Bethany Brausen has been named head coach of the University of St. Thomas women’s hockey team. She had been serving as the interim head coach since Joel Johnson resigned from the position in November.

“It is both an immense honor and one of the greatest privileges of my professional career to be named the head coach of the women’s hockey program at the University of St. Thomas,” Brausen said in a statement.

The announcement from Tommies athletics director Phil Esten came after the St. Thomas swept a weekend series against No. 4-ranked Minnesota-Duluth.

“I am thrilled to introduce Bethany as our new women’s hockey head coach as she has established herself as one of the best emerging coaches in women’s college hockey,” Esten said in a statement. “I am confident she will lead St. Thomas women’s hockey with poise and uphold the core values of Tommie athletics at the highest level.”

It’s been a steady rise up the ranks for Brausen.

After serving as a captain of the Gophers women’s hockey team, where she helped lead the program to back-to-back national championships in 2012 and 2013, Brausen wound up back with the Gophers as an assistant coach in 2016. She served in that role until she joined the Tommies in 2021.

— Dane Mizutani

Baseball

Pressly waives no-trade clause to join Cubs

The Chicago Cubs are finalizing a trade for Ryan Pressly, adding the right-hander to the back end of their bullpen in their second major offseason deal with the Houston Astros.

Pressly has agreed to waive his no-trade clause, according to a person familiar with the situation, and there is an agreement in place between the teams, pending a review of medical records. The person spoke to the AP on Sunday on condition of anonymity because the trade had not been finalized.

Pressly had the right to block the deal because of his 12 years in the majors and six-plus seasons with the Astros. He had a 3.49 ERA in 59 appearances last year while serving as a setup man for Josh Hader.

The Cubs also acquired All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker in a multiplayer trade with the Astros in December.

Pressly is slated to make $14 million in the last year of his contract, and Houston could use the money it saved in the trade to upgrade its outfield. It also could make a renewed push for a reunion with free agent third baseman Alex Bregman.

Hader replaced Pressly as Houston’s closer after he agreed to a $95 million, five-year contract last January.

Pressly, a 36-year-old Dallas native, made his big league debut with Minnesota in 2013 and spent his first five-plus seasons with the Twins. He was traded to Houston in July 2018.

basketball

Plum, Loyd dealt in WNBA 3-way trade

Kelsey Plum is headed to Los Angeles as part of a three-way trade that will send Jewell Loyd to the Las Vegas Aces, according to a person familiar with the deal.

The Sparks traded the No. 2 pick in the draft and Li Yueru to Seattle. Los Angeles also received the No. 9 pick. The Aces got the 13th pick in the draft. The person spoke on condition of anonymity on Sunday night because no official deal has been announced.

Plum helped the Aces win consecutive WNBA championships in 2022 and 2023. She was designated as the team’s franchise player on Jan. 11, meaning the only way she could leave the team was via trade. She averaged 17.8 points and 4.2 assists last season.

Loyd requested a trade last month out of Seattle, where she had spent her entire career since getting drafted by the Storm in 2015. The 31-year-old averaged 19.7 points and 4.5 rebounds last season and is a six-time All-Star. Loyd helped Seattle win two WNBA championships in 2018 and 2020 as well as a scoring title in 2023.

She was the league’s Rookie of the Year in 2015.

Las Vegas still has more room to make pickups in free agency to add to the core group of Loyd, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young and reigning MVP A’ja Wilson.

Teams could start talking to free agents last Tuesday, but can’t officially sign them until Feb. 1.

Figure skating

Malinin earns third straight U.S. title

In another stunning display of athleticism, Ilia Malinin, the reigning world champion, landed six of his seven planned quad jumps — including the quad axel, the jump that only Malinin has ever landed in competition — and finished with 333.31 points after his free skate to win his third consecutive national championship at INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas.

Andrew Torgashev landed a pair of quads during his free skate and finished second with 286.49 points, while Camden Pulkinen took advantage of a sloppy free skate from Jimmy Ma to secure the bronze medal with 252.92 points.

If it had been international competition, Malinin’s score would have nearly matched Nathan Chen’s record of 335.30 points.

soccer

Girma is women’s first million-dollar player

Women’s soccer has its first million-dollar player after United States defender Naomi Girma moved from San Diego Wave to Chelsea on Sunday.

Chelsea announced the signing of Girma without disclosing the fee but The Athletic and the BBC were among those reporting the English champions have spent 900,000 pounds ($1.1 million) on the transfer.

That surpasses the world-record fee of $788,000 that Bay FC paid to sign Zambia striker Rachael Kundananji from Madrid CFF last year.

It is the third time Chelsea has paid a world-record fee for a player, after Denmark forward Pernille Harder ($355,000) in 2020 and Colombia forward Mayra Ramirez ($542,000) last year.

The 24-year-old Girma was under contract with the Wave until 2026. She was drawing interest from French club Lyon and Arsenal, Chelsea’s rival in the Women’s Super League.

— From news services