Six months after losing a gym and some of their homes to the Palisades Fire, a volleyball team from West Los Angeles brought home the national gold. 

The SMBC Shack volleyball team’s 16-year-olds clinched victory after six hours of play at the AAU Boys’ Junior National Volleyball tournament in Orlando, completing an undefeated season.

“We’ve been through so much. We worked so hard, and we finally won. We could finally just let everything out,” said Sam Schwartz, a player who lost his home in the fire.

The last match lasted about two hours, the longest Coach Ethan Marshall said he’d ever seen.  

The disaster gave Schwartz and fellow teammates a drive to overcome, which he said they used to rally in the second set. 

After a nail biting third set, the team secured a 29-27 win. 

BABSON PARK, Mass.— After finishing last season with a 23-7 overall record and advancing to the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) tournament semifinals, Babson College women’s volleyball 15th-year head coach Eric Neely officially released his team’s 2025 schedule on Thursday.

The Beavers, who made six consecutive NCAA Tournament second round appearances from 2017-23 and earned eight NCAA berths in a nine-year stretch from 2014-23, will play a 26-match slate in 2025. The ledger includes 11 NEWMAC contests and nine encounters against programs that competed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

Babson tips off the season at the Greg “Gio” Giovanazzi Memorial Tournament in Baltimore, beginning with the opener on August 29 against host Johns Hopkins, an NCAA Tournament quarterfinalist a year ago. The tourney continues for the Green and White with matches against Capital (Ohio) and Rowan (N.J.) on August 30.

After the home opener vs. Keystone (Pa.) in Staake Gymnasium on September 6, the Beavers will compete in the New England Fall Classic on September 12-13; Babson will host local rival Brandeis on the 12th before taking on Bowdoin and NCAA Tournament team Colby on the 13th in Northampton, Mass. The Green and White will meet another NCAA Tournament opponent Lasell in nearby Newton on September 19 before hosting the University of New England on September 20.

The NEWMAC portion of the schedule begins with five straight conference matches over the next two weeks. It starts with road tilts at Wheaton on September 23 and defending champion Smith on September 27, followed by home clashes against Wellesley on September 30 and Coast Guard on October 4, and winding up with a road encounter at Emerson on October 7. After a non-conference meeting at NCAA Tournament foe Endicott on October 10, three more NEWMAC matches follow: home contests against WPI on October 14 and defending runner-up MIT on October 21 sandwiched around a trip to Mount Holyoke on October 18.

The Green and White will compete in the annual New England Challenge in Springfield, Mass., on the final weekend of October against three teams from the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC); Babson will face NCAA Tournament opponent Middlebury on the 24th before back-to-back matches vs. Williams and Tufts on the 25th.

After a conference tilt at Salve Regina on October 28, the Beavers will travel to Schenectady, N.Y., to battle NCAA Tournament team William Smith as well as Union on November 1. The regular season winds up with a pair of NEWMAC matches, hosting Clark on November 4 and visiting Springfield on November 8.

The eight-team NEWMAC Tournament will begin with quarterfinal matches on November 11. The winners will travel to the highest remaining seed for the semifinal matches on November 15 and the tournament final on November 16. The NEWMAC champion receives an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament.

 

This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports’ daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what’s happening in sports by subscribing here.

In a little over two weeks, Canadian swimming superstar Summer McIntosh will take to the pool at the world championships in Singapore, where she’ll try to match a Michael Phelps record by winning five individual gold medals.

The 18-year-old triple Olympic champion will be joined by around two dozen other Canadian swimmers, including three-time backstroke world champ Kylie Masse, who won her fifth career Olympic medal last summer; 20-year-old Ilya Kharun, who captured a pair of men’s butterfly bronze in Paris; and 21-year-old Josh Liendo, who took silver in the 100m butterfly. The international headliners are France’s Leon Marchand, who won four Olympic golds last year, and nine-time Olympic champ Katie Ledecky, who will take on McIntosh in the 400m and 800m freestyle events as she looks to add to her 21 career world titles.

WATCH | CBC Sports’ The Ready Room previews aquatics worlds: 

Everything you want to see at the 2025 World Aquatics Championships | The Ready Room

The world aquatics championships Singapore 2025 begin July 11th and run through August 3rd, and you can stream it all live on CBC Gem. The Ready Room host, Brittany MacLean Campbell breaks down the sports, besides swimming that you won’t want to miss when the championships begin.

So, that’ll be fun. But we’ll have to be patient as pool swimming is the last sport to get going at the World Aquatics Championships, which open tomorrow in Singapore. The program includes water polo, open-water swimming, artistic swimming, diving and high diving before McIntosh and company hit the water on the night of July 26 in Canadian time zones.

Here’s a glance at where Canada stands in the other sports:

Water polo (July 11-24): Despite placing eighth at both the world championships and the Olympics last year, the Canadian women’s team will not be competing after deciding to sit out last fall’s Pan American championships, which served as a qualifier for the worlds. The Canadian men’s team did not make it to the Paris Olympics, but they got into this year’s worlds by placing second to Brazil at the Pan Ams. Canada opens against the United States on Friday night and will also face host Singapore and the Brazilians in the group stage.

Open-water swimming (July 15-20): Canada’s lone Olympic qualifier in the two marathon swim events was Emma Finlin, who finished 23rd out of 24 in the women’s 10K. The world championships also include a 5K and a 3K “knockout sprint” for both men and women, plus a mixed 4×1,500m relay.

WATCH | Summer McIntosh scheduled to compete in 5 events at worlds:

Summer McIntosh set to join the ranks of the swimming greats at this summer’s world championships

The 18-year-old swimmer from Toronto is looking to win medals in five events at this summer’s world aquatics championships in Singapore. The world championships get underway on July 11 on cbcsports.ca and CBC Gem.

Artistic swimming (July 18-25): Last year in Doha, Jacqueline Simoneau won the women’s solo free event to become Canada’s first world-championship winner since 1991 in the sport formerly known as synchronized swimming. She also took silver in the solo technical before placing ninth in the duet at the Paris Olympics with Audrey Lamothe (there are no solo events on the Olympic program). Simoneau is now coaching and pursuing her medical degree, but Lamothe has had some solid results on the World Cup circuit both individually and with new duet partner Ximena Ortiz Montano. Lamothe also helped Canada to a sixth-place finish in the Olympic team event.

High diving (July 24-27): Whereas regular divers jump from either a 3m springboard or a 10m platform, these daredevils take the plunge from 27m (for men) or 20m (women). Canada’s three entries include Molly Carlson, who’s won two consecutive silvers at the worlds.

Diving (July 26-Aug. 3): Canada failed to win a medal at last year’s world championships, but Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray took bronze in the Olympic men’s 10m synchronized event for the country’s only diving medal in Paris. The duo also took bronze together at the 2022 worlds.

How to watch:

You can stream live action from the World Aquatics Championships on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem, starting with the Canadian men’s water polo team’s opening match against the U.S. on Friday at 10:30 p.m. ET. The CBC TV network will have additional coverage on weekends. See the full streaming and broadcast schedules for details.

For more on the worlds, watch this quick primer with CBC Sports’ Brittany MacLean Campbell.

WASHINGTON (July 10, 2025) – Howard University Department of Athletics rolls on with another senior spotlight series, sitting down with four-time All-NEC selection Kendall Jackson (Pearland, Texas), who was interviewed by rising sophomore legal communications major Tanbrance Berry.
 
Q: What is your favorite course while attending Howard?
A: My first year at Pebble Beach. It was a paradise. I was not only able to interact with all the Howard administration, our donors and sponsors, but also with Stephen Curry (NBA Champion). After winning the 2022 NBA Finals, he could have been anywhere in the world, but he made sure to come out and visit us.
 
Q: What are your plans post-grad?
A: My goal is to play on the LPGA Tour. Initially, I thought you had to immediately declare pro after graduation. But unlike football or basketball, there is no “draft” for professional golf. You have to make it out of Q school, so that is what I am focusing on right now.
 
Q: What has been your biggest contributor to your accolades?
A: The tournaments Coach Sam Puryear (Howard Director of Golf) has us compete. For example, I have had the opportunity to compete in the Jackson T. Stephens Cup all four years, and I am the only player, male or female, HBCU or PWI, to do so. The better the tournaments you play in, the better you get. So, being able to play with the best of the best has definitely been a contribution.
 
Also, the support from my coaches, Callaway, Under Armour and the Curry brand.
 
Q: What advice would you give a young black golfer thinking about attending Howard to play at the collegiate level?
A: My advice would be to give yourself grace because that is one thing I am still working on. I got stuck in my own way and did not allow myself to be like, “Hey, Kendall, look at what you’ve accomplished the last four years, not just what you’re doing this season.” All golfers are flawed for being perfectionists or being too hard on themselves, so give yourself grace, be patient, learn and grow from adversity takes time.
 
Q: How did you balance life being a student-athlete?
A: There is no balance (lol). When I think of balance, it is a perfectly even scale and that is not the case. There is going to be times that assignment is going to get turned in late and other times where I am not going to make that practice. So, just making sure you are not prioritizing too much over the other.
 
Before the season, you need to make sure you are communicating with your professors ahead of time because life moves on without you in college. If you miss school, they are not going to wait for you to come back. This past season, I missed eight Mondays in a row but I communicated with my professors. I still graduated on time, Magna Cum Laude. So, just make sure you are being patient, giving yourself grace and not prioritizing one over the other because you are both (student and athlete) and you want to succeed at both.
 
Q: What is your favorite golf memory?
A: After the NEC (Northeast Conference) Championship my junior year, Coach P had told me, “KJ, when we get back, I’m going to need you to take like four days off.” If your coach is saying you need to take some days off to recoup, then you are in a rough patch. The last event of that year, the 2024 PGA Works Collegiate Championship, I told myself I was going to relax and just have fun. I got off to a great start on day one, solid finish day two and won the tournament on the very last put. Unfortunately, we lost as a team, but my teammates were still there to support my win. They poured Gatorade on me and everybody was just celebrating. Curry even reached out to me later that night, congratulating me, which was so surreal.
 
Q: Is there anything else you would like to highlight?
A: Our docuseries, “Why Not US: Howard Golf,” is on Hulu and ESPN+. Being a part of that, especially as a sophomore, and being able to watch it back junior year, was so amazing. Telling the genesis of Howard Golf and our individual stories was incredible. We were even able to have a couple of bloopers and deleted scenes.
 
Q: How does it feel to be a part of an HBCU program making history in golf?
A: It feels good to help change the narrative and show that Howard University golf is here to stay and that HBCU golf is excelling.
 
About Jackson

• Personal:
  

  • Hometown: Pearland, Texas
  • Major: Leisure Studies

• Academic Achievements at Howard:

  • NEC Spring Academic Honor Roll

• Athletics Achievements at Howard:
  

 
For more information, visit the Bison Athletics website at www.HUBison.com.

The Princeton Men’s Water Polo Team, four-time Northeast Water Polo Conference champions, has revealed its 2025 schedule. Head coach Dustin Litvak highlighted the goal to continue the team’s success despite losing ten players from the Class of 2025. The Tigers are set to face top college teams and international professional clubs in a challenging early season exhibition series. The season kicks off on September 3 with an exhibition against FTC, a Hungarian team, and features prominent matchups including the Princeton Invitational and season finales against rivals Brown and Harvard.

By the Numbers

• First game against FTC on September 3, 2025.
• Six teams to compete in the Princeton Invitational from September 5-7.
• Regular season finale against Brown on November 8, 2025.

State of Play

• Increased competition with NAIA teams and international clubs included in the schedule.
• Focus on player development and team cohesion following significant roster changes.

What’s Next

The Tigers aim to qualify for the NCAA tournament and vie for a National Championship. The team will focus on building chemistry and overcoming early-season challenges to strengthen their postseason chances.

Bottom Line

Princeton Men’s Water Polo is gearing up for a demanding schedule, tested by elite competition and aiming to maintain its championship legacy while developing new talent for future success.