain for the 2015 team (and scored the winning goal in the gold-medal game against Canada. Hell yes).

+ After all of this, Brianna played a season with the CWHL's Boston Blades. She was completely dominant, scoring 32 points in 12 games (omg?!) and finished second in the league in scoring. "What Decker accomplished this past season would be like Connor McDavid breaking into the NHL next season and eclipsing the 150-point plateau." Yeaaahhh buddy. The Hockey News lists her as the top women's player in the world after her 2014-15 season. She's now with the NWHL's Boston Pride, makin' history, y'know, all casual.

+ But personally, my favorite thing about Brianna is that she's comparatively tiny. She's only 5'3", which is really small for a hockey player -- she has to ask her taller teammates to help her get her helmet and gloves down from the top shelf in her locker before hitting the ice. (Girl, I feel you so hard on that!) But she plays a really physical game anyway, is deceptively strong for her size and is able to use her low center of gravity to her advantage; so basically, she turned her weakness into a strength. #yaaaasss

Like I said, Brianna's playing with the Boston Pride now, and all NWHL games will be streamed (fo' free!) on their YouTube channel. So check out a game or two (or all) and watch this tiny blond girl crush her competition. :)

Woman Crush(ing It) Wednesday: Malaika Underwood

Guys, baseball! Are you feelin' it?! 'Cause I sure am! I haven't been this excited about baseball in approximately nine years and I am just all about it right now. So today we're chatting about a female baseball player. There is, in fact, a U.S. women's national baseball team. I didn't know such a thing existed until this summer, but suddenly it was like I'd been waiting for it my whole life. And Malaika Underwood is like the original version of Mo'ne Davis.

+ Malaika has been ballin' since day one. When she was in eighth grade, she knew she wanted to continue playing baseball in high school. But she also knew that not all high school teams would give a girl the chance to play. So she wrote letters to the coaches at various high schools she could attend, giving them her Little League stats and asking for a fair shot at making the team. (Keep in mind that this was in 1995.) One coach said he'd give her that shot, so that's where she decided to go to school.

+ In high school, Malaika played on the girls' volleyball team in the fall and the girls' basketball team in the winter, and the boys' baseball team in the spring. But because the basketball season overlapped, she could only join the baseball team late in the season. She was never guaranteed a spot on varsity and had to earn it, despite pitching and playing second base on junior varsity for two years. But she was just as good as all the boys, so don't worry, she earned it. And the craziest thing? She was so good at volleyball that she attended the University of North Carolina on a full volleyball scholarship and was a four-year starter and ACC tournament MVP. As one does.

+ Once Malaika headed off to college, she figured her baseball days were done. She graduated in 2003 and spent a few years coaching Little League. But in 2004, USA Baseball decided to establish a women's national team, and Malaika joined up in 2006. She's since been on the national roster seven times, which is pretty unprecedented in women's baseball, and is one of the undisputed team leaders. The head coach calls her "the ageless wonder." She's played in the Women's Baseball World Cup five times (one first, two second and two third place finishes).

+ So, it's probably no surprise that Malaika is team captain of the women's national team. And this summer was a pretty nice time for her to be captain, as it was a pretty big summer for women's baseball. The Toronto 2015 Pan American Games included women's baseball on the program for the first time. And when I say "first time," I mean that this was the first time that women's baseball has ever been included in a multi-sport Games. Ever. Sooooo, kind of a big deal. The U.S. women went undefeated on their way to a gold medal (talk about a league of their own!) and Malaika was at the top of almost every single offensive category. She was first in batting average (.600), stolen bases (2) and runs scored (7), and second in slugging percentage (.667). Defensively, she was third among first basemen with a .975 fielding percentage (with 38 put-outs and three double plays, both category-leading numbers). So baseically, girlfriend killed it.

#TeamUSA manager @CoachPollard on @malaikau: "There is no greater face for women’s baseball walking this earth.” pic.twitter.com/D30dsprHbw

— USA Baseball WNT (@USABaseballWNT) July 27, 2015

Malaika Underwood: the hero female baseball fans deserve.

Woman Crush(ing It) Wednesday: April Ross

It's about time we got some volleyball going on here! And with the beach volleyball world tour finals happening as we speak, there's no time like the present to appreciate the best player in the world. (Yeah, I said it. Big words.)

+ April began her volleyball career as an indoor player, as a good amount of beach players tend to. In high school she was the top recruit in her graduating class, won the National Gatorade Player of the Year award when she was a senior, and played on the U.S. Junior National Team. Then she took her talents to USC, where she won just about everything (including back-to-back NCAA championships). She still holds USC's record for points and points per game, like, a decade after she graduated.

+ She began her pro beach career in 2006 and was named AVP Most Improved Player that season. She partnered with Jennifer Kessy before the start of the 2007 season and things immediately took off for the pair, as April was named the FIVB Top Rookie and they upset Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings at an AVP tournament. Their roll continued into 2008, but they just missed qualifying for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games -- they were ranked 7th in the world, but there were two other U.S. teams ranked ahead of them, and each country can only send two teams per gender. So April and Jen missed out by a hair... but then they stormed back to win the 2009 world championships. That season she was named the FIVB's Best Hitter and Best Offensive Player.

+ April and Jen kept killin' it for the next couple of years -- April was named the FIVB Best Hitter and Best Server in 2011 -- and finally got their Olympic berth at London 2012. They went 6-0 before the finals, only dropping three sets in total, before winning silver behind Misty and Kerri. Not too shabby! April was also named the FIVB's Best Server again (and you should be noticing a pattern by now).

+ The 2013 season was April's last playing with Jen as she was stepping away from the sport, and they won all sorts of medals right up until the end. As Jen finished up in the middle of the season, April ended up playing with three other partners to finish out the year: Kerri Walsh Jennings, Jen Fopma and Whitney Pavlik. She and Kerri won two tournaments together (wasting no time!), and at the world championships, she and Whitney finished fourth. (Fourth in the world with someone who wasn't her regular partner. Casual.) April also led the AVP tour in hitting percentage, was second in aces and fourth in kills per game.

+ April began her partnership full-time with Kerri in 2014, when they won all seven AVP events and four FIVB events (out of the 10 they competed in), tying for the most of any pair. Not to sound like a broken record, but she led the AVP tour in service aces and kills per game, and was second in hitting percentage. 2015 was a strange season, as Kerri got injured and April had to split her time among a slue of other partners. But, as in the past, she just keeps doing great things with everyone. She played in an AVP event with Lauren Fendrick -- their first time playing together, ever -- and they won. She's with Lauren again right now, for the FIVB world tour finals, and they just beat the best team in the world. She played with Kerri while Kerri was dealing with her shoulder injury (and unable to serve overhand or attack effectively), and April literally kept their team afloat. She's been incomparably dominant this season.

Now, due to how the Olympic qualification system works, every international tournament this year matters in the rankings. So April's heroics could have very, very important implications for Rio.

Long story short, April is the bomb dot com and don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise.

Woman Crush(ing It) Wednesday: Gwen Jorgensen

Guys. Guys. This one's a good one. In track and field, you know how Usain Bolt never loses? How he always manages to pull out an amazing performance and blow the rest of the field away? Okay, well, Gwen Jorgensen is the Usain Bolt of triathlon. She just. doesn't. lose.

+ Gwen is still a relative newcomer to triathlon. In college, she swam and ran for the University of Wisconsin. She earned a master's degree in accounting, passed the CPA exam and got a job at Ernst & Young as a tax accountant. It wasn't until 2010 that USA Triathlon approached her (as they were recruiting former collegiate swimmers and runners) and invited her to try the sport.

+ Also in 2010, Gwen was named USA Triathlon's rookie of the year. So, wasting no time! That season she had seven finishes in the top 10 (and only one outside it, a 13th place), and put together another killer season in 2011 to earn her place on the London 2012 Olympic team. (Um, after two seasons competing in triathlon, she was an Olympian... I wonder what it's like to be that good at something!) Unfortunately, London didn't go her way, as she got a flat tire during the bike leg of the race and she finished 38th.

+ Not one to let disappointment get to her, Gwen immediately set her sights on Rio and immediately started dominating the world. She had a handful of first-place finishes in 2013, and in 2014 it simply became no contest. She was lights out. She finished third in a World Triathlon Series race on April 26, 2014... and she hasn't lost a race since. GUYS. Gwen has literally been undefeated for a year and a half. She's won 12 consecutive WTS races and two consecutive world championships. She's the first American woman to win back-to-back world titles, and is the first woman ever to win a world title after a flawless season.

DO YOU SEE THIS??????

+ The funny thing is that winning everything wasn't even Gwen's goal this season: she just wanted to qualify for the Olympic team. There are still 11 months before Rio 2016, but don't worry, Gwen's been on the team for over a month now. And her opponents are tired of essentially racing for second place, so they're literally just hoping this season was a flash in the pan. I mean, you know you've made it when your opponents are specifically figuring out how to beat you, right? And that's what's happening with Gwen. She's such a great runner that she doesn't have to finish in the lead pack after the swim and/or bike. As long as she's within a few minutes of the leader, she can catch up. That is nuts. She is untouchable.

I'm telling you. Look up "crushing it" in the dictionary and you'll find Gwen's picture. Keep an eye on this one, folks, because some big things might be happening next summer!

Woman Crush(ing It) Wednesday: Laura Zeng

We started last week with some real talk, and that's how we're kicking things off again today. Real talk: if you'd told me a few weeks ago that I'd be talking about rhythmic gymnastics on my blog, I would've laughed in your face. But in the last few days I've come to realize just how much skill goes into that sport, and I might be turning into a fan. And most of my appreciation is due to one glittery little peanut in particular.

(Also, I love that we're jumping from wrestling to rhythmic gymnastics. I don't think you could find sports that are more polar opposite than these two. LOVE IT.)

+ Laura was born in 1999 (which certainly makes me feel like a grandma) and has been competing in gymnastics since she was seven. Before that, her hobby was Chinese folk dance, and she credits that background to influencing some of her style in her routines. UM, awesome. And speaking of awesome, she began her career in 2007 and was winning competitions in 2008. Casual.

+ As a junior, Laura won... uh, just about everything. But most noteworthy was her bronze medal at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games, as it was the first medal for an American rhythmic gymnast at any Olympic competition. For real: rhythmic gymnastics has been on the Olympic program since 1984, and the highest an American athlete has placed is 11th, in 1984. But those '84 Games were boycotted by the Soviet bloc, and Eastern European countries are the powerhouses of the sport... so if you think about it, that 11th place almost doesn't even count. Laura, however, earned a very real bronze medal behind a Belarusian and a Russian. The girl is legit.

+ 2015 is Laura's first season as a senior. And she's, y'know, still winning all the things domestically. Despite there being more experienced gymnasts on the team, Laura is unquestionably the star. Remember the Pan American Games I keep talking about? Well, Laura won five gold medals there. FIVE. She swept the individual events; all-around, clubs, ball, hoop and ribbon. This made her not only the winningest American athlete at the Games, but the winningest athlete period. Across all nations and all sports, she was the only five-time gold medalist.

+ The rhythmic gymnastics world championships were last week, and were Laura's first on the senior level. If you hadn't picked up on it already, the U.S. is traditionally not particularly good at rhythmic gymnastics. Our athletes generally aren't much of a factor internationally, and we only had a representative at London 2012 because every continent needs to be represented in Olympic competition, so the top-ranked athlete that hadn't yet qualified was given the North America wildcard spot (and she happened to be American). You know at the Winter Olympics how there are alpine skiers from countries in Africa and the Caribbean that are really just there for representation and a feel-good story? Well, that is the United States in rhythmic gymnastics. Olympic quota spots are earned with a top-15 finish at world championships and, because our gymnasts usually don't even advance to the final, have been entirely out of reach. BUT along comes Laura Zeng, at her very first senior-level world championships, who not only makes the final, but finishes eighth. GUYS, she earned the U.S. an Olympic quota spot! She HANDILY earned the U.S. an Olympic quota spot! That. is. amazing.

Laura hasn't officially been named to the Olympic team (yet) -- trials aren't until next year -- but you can be certain that I'll be watching rhythmic during Rio!