SMITHFIELD, R.I. — Bryant field hockey announced its 2025 schedule on Thursday, a 17-game schedule that includes 11 home games and trips to regional foes Providence and Boston U.

The Bulldogs will be under the direction of first-year head coach Kellie Joyce and will welcome the return of 15 players from the 2024 team, including double-digit point scorers Natalie Griffin and Callie Caito and the goaltending duo of Sara DeSousa and Maud van Lierop.

Schedule Highlights

• Bryant will play 11 home games, including four-straight to open the season.
• The Bulldogs will make trips to Providence College and Boston U.
• Bryant’s home conference games will include UAlbany and defending America East champion Vermont.

Bryant opens the season with four-straight home games, beginning with Northeast Conference members New Haven (Aug. 29) and Stonehill (Aug. 31). The Black and Gold close out the opening four-game homestand against Dartmouth (Sept. 5) and Hofstra (Sept. 7).

The Black and Gold then make trips to Providence (Sept. 12) and Boston U (Sept. 21). Bryant and PC will be meeting for the eighth time in program history, while the Bulldogs and Terriers will meet for just the second time and first since the 2017 season.

A Tuesday afternoon home game with Holy Cross (Sept. 23) and a road trip to La Salle (Sept. 28) are the final two tuneups before the Bulldogs open America East play at home against UMass Lowell (Oct. 3). 

Bryant’s AE opener with UML starts a four-game homestand that includes games against Cornell (Oct. 5), UAlbany (Oct. 10) and Merrimack (Oct. 12). The Bulldogs then hit the road for games at Maine (Oct. 17) and Brown (Oct. 19). Bryant picked up its first-ever win over Maine last season, rallying from 3-0 down to earn a 4-3 overtime victory. 

The Black and Gold close out the home slate as they welcome defending America East champion Vermont on Oct. 24 and non-conference foe Bellarmine on Oct. 26. Bryant will head to UNH for a Halloween contest to close out the regular season. 

PER A PRESS RELEASE FROM USA GYMNASTICS

INDIANAPOLIS (June 5, 2025) – Having led a historic turnaround that saw athlete health, competitive achievement and business success powerfully align, USA Gymnastics President & CEO Li Li Leung on Thursday announced that she will step down from her role at the conclusion of 2025.

Since her hiring in March 2019, Leung has worked with the USAG board of directors, staff, and the broader gymnastics community to guide USA Gymnastics through a cultural transformation that began a new chapter for the sport and re-established USAG as a leader in the Olympic and international gymnastics movements.

“The opportunity to lead USA Gymnastics has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime,” Leung said. “Thanks to the dedication of the entire gymnastics community, we are now in an incredible position as we turn our attention to the L.A. Olympic Games. The last several months have been a time of great reflection, and I know that now is the right time to pass the torch to the next leader, with the sport and organization thriving. I wanted to ensure the board has the opportunity to conduct a thorough search and also give my successor a long runway into the 2028 Olympic Games. I’m going to take some time to reset before determining what is next, and I look forward to USA Gymnastics accomplishing great things in 2025 and beyond.”

“Li Li was the right leader at the right time for USA Gymnastics and accomplished in six years what many thought was not possible,” said Board Chair Kathryn Carson. “Her deep passion for gymnastics and extraordinary dedication to leading transformation has positioned USA Gymnastics to move boldly toward LA28. With this strong foundation, we are confident we will identify a leader to build on Li Li’s legacy.”

With a new board of directors established in 2018, a new mission statement and set of organizational values that prioritizes athlete safety, and nearly 70% new staff, USA Gymnastics moved rapidly toward rebirth since Leung took on the role of President & CEO. USA Gymnastics established its Athlete Bill of Rights in December 2020, a movement that was among the first of its kind in sport, and emerged from bankruptcy in 2022 with a foundational culture of athlete support and safety driving organizational decision-making.

Since that time, USA Gymnastics has unveiled an expanded funding structure for National Team athletes that brought greater equity across disciplines and genders and introduced a groundbreaking program to help provide mental health visits to National Team athletes and their coaches. The organization has restored its corporate partnership family with both Fortune 500 and endemic brands, headlined by the the largest partnership in its history, a five-year deal with Nike that extends through the LA28 Olympic Games. On the grass roots level, USAG now boasts more than 3,300 member clubs, nearly 240,000 members, and sanctions more than 3,500 events on an annual basis.

USA Gymnastics athletes have likewise experienced a resurgence of success, with the last two years alone bringing history-making performances across all disciplines. Among the most notable achievements are 11 medals including women’s team gold at the 2024 Olympic Games, historic men’s team bronze medals in Paris and the 2023 World Championships, 10 medals at the 2023 Trampoline & Tumbling World Championships including team gold, the first-ever medal for an American at a rhythmic World Championships at the 2023 Junior Worlds, and the first World Cup and World Championships medals for American parkour athletes.

Leung was voted vice chair of the NGB Council of the U.S. Olympic sport governing bodies in 2020 and was elected to the Executive Committee of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) in 2021, winning re-election in 2024. She was named a Sports Business Journal “Power Player” in 2020, an SBJ Gamechanger in 2024, and USAG was nominated as Team of the Year for the 2025 Sports Business Awards. Leung was recognized on the 2023 A100 list as one of the country’s most impactful Asian Americans and named a 2025 WISE Woman of the Year.

USA Gymnastics has engaged CAA Executive Search to lead the search for Leung’s successor, with the intent to have a new president and CEO identified prior to her departure at the end of the year.

For a full bio of Li Li Leung, visit the USA Gymnastics website.

The NHL is not expecting Russian participation in the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, deputy commissioner Bill Daly said Wednesday in a news conference before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. His statement came on the heels of the International Olympic Committee confirming last week its stance that both Russia and Belarus should be barred from fielding teams of athletes.

The IOC Executive Board recommended sanctions for Russia after the country invaded Ukraine in February 2022 with support from Belarus, its western neighbor. The recommendations to international sports federations were first announced in 2023, leading to Russia and Belarus missing out on the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The IOC requested an Olympic hockey schedule and groupings from the International Ice Hockey Federation in early May, IIHF president Luc Tardif recently told reporters. The IOC then reaffirmed its recommendations in a statement at the end of the month.

Neither the IOC nor the IIHF have released official decisions on Russia’s involvement in the 2026 Olympics, which will be held next February. But the recommendations are not expected to change, as Daly’s comment indicated. The chances of a Russian team taking the ice for the Olympic hockey tournament are slim, if not zero.

Here’s a look at the situation and its particular impact on the men’s hockey tournament, which will see active NHL players competing in it for the first time since 2014.

What is the historical precedent here?

There has been a long history of countries not being allowed to compete at the Olympics. In the wake of World War II, Germany and Japan were not invited to the 1948 Olympics. The IOC barred South Africa from the Olympics from 1964 until the 1992 Games due to apartheid. Yugoslavia didn’t have a team while under sanctions in 1992 for military aggression against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Olympics historian David Wallechinsky said that historically, the IOC has banned countries on a case-by-case basis that has not always been consistent. He mentioned that the U.S. did not get sanctioned when it went to war in Vietnam. The idea didn’t even come up.

“If you look at South Africa and Russia, it took outside pressure to even get (the IOC) to act seriously,” Wallechinsky said. “They do have this philosophy, long-standing: Don’t punish athletes because of the actions of their government. They’ll kind of bend over backwards to allow that. But if there’s enough outside pressure, like South Africa and Ukraine, then they act.”

What impact does the ban have on Russian NHL players?

Russia is a traditional Olympic power in men’s hockey. The Soviets won gold seven times, as did the 1992 Unified Team (a group of athletes from Russia and four other former Soviet states) and the 2018 Olympic Athletes of Russia.

The NHL hasn’t sent players to the Winter Olympics since 2014, when Canada defeated Sweden to win gold in Sochi, Russia. The Russian men’s team did not medal on home ice, a source of national embarrassment so bitter that some players from that team did not attend the closing ceremonies.

NHL stars Nikita Kucherov, Andrei Vasilevskiy and Artemi Panarin, all of whom are at least 30 years old, have never competed in the Olympics. With the IOC’s recommendations intact, it’s possible they never will.

The exclusion of Russian teams also means Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin might never play in the Olympics together and both of their decorated careers could end without an Olympic medal. Russia hasn’t reached the podium with active NHL players since taking bronze in 2002, before either star was on the team.

Could Russian hockey players compete as a neutral team?

Before the sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine, Russia faced discipline for what the IOC referred to as “systematic manipulation of the anti-doping system.” But while the IOC banned the Russian Olympic Committee, athletes from the country were allowed to participate at the 2018 Winter Games under the Olympic flag and a new name: “Olympic Athletes of Russia.” That year, in Pyeongchang, South Korea, a team of Russian players won gold in men’s hockey.

At the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo (which were delayed until 2021 because of COVID-19) and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, meanwhile, Russians competed as the Russian Olympic Committee — rather than as Russia — because of continued fallout from the doping scandal. At the latter Olympics, the Russian Olympic Committee men’s hockey team took silver.

Multiple Russians who play in NHL and KHL, speaking on condition of anonymity because the Russian Federation did not approve their comments, said they would not want to compete in the Olympics under these altered titles in Milan Cortina.

“We are Russian,” one of those players said. “If we play it’s Russia flag, Russia name. Like other countries.”

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, 32 individual Russian and Belarusian athletes were allowed to participate under the title “Individual Neutral Athletes.” There are set to be neutral athletes again at the 2026 Games with the same recommendations as 2024 in place, including that athletes who actively support the war or who are contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military cannot compete. But, as of now, there will not be a men’s or women’s hockey team with a neutral name.

“It is based on the fact that, by definition, a group of Individual Neutral Athletes cannot be considered a team,” the IOC said in a statement. “We take note that the IIHF has confirmed that it will follow this recommendation.”

Speaking of the IIHF, what has its role been?

According to the IIHF website, “The decision whether Russia participates in the 2026 Winter Olympic Games will remain under the International Olympic Committee’s jurisdiction.”

The IIHF Council did, however, announce in February that Russia and Belarus would not be reincorporated into its championships in the 2025-26 season, which includes events like the World Championship and World Juniors.

“As the current security conditions do not allow the necessary requirements for the organization of tournaments guaranteeing the safety of all, the IIHF must maintain the current status quo until further notice,” it said in a statement.

Tardif, speaking at world junior championships in January, said he wants Russia back in competitions as soon as possible.

“It will mean the war will be over,” he said. “(Russia) is missed for any competition. But let them come too early, that’s not going to be good.”

How has Russia and its hockey federation responded?

The Russian Ice Hockey Federation said in a statement that it hopes the IOC’s recommendations will be revised. A spokesperson said the federation cannot appeal recommendations but “as soon as we receive a specific decision, we will be able to decide on our possible actions against it.”

Based on recent precedent, a successful appeal seems close to impossible. In July 2022, the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed Russia’s appeal of FIFA and UEFA’s decisions to ban Russia from national and club competition.

Beyond the Olympics, the Russian federation also disagreed with the IIHF’s decision not to reincorporate Russia into its 2025-26 events, taking objection to the IIHF citing security concerns as its primary reason.

“The successes of Russian athletes in the NHL, AHL, NCAA and other leagues in various countries, the attention they receive and the friendly atmosphere around them prove that we do not pose a security threat, as many federations state, and that sport can still exist beyond politics, despite the position of individual sports officials,” the Russian federation said in its statement.

What country will compete in hockey instead of Russia?

If the recommendations remain in place, France will replace Russia in both the men’s and women’s hockey tournaments.

Russia is currently second in the IIHF men’s rankings and sixth on the women’s side, while France is No. 14 and No. 15, respectively. At the most recent men’s world championships, the French roster included St. Louis Blues forward Alexandre Texier, Washington Capitals goalie prospect Antoine Keller, and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, who played 700 NHL games before going to the Swiss league this season. It was the only team at the tournament that failed to win a game, though it picked up a point for an overtime loss.

The French were not at the 2025 women’s world championships.

How do NHL players feel about Russia likely missing the 2026 Games?

The Russian NHL and KHL players who spoke to The Athletic said they are not surprised by the recommendations remaining in place but remained hopeful a resolution could be reached. One player, speaking on condition of anonymity because the Russian Ice Hockey Federation did not approve his comments, said that he’s received “hidden support” from non-Russian NHL players citing Russia’s status as a historic rival to many Olympic countries — specifically Canada, the U.S. and Czechia.

“If you ask the athletes, we want to play the best,” one non-Russian NHL player said. “I think that’s in any sport. But they’re not asking us what we want. I think these decisions have nothing to do with the hockey or other sports. It’s not about the players, the athletes. It’s above us.”

That feeling is not universal. Hall of Fame goalie Dominik Hašek, who is from Czechia, has been adamantly opposed to Russia competing in the Olympics, recently tweeting approval for the IOC’s stance.

(Photo of Russian players celebrating their 2018 Olympic gold medal: Geoff Burke / USA TODAY)

Associated Press

Li Li Leung, who deftly guided USA Gymnastics back from the brink of collapse in the wake of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal, is stepping down at the end of the year.

The decision, which USA Gymnastics announced Thursday, comes with the organization in a far different place than it was when Leung took over in the spring of 2019.

Back then, it was fighting battles on multiple fronts, and the long-term survival of one of the U.S. Olympic movement’s marquee programs was hardly assured.

USA Gymnastics had filed for bankruptcy just months before Leung’s arrival in the hopes of reaching settlements in the dozens of lawsuits it faced from women who blamed it for failing to supervise Nassar, a former national team doctor who sexually abused them under the guise of medical treatment.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee was in the process of stripping USA Gymnastics of its status as the national governing body for the sport. Sponsors fled.

Most importantly to Leung, a former college gymnast, the trust between the organization and its stakeholders — from athletes to parents to coaches — appeared irrevocably broken.

Through a mixture of empathy, savvy and commitment, it’s not that way anymore. The lawsuit was settled in late 2021. The USOPC eventually halted the decertification process. High-profile corporate partners reengaged and, in some instances, even expanded their relationship.

More vitally, the daunting culture shift USA Gymnastics faced as it tried to remake itself more athlete-focused has found firm footing.

Throw in a dazzling performance at the Paris Games last summer by the women’s Olympic program and a resurgent one by the men, and Leung knew it was time to make a choice she called “difficult” and “bittersweet” but also necessary.

“The organization is in a great place right now,” Leung told The Associated Press. “I feel comfortable about being able to hand it over in this situation, in this position, to my successor who can then build on all the achievements we’ve had so far.”

While Leung stressed she isn’t burned out, she added she’d “like a little bit of a rest.” She also wants to ensure whoever follows her will have plenty of runway ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

“From a timing perspective, it would be completely unfair of me to say to the (USA Gymnastics board of directors) in 2027: ‘Hey I’m out. Now you have to figure out how to get us to LA,” she said.

‘A significantly stronger position’

The search for her replacement will begin immediately. Leung, who said she is firmly committed to finishing out the year, will be part of the hiring process for a job that looks far more desirable now than it did six years ago.

“Li Li leaves USA Gymnastics in a significantly stronger position than when she joined, with a promising trajectory towards LA 28,” USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland told the AP. “Her leadership faced numerous challenges, yet she demonstrated remarkable resilience and strength, along with unwavering support for the athletes.”

When Leung was hired, she was the fourth person to hold the titles of CEO and president in two years. She never put a timeline on how long she might stay, though she believes her departure showcases just how stable things have become.

“It’s a sign of good organizational evolution to have new leadership come into place and have new perspectives and innovative thinking,” she said.

Leung leaned heavily into both when she ran into what was essentially a burning building. During her first week on the job alone, a tractor-trailer carrying equipment to a national training camp flipped over and she was told there was only about six weeks’ worth of cash flow in the bank.

It was daunting to be sure, but Leung said she had “zero buyer’s remorse.”

“It’s been difficult at times, but there has never been a day that I thought ‘We can’t do this,’” she added.

Accomplishing the ‘impossible’

Leung might have been one of the few. Yet her experience as a gymnast gave her a perspective that those who preceded her did not. Where others had been almost standoffish with sexual abuse survivors out of fear of legal retribution, Leung led with empathy that wasn’t merely performative.

The organization established an Athletes Bill of Rights in 2020. It later expanded mental health care services for both athletes and their coaches and created a new funding structure designed to give national team members more equity.

Even some of USA Gymnastics’ most visible critics took notice.

Two-time Olympic champion Simone Biles, who publicly identified herself as a Nassar victim in 2018 and frequently called out the organization’s leadership for a series of missteps, told the AP in 2024 that she had noticed a positive shift inside USA Gymnastics because those in power had “stepped up to the role” and “put in the work.”

It’s that shift that Leung is most proud of as she eyes a break. She had no idea how long she would stay when she came on board. Given the organization’s tenuous position at the time, she didn’t have the luxury.

“For me, it was about putting the big building blocks in place (and) accomplishing the things that were mission critical,” she said. “Cultural change is the most difficult type of change to implement, because you have no idea how long it takes.”

Leung understands that kind of change has no finish line. Yet when she walks out of her office in Indianapolis for the last time later this year, it will be far closer than when she walked into it.

“A lot of people said it was total career suicide (when I came on),” Leung said. “I thought the exact opposite of that. I think, obviously a lot of people thought it was an impossibility, (but) we’ve been able to accomplish what people thought was impossible.”

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AP National Writer Eddie Pells contributed to this report.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games