Sports
Postseason roundup: Shepard’s Kyla Motley heading back to state
In the same week that she was named Shepard’s Outstanding Senior Female Athlete, Kyla Motley earned three more sectional championships in track and field. Motley won the 100-meter hurdles in 14.54 seconds and high jump (18 feet, 10.75 inches) at the Class 3A Oak Park-River Forest Sectional on May 16. She was also on the winning […]

In the same week that she was named Shepard’s Outstanding Senior Female Athlete, Kyla Motley earned three more sectional championships in track and field.
Motley won the 100-meter hurdles in 14.54 seconds and high jump (18 feet, 10.75 inches) at the Class 3A Oak Park-River Forest Sectional on May 16.
She was also on the winning 800 relay team with sophomores Saline Towers and Nadeea Pritchard and freshman Makynzee Harris.
Motley was a three-time sectional champion in both her sophomore and junior years and won one title as a freshman.
Other champs from the area at Oak Park were Stagg’s Nickie Rudnik in the 100 (12.29) and Gwen Boettinger in the high jump (5-3.75), Shepard’s Ayat Tantawi in the 1,600 (5:19.01), Lyons’ Sarah Wiggins in the 300 hurdles (49.79) and Leigh Ferrell in the pole vault (10-6), and Argo’s Aliyah Cummings in the triple jump (37-6.25).
As the Class 2A U-High Sectional, De La Salle’s Aniya Hamilton with the 300 hurdles with a 48.81.
At the Class 2A Hillcrest Sectional, Evergreen Park freshman Nicole Mitchell won the 800 with a 2:34.07. Sophomore teammate Jordin Pittman won the shot put with a throw of 36-7.25.
The IHSA state meet opens May 22 in Charleston.
Astros win SSC Red boys track
Shepard won the South Suburban Conference Red Meet at Oak Lawn, 135-97 over Richards.
Double individual winners for Shepard were Bryce Jones in the 110 hurdles (16.36) and 300 hurdles (41.44), Jason Crowe in the shot put (49-9.5) and discus (146-1.5), and Dorwyn Kippers in the high jump (6-2) and triple jump (45-1).
Other multiple champs from the area were Evergreen Park’s Kenyatta Hope, who won the 100 (11.71) and 200 (22.54), and Reavis’s Santiago Chavez in the 1,600 (4:28.45) and 3,200 (10:01.77).
Brother Rice won the Catholic League Meet at Loyola.
Sandburg, Brother Rice win bass regionals
Sandburg’s No. 2 boat won the Cal Sag Channel Regional with a haul of 13.30 pounds on May 15, nudging out Nazareth (13.09) in bass fishing.
Senior Scott Miklos and sophomore Landon Kumke advanced to sectional competition for the Eagles. Sandburg senior Adrius Stankus, who was on the No. 1 boat, had the biggest catch of the day with a 5.4-pounder.
Brother Rice’s No. 1 boat won the Wolf Lake Regional as the Crusaders caught 9 pounds and 4 ounces. Senior Joe Bowen and sophomore Thomas Hall were the anglers for Brother Rice.
Lyons, Rice make state in water polo
Sectional host Lyons earned a bid to the IHSA girls water polo state tournament with a 12-4 victory over Mother McAuley on May 17.
The Lions, who finished third in the state in 2022 and 2024, face St. Ignatius at 7 p.m. May 22 at Stevenson.
Brother Rice knocked off defending boys state champion Lyons 19-14 to win the Lyons Sectional.
The Crusaders face Naperville North at 4:30 p.m. May 23. It’s the first time they have been to the quarterfinals since 2014.
Rams compete in state badminton
The area’s lone representatives in the state badminton meet — Reavis’ Joceyln Diaz and Jimena Serna — finished 1-2 last weekend in DeKalb.
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Sports
PubMatic Launches AI-Powered Live Sports Marketplace with Real-Time Game Moment Curation, FanServ Joins as Premier Partner
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — PubMatic (Nasdaq: PUBM), the independent technology company delivering digital advertising’s supply chain of the future, today launched an AI-powered Live Sports Marketplace that enables advertisers to target specific game moments across streaming platforms in real-time. This breakthrough proprietary technology analyzes live game data, offering granular event-level […]

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., July 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — PubMatic (Nasdaq: PUBM), the independent technology company delivering digital advertising’s supply chain of the future, today launched an AI-powered Live Sports Marketplace that enables advertisers to target specific game moments across streaming platforms in real-time. This breakthrough proprietary technology analyzes live game data, offering granular event-level curation and real-time access to premium live sports ad inventory.
The Live Sports Marketplace launches with FanServ as its premier partner, providing immediate access to premium NBA, WNBA, MLB, NHL and National Women’s Soccer League inventory, including exclusive local programming for the Minnesota Twins, Colorado Rockies, and Cleveland Guardians. This partnership is a pivotal step in unifying and expanding access to premium live sports inventory across the digital ecosystem.
“FanServ was built by fans, for fans, and now, with PubMatic, we’re redefining how brands reach and engage fans through programmatic sports advertising. This partnership is about more than just access, it’s about precision and possibility,” stated Brad Friedman, CEO of FanServ. “By combining FanServ’s deep sports expertise with PubMatic’s unique event-level curation, we’re empowering brands to connect meaningfully at the exact moments that matter most, across every platform they love,” added Ben Goodfriend, VP of Demand Partnerships.
The Live Sports Marketplace launches with substantial momentum, building on PubMatic’s sports advertising business where live sports activity has more than tripled in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. The company exceeded its entire 2024 live sports activity in just the first six months of 2025, positioning it to more than double last year’s performance and demonstrating explosive market demand for precision-targeted live sports solutions. Beyond FanServ’s premium inventory, the marketplace provides unified access to major publishers including MLB, FuboTV, DirecTV, Spectrum Reach, and Roku, and covers comprehensive sports content from major leagues (MLB, NBA & WNBA, NHL, MLS) to alternative sports (surfing, pickleball, MMA, FIFA, NASCAR & F1, tennis, golf, cricket) and NCAA college athletics. The company has recently monetized CTV inventory for the official FIFA Club World Cup, which took place from June 19 to July 17.
Currently, traditional programmatic sports buying often fails to distinguish between low- and high-engagement moments, leading to wasted impressions during less impactful periods, such as commercial breaks in lopsided games, while missing opportunities to reach audiences during the most valuable, high-attention moments. The marketplace addresses these and other critical pain points, including fragmented streaming and under-monetized inventory, limited targeted precision across live events, and the technical complexities of managing unpredictable viewership spikes and behaviors. The Live Sports Marketplace enables advertisers and publishers to unlock the full value of live sports audiences through:
- Industry-First Event- and Channel-Level Precision: PubMatic’s proprietary AI enables advertisers to target specific games, teams, or even high-impact moments, across a fragmented streaming landscape, maximizing relevance and engagement for every campaign.
- Dynamic Scheduling & Real-Time Packaging: By importing and analyzing live TV schedules from all partners, the marketplace uses up-to-the-minute sports schedules, ensuring brands can target the right moments as they happen across all publishers.
- Expert Management of Live Spikes: PubMatic’s owned-and-operated infrastructure can expertly manage unpredictable spikes in live viewership, with the potential for separate endpoints for DSPs dedicated to live sports, ensuring seamless, reliable ad delivery at scale, even during the most high-demand moments.
- Scalability and Automation Roadmap: The platform is designed to provide both immediate manual flexibility and future automation, supporting scalable, automated deal creation and reporting. This ensures that both buyers and sellers can benefit from streamlined workflows and real-time insights as the market evolves.
“This revolutionary technology and premium partnership with FanServ transforms fragmented live sports inventory into programmatically accessible, of-the-moment opportunities, setting a new standard for precision and impact in digital sports advertising,” stated Nicole Scaglione, VP of CTV and Online Video at PubMatic.
According to eMarketer, 114.1 million people are projected to watch live sports digitally in 2025, compared to 82.0 million via traditional TV. As audiences migrate to streaming and connected devices, there is a real need for real-time, precise, and scalable ad delivery during unpredictable, high-attention moments. With the Live Sports Marketplace, PubMatic delivers the precision, speed and reliability advertisers need to succeed.
To learn more about the Live Sports Marketplace and how it can elevate your live digital advertising strategy, please visit www.pubmatic.com/live-sports
About Fanserv:
Fanserv pairs the power of sports with the promise of digital by unifying inventory, enabling granular targeting, and providing unparalleled analytics. As the exclusive monetization partner for premiere teams, leagues, and federations, Fanserv delivers seamless monetization solutions purpose-built for live sports.
About PubMatic:
PubMatic (Nasdaq: PUBM) is an independent technology company maximizing customer value by delivering digital advertising’s supply chain of the future. PubMatic’s sell-side platform empowers the world’s leading digital content creators across the open internet to control access to their inventory and increase monetization by enabling marketers to drive return on investment and reach addressable audiences across ad formats and devices. Since 2006, our infrastructure-driven approach has allowed for the efficient processing and utilization of data in real time. By delivering scalable and flexible programmatic innovation, we improve outcomes for our customers while championing a vibrant and transparent digital advertising supply chain.
Press Contact:
Ashley Jacobson, Director of Corporate Marketing, press@pubmatic.com
Broadsheet Communications for PubMatic, pubmaticteam@broadsheetcomms.com
Sports
Alumna Selected for USA Deaf Women’s National Volleyball Team
Bengal alumna Abby Garrity, Class of 2018, has been selected to the USA Deaf Women’s Volleyball Team. After beginning her volleyball career in 7th grade, she became a standout player at ISU and went on to thrive at the international level. She won two gold medals and a bronze in 2016 and 2017. Now she […]

Bengal alumna Abby Garrity, Class of 2018, has been selected to the USA Deaf Women’s Volleyball Team. After beginning her volleyball career in 7th grade, she became a standout player at ISU and went on to thrive at the international level. She won two gold medals and a bronze in 2016 and 2017.
Now she is back, playing for one of the most promising programs in the world. The USA Deaf Women’s Volleyball Team finished second at the Deaf World Championships last summer, and now with Garrity joining for the upcoming Deaflympics the team will be going for gold. This November, they will travel to Tokyo to compete against the world’s best deaf teams in the hopes of bring back the gold.
Garrity says it can be a challenge not hearing very well on the court, but it has helped enhance her technique.
“It’s forced me to see the court better since I can’t rely on teammates telling me what is spots are open mid play,” said Garrity. “I also try and make eye contact with coaching staff to make sure I’m not missing anything being said. On the deaf team, we cannot wear our equipment when we play that helps us hear. We use sign language and I read lips really well.”
Read more about the athlete here.
Sports
Poetry Connection | Wondering What My Mother Would Be Like at 76
‘Women in a Golden State: California Poets at 60 and Beyond’ cover | Photo: Melinda Palacio Earlier this month, I attended Gunpowder Press’s release of their new anthology, Women in a Golden State: California Poets at 60 and Beyond. Since 2025 commemorates the 175th anniversary of California’s statehood, the anthology features 175 California writers. My […]

Earlier this month, I attended Gunpowder Press’s release of their new anthology, Women in a Golden State: California Poets at 60 and Beyond. Since 2025 commemorates the 175th anniversary of California’s statehood, the anthology features 175 California writers. My mother, Blanca Estela Palacio, would have been the same age as many of the women represented in the collection. For the world, she is forever immortalized at age 44. I am older than she was the last time I saw her alive, but not old enough to contribute to this anthology. The collection gives me an insight into what her life concerns would be as an aging Baby Boomer. Many favorite people and poets are included in this impressive poetry collection, and a few micro-essays are also tucked in.
As a child, I remember thinking that my mom was an exceptional woman who had grown up with the best music. I was the oddball teenager who preferred her parents’ music and dances to her own generation’s. My mother was proud of the fact that she was a Baby Boomer, the generation of children born to parents who lived through World War II, who protested the Vietnam War, who marched for peace, women’s rights, civil rights, and affirmative action.
While my mother was born in Texas, she was very much a California girl. California is where she grew up, became a teacher, an activist, and a single mother who also took care of her parents and siblings during her short life. Because I keep aging and my mother does not, I often wonder what her life would be like now. I become wistful around women who have the opportunity for mother-daughter dates. There’s so much about my life in Santa Barbara that I wish I could have shared with my mother. We often took summer road trips from Los Angeles to San Francisco and on several occasions visited my uncle who was stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, but we never stopped in Santa Barbara. I don’t think my mom knew the town existed. Solvang was our usual stopping point. To this day, I have no explanation as to why we never stopped in Santa Barbara. I know she would have loved it here.
Ten years after my mother passed, I met a mother traveling with her adult daughter. I was so happy for the two of them. I told them how lucky they were. Mother and daughter Lucy agreed. They had the same round face and blue eyes. It still puts a smile on my face to think of the two women sharing an aisle on the airplane with 20-year-old me. While I can no longer travel with my mother, we sure shared some fun adventures together to Hawai’i, Mexico, and Europe.
In reading Women in a Golden State, I see my mother in so many of the poems. Sharon Langley’s poem, “I Saw My Mom Today,” reminds me that I only need to look in the mirror to see my mother: “Purse. Pucker, now pose. / That’s her smile for sure. / I saw my mom today.”
Thanks to Gunpowder Press editors Diana Raab and Chryss Yost, there’s a collection of 175 poems that share the concerns of Women in a Golden State and the anthology my mother would be included in if she were a living poet.
Sports
Knoxville Boys A Part Of A National Title Winning Volleyball Team | KNIA KRLS Radio
Two Knoxville boys are a part of a National Championship team. Brody DeJong and Urban Ziller helped Ohana win a national championship at a 17U tournament in Minneapolis earlier this summer. Both tell KNIA/KRLS they got interested in volleyball at a young age, and while Iowa does not currently sanction boys volleyball at the high […]


Two Knoxville boys are a part of a National Championship team. Brody DeJong and Urban Ziller helped Ohana win a national championship at a 17U tournament in Minneapolis earlier this summer. Both tell KNIA/KRLS they got interested in volleyball at a young age, and while Iowa does not currently sanction boys volleyball at the high school level, they both made a travel to squad. Both tell KNIA/KRLS Sports it was a great experience to win a national title.
Urban: “So we started off winning our first match and went 2-1 on the first day. We just knew we could win it and just come together and concentrate on one match at a time.”
Brody: “We went into the title game that couldn’t be at each other’s throats, and knew we had to uplift each other. The other team just died after we won the first set and we gained momentum fromthere.”
Both are currently students at Knoxville High School and are also student managers for the Knoxville High School Volleyball program. Listen for a full interview on a future Today’s Lely Radio Sports Page on KNIA/KRLS.
Photo from Urban Ziller
Sports
Women’s-only track and field competition headed to NYC in the fall
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian said his wife, tennis champion Serena Williams, initially tried to talk him out of investing in women’s sports due to her own difficult experiences in the field. “When I said I wanted to start a team, angel city, she talked me out of it, because of her experience in women’s sports […]

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian said his wife, tennis champion Serena Williams, initially tried to talk him out of investing in women’s sports due to her own difficult experiences in the field.
“When I said I wanted to start a team, angel city, she talked me out of it, because of her experience in women’s sports had given her the perspective to say, look, this is going to be so hard. She has had to go through all of this and survived, and thrive,” Ohanian said during an appearance on “CBS Mornings.”
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Despite Williams’ warnings, Ohanian proceeded with his women’s sports ventures, including Athlos, a women’s-only track and field competition that will debut its first field event in New York City’s Times Square in October.
“I am stubborn. These athletes in track and field captivate us, they should not disappear for the four years in between,” Ohanian said.
The venture capital firm founder announced the expansion alongside Olympic gold medalist Tara Davis-Woodhall, who will compete in the long jump event. Davis-Woodhall said she reached out to Ohanian after the initial Athlos announcement focused primarily on track events.
“It is always looked at last, on the back burner, but field events are so important for track and field,” Davis-Woodhall said. “When no sprinting is going on, it is almost quiet but then you realize there is field that is happening.”
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The event will take place the night before the main Athlos competition. Ohanian compared the long jump distance to a basketball three-point line, noting the athletic feat of “running and jumping that same distance with their body.”
Ohanian credited his marriage to Williams, whom he called “the greatest ever,” with opening his eyes to the potential of women’s sports investments.
“I have found something in women’s sports that is undeniably the result of seeing the greatest ever doing it. Women’s tennis is the prime example of women’s sports being worth as much in dollars, not feelings, the equivalent,” he said.
Davis-Woodhall, who has been competing in long jump since age 4, said working with Ohanian is helping bring her dreams to reality.
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“I have been doing this sport since I was 4 years old at an elite level and to now bring eyes to the sport, awareness, I never knew what that meant until I got a little bit older and a little bit more mature, and working with Alexis, he is helping me bring my dreams towards reality,” she said.
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Sports
Breaking down Northwestern volleyball’s 2025 schedule
Northwestern Volleyball’s 2025 schedule was fully released last month, as the Wildcats are hoping for a rebound after winning just five games last season and finishing second-to-last in the conference. Head coach Tim Nollan is currently in the midst of his first full offseason as NU’s coach, as he continues to rebuild and enhance the […]

Northwestern Volleyball’s 2025 schedule was fully released last month, as the Wildcats are hoping for a rebound after winning just five games last season and finishing second-to-last in the conference. Head coach Tim Nollan is currently in the midst of his first full offseason as NU’s coach, as he continues to rebuild and enhance the program to bring it to a competitive level.
The road to improvement will start with 12 non-conference matchups, four more than last season. The abundant amount of preseason games should benefit the ‘Cats, as they’ll have more time to ramp up players, figure out the best lineups and hone their rotation before conference play begins. The majority of their non-conference opponents were average but not elite last season; however, most finished with a significantly better record than the ‘Cats. Thus, they can provide insight into how much better NU has gotten and whether it has exited the lowly tier of NCAA volleyball teams.
NU will begin its season in San Diego playing New Mexico State, Eastern Washington and UC San Diego on three consecutive days. It will then face one of its toughest opponents in Baylor, which had a 14-4 conference record last season. The other test for the ‘Cats will be a road match against Buffalo, which finished 16-16 last season and 12-6 in the MAC. Aside from these two, the remaining opponents are formidable but beatable.
Conference play begins on September 25th and spans 20 games, with ten in Evanston including four games at home to start. The ‘Cats finished just 2-10 at Welsh-Ryan Arena in 2024, so this opening homestand provides an early opportunity to find confidence and success on their home floor, while making clear to the Wildcat faithful this is a new and refined team. The four games include matchups against NCAA tournament teams in Indiana and Oregon.
Another unique part of its schedule follows, as NU will go from facing a likely terrible team to a likely great team. A matchup against Rutgers, which is also seeking a bounce-back season after finishing last in 2024 conference play, will be followed by a road trip to Penn State to take on the defending national champions. The ‘Cats will need to approach both games with ferocity and be prepared to adjust quickly, given the huge difference in opponent quality.
It won’t just be Penn State that NU will have to contend with. A date with Nebraska — the only other 19-1 team in conference play last season — is scheduled for October 24. The ‘Cats will play several other tournament teams this season, including five at home. Aside from Indiana and Oregon, the ‘Cats will welcome Washington, Wisconsin and Illinois. Northwestern will also face the Fighting Illini twice this season, including a road visit on the final game of the season. Finally, the Wildcats will take on Iowa twice, with the first game taking place on Halloween in Evanston.
Other highlights on the schedule include NU making its first trip to Southern California to face USC and UCLA back-to-back in early November.
The conference isn’t getting any easier, but there are games every week that the ‘Cats have a shot of winning. Taking advantage of sloppy performances and feeding off home crowd energy could go a long way. Regardless, some improvement is what the program is looking for. Let’s see if it can deliver.
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