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University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo women’s soccer standout Teani Arakawa has been selected for the 2025–26 NCAA Division II Degree Completion Award, which supports student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility but need additional aid to finish their undergraduate degrees.

Arakawa finished her career with the Vulcans after transferring from South Dakota State University. She leaves UH Hilo as the all-time leader in points (81), goals (30), and assists (21), and is a two-time All-American, Academic All-American, and two-time PacWest Player of the Year.

Read more at Hiloathletics.com.

Days after Alex Cooper accused her former college soccer coach of sexual harassment, Boston University has responded.

The host of the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast, who made the allegations in a two-part Hulu documentary that premiered Tuesday after screening Sunday at the Tribeca Film Festival, played Division I soccer at the university for three years, during which time Cooper claims coach Nancy Feldman made inappropriate comments about her body and sex life, engaged in controlling behavior and touched her thigh.

“Nancy Feldman was someone I trusted. Someone I believed in. Someone who was supposed to help me grow. Someone who was supposed to protect me,” Cooper wrote Thursday on Instagram. “But instead she made my life a living hell and abused her power over me.”

In the same post, Cooper said she reported the abuse to athletic director Drew Marrochello, who she said ignored her complaints. The university addressed the allegations in a statement obtained Thursday by People and other news outlets.

Read more: ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcaster Alex Cooper moving to SiriusXM in deal reportedly worth $125 million

“Boston University has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment. We have a robust system of resources, support and staff dedicated to student wellbeing and a thorough reporting process through our Equal Opportunity Office,” the statement reads. “We encourage members of our community to report any concerns, and we remain committed to fostering a safe and secure campus environment for all.”

While Cooper’s documentary began as a way to show behind-the-scenes footage of her 2023 Unwell Tour, a visit to Boston University — specifically the soccer field — brought her emotions back to the surface, she said in Tuesday’s brief episode of “Call Her Daddy” titled “My College Soccer Trauma.”

“The minute I stepped on that field, I felt so small,” Cooper said. “I felt like I was 18 years old again, completely powerless, with no voice.”

Cooper said “everything changed” when she discovered that other women had alleged similar experiences with Feldman. She decided that she needed to come forward after talking to one of the women.

“If a woman in my position, who has power and a platform, is still fearful, is still scared of speaking out about my own lived experience of sexual harassment, how the hell will any other woman feel safe and confident to come forward?” Cooper asked in the episode.

Read more: Anticipating backlash, Alex Cooper of ‘Call Her Daddy’ explains that Kamala Harris interview

Since “Call Her Alex” premiered, TikTok user @sizzlinghotsarah shared her own experience with Feldman, alleging that the soccer coach harassed her for her sexuality. Cooper responded to the post, “I’m sick I’m so sorry she did this to you. Reaching out to u privately.”

Feldman retired in 2022, but Cooper claims the harassment continues under her successor.

“Call Her Alex” also traces her journey to becoming one of the top podcasters in the world. Featured in the documentary are Cooper’s former co-host Sofia Franklyn, husband Matt Kaplan, lifelong friend Lauren McMullen, who is an executive producer on the podcast, and Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports — the previous home of “Call Her Daddy.”

Cooper has become known for her revelatory interviews with everyone from Hailey Bieber and Paris Hilton to Monica Lewinsky and Jane Goodall. Last year, Cooper sat down with then-Vice President and presidential hopeful Kamala Harris — chronicled in the documentary.

Cooper created her own podcast network, Unwell, in 2023 and has hired emerging talent including Madeline Argy, Owen Thiele and Alix Earle, who abruptly left in February. In August 2024, Cooper signed a $125-million deal with SiriusXM.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Days after Alex Cooper accused her former college soccer coach of sexual harassment, Boston University has responded.

The host of the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast, who made the allegations in a two-part Hulu documentary that premiered Tuesday after screening Sunday at the Tribeca Film Festival, played Division I soccer at the university for three years, during which time Cooper claims coach Nancy Feldman made inappropriate comments about her body and sex life, engaged in controlling behavior and touched her thigh.

“Nancy Feldman was someone I trusted. Someone I believed in. Someone who was supposed to help me grow. Someone who was supposed to protect me,” Cooper wrote Thursday on Instagram. “But instead she made my life a living hell and abused her power over me.”

In the same post, Cooper said she reported the abuse to athletic director Drew Marrochello, who she said ignored her complaints. The university addressed the allegations in a statement obtained Thursday by People and other news outlets.

“Boston University has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment. We have a robust system of resources, support and staff dedicated to student wellbeing and a thorough reporting process through our Equal Opportunity Office,” the statement reads. “We encourage members of our community to report any concerns, and we remain committed to fostering a safe and secure campus environment for all.”

In an interview with the Boston Globe, Cooper claimed that when she and other teammates contracted mononucleosis, also known as the “kissing disease,” she was the only one Feldman called into her office to ask who she had been with. According to Cooper, she pleaded for then-assistant coach Casey Brown to help her, but Brown did nothing.

In a statement to the Globe, Brown said she had “no recollection” of the event.

“But let me be absolutely clear: I would never ignore, dismiss or turn away from anyone — a player, a teammate, a friend, a family member — who sought my help in any capacity,” Brown told the Globe. “As a coach, I understood the weight of my responsibility to protect my players and act accordingly. The suggestion that I would do otherwise is completely false.”

While Cooper’s documentary began as a way to show behind-the-scenes footage of her 2023 Unwell Tour, a visit to Boston University — specifically the soccer field — brought her emotions back to the surface, she said in Tuesday’s brief episode of “Call Her Daddy” titled “My College Soccer Trauma.”

“The minute I stepped on that field, I felt so small,” Cooper said. “I felt like I was 18 years old again, completely powerless, with no voice.”

Cooper said “everything changed” when she discovered that other women had alleged similar experiences with Feldman. She decided that she needed to come forward after talking to one of the women.

“If a woman in my position, who has power and a platform, is still fearful, is still scared of speaking out about my own lived experience of sexual harassment, how the hell will any other woman feel safe and confident to come forward?” Cooper asked in the episode.

Since “Call Her Alex” premiered, TikTok user @sizzlinghotsarah shared her own experience with Feldman, alleging that the soccer coach harassed her for her sexuality. Cooper responded to the post, “I’m sick I’m so sorry she did this to you. Reaching out to u privately.”

Feldman retired in 2022, but Cooper claims the harassment continues under her successor.

“Call Her Alex” also traces her journey to becoming one of the top podcasters in the world. Featured in the documentary are Cooper’s former co-host Sofia Franklyn, husband Matt Kaplan, lifelong friend Lauren McMullen, who is an executive producer on the podcast, and Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports — the previous home of “Call Her Daddy.”

Cooper has become known for her revelatory interviews with everyone from Hailey Bieber and Paris Hilton to Monica Lewinsky and Jane Goodall. Last year, Cooper sat down with then-Vice President and presidential hopeful Kamala Harris — chronicled in the documentary.

Cooper created her own podcast network, Unwell, in 2023 and has hired emerging talent including Madeline Argy, Owen Thiele and Alix Earle, who abruptly left in February. In August 2024, Cooper signed a $125-million deal with SiriusXM.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Six College of Charleston athletes are appealing a nearly $3 billion antitrust settlement with the NCAA over name, image and likeness.

The settlement was approved last week, clearing the way for colleges and universities to directly pay their student athletes who were previously banned from making NIL money. But some attorneys argue it violates Title IX and that female athletes would not get their fair share in back pay.

Lexi Drumm, Emmie Wannemacher and Savannah Barron have grown up on the soccer field.

It wasn’t until college that they noticed different treatment towards women’s sports.

“The comparison every single day, it became disheartening and discouraging for female athletes and especially myself,” Drumm explained.

Through the $2.7 billion settlement, schools will be able to share roughly $20.5 million among athletes in year one. Of that, football and men’s basketball players are expected to take home the most NIL pay back.

The argument is that more people watch their games, bringing in more revenue, therefore these athletes should be paid more.

While Drumm said she understands the argument, she and her teammates say it’s a product of a much larger issue – disparities in the attention and resources given to men’s and women’s sports.

READ MORE | “Charleston RiverDogs owner Marv Goldklang to be inducted into another Hall of Fame”

“When you give non-revenue generating sports opportunity, they’ve shown that they can produce revenue and it kind of shatters the myth that women’s sports and non-revenue generating sports can’t provide a profit for the school,” Barron said.

While Barron and her teammates said they’ve had a positive experience playing college soccer, they admit it’s hard not to compare female and male athletes.

“Noticing how they traveled from game to game, how we traveled game from game, the days we even played our games, the times we played our games,” Wannemacher explained.

These are all things Wannemacher said she had never chalked up to being tied to Title IX, until now.

“As a female athlete you were just kind of taught this is what you get and you take what you get and run with it,” she said.

For these athletes, appealing isn’t about money. Drumm said it’s about righting a wrong.

“Title IX is supposed to be a safeguard to make sure that female and male athletes have the same opportunities or have equitable opportunities and it’s been so long ignored,” she added.

The three College of Charleston graduates said regardless of their outcome in court, the appeal has sparked important conversations.

They hope it can make a lasting impact and encourage young female athletes to stay in the game.

“Knowing that they’re valued and important can take the whole state of women’s athletics to another level,” Drumm said.

The appeal, along with multiple others, won’t stop universities from paying current athletes starting July 1, but it will pause payments going to former athletes. It would be heard in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The College of Charleston declined to comment Friday.

By BEN NUCKOLS
Associated Press

Eight female athletes filed an appeal Wednesday of a landmark NCAA antitrust settlement, arguing that women would not receive their fair share of $2.7 billion in back pay for athletes who were barred from making money off their name, image and likeness.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken approved the settlement last week, clearing the way for direct payments from universities to athletes and the end of the NCAA’s amateurism model.

The athletes who appealed the settlement competed in soccer, volleyball and track. They are Kacie Breeding of Vanderbilt; Lexi Drumm, Emma Appleman, Emmie Wannemacher, Riley Hass, Savannah Baron and Elizabeth Arnold of the College of Charleston; and Kate Johnson of Virginia. They have standing to appeal because they previously filed objections to the proposed settlement.

Ashlyn Hare, one of the attorneys representing the athletes, said in a statement that the settlement violates Title IX, the federal law that bans sex-based discrimination in education.

“We support a settlement of the case, but not an inaccurate one that violates federal law. The calculation of past damages is based on an error that ignores Title IX and deprives female athletes of $1.1 billion,” Hare said. “Paying out the money as proposed would be a massive error that would cause irreparable harm to women’s sports.”

The law firm representing the plaintiffs in the settlement issued a statement saying the appeal would delay payments to hundreds of thousands of athletes by a minimum of several months.

“These attorneys are pursuing an appeal based on a Title IX issue that Judge Wilken already disposed of correctly, quickly and multiple times,” the statement said.

The House settlement figures to financially benefit football and basketball stars at the biggest schools, who are likely to receive a big chunk of the $20.5 million per year that colleges are permitted to share with athletes over the next year. Some athletes in other sports that don’t make money for their schools could lose their partial scholarships or see their roster spots cut.

“This is a football and basketball damages settlement with no real benefit to female athletes,” Hare said. “Congress has expressly rejected efforts to exempt revenue-generating sports like football and basketball from Title IX’s antidiscrimination mandate. The NCAA agreed with us. Our argument on appeal is the exact same argument the conferences and NCAA made prior to settling the case.”

The appeal was filed by the law firm Hutchinson Black and Cook of Boulder, Colorado, and was first reported by Front Office Sports. It would be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.