{"id":462219,"date":"2026-02-11T13:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T13:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/462219\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T13:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T13:20:08","slug":"athletes-unlimited-kaitlyn-chen-among-first-time-captains-for-week-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/462219\/","title":{"rendered":"Athletes Unlimited: Kaitlyn Chen among first-time captains for Week 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Athletes Unlimited is now in its fifth season, and that\u2019s been more than enough time for its foundational players to become well-known. Current Player Executive Committee<\/a> members Isabelle Harrison and Lexie Brown, for instance, have been part of the league since its inception, while the ever-popular Sydney Colson and Theresa Plaisance remain mainstays even when they aren\u2019t playing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Week 1 of the 2026 season, however, belonged to the rookies.<\/p>\n

Playing on a stacked Eclipse roster, first-year players Kaitlyn Chen, Rebekah Gardner and Aneesah Morrow were outstanding in their Athletes Unlimited debuts, and now each of them will get the opportunity to captain their own team in Week 2.<\/p>\n

The Eclipse dominated the Week 1 AU Leaderboard<\/p>\n

Athletes Unlimited may be a player-driven league that rewards big individual performances, but those individuals also earn points<\/a> simply by playing on winning teams\u2014and when one team is head and shoulders above the rest, those player scores are going to be a tad skewed.<\/p>\n

Such was the case in the first week of the 2026 season, when the newly-christened Eclipse went a perfect 3-0. Captained by Alysha Clark, the Eclipse scored at least 100 points in two of their three wins, and everyone on their roster earned over 1,000 win points (480 for won quarters and 540 for won games) for the team\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, the league\u2019s leaderboard<\/a> is looking awfully purple at the moment. Eight of the top-ten ranked players were on the Eclipse last week, including all four of Week 2\u2019s captains: Chen, Gardner, Morrow and Clark. Clark takes the place of Asia Taylor, who finished last week No. 4 in points but is currently away from the league for personal reasons<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are the full results from last week:<\/p>\n

Glow 86, Rhythm 73<\/p>\n

Eclipse 101, Gold Rush 83<\/p>\n

Eclipse 100, Glow 92<\/p>\n

Gold Rush 80, Rhythm 72<\/p>\n

Eclipse 80, Rhythm 76<\/p>\n

Glow 83, Gold Rush 78<\/p>\n

Meet the AU teams for Week 2<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the Week 2 draft went, with each team\u2019s roster listed in the order in which players were picked:<\/p>\n

Gold Rush (Kaitlyn Chen): Kiah Stokes, Bree Hall, Jacy Sheldon, Kia Nurse, Teana Muldrow, Te-Hina Paopao, Bria Hartley, Kiara Leslie, Rebecca HarrisGlow (Rebekah Gardner): Odyssey Sims, Natasha Mack, Sarah Ashlee Barker, Emma Cannon, Kierstan Bell, McKenzie Forbes, Dorie Harrison, Grace Berger, Lexie BrownRhythm (Aneesah Morrow): NaLyssa Smith, Zia Cooke, Asia Taylor, Aerial Powers, Kayana Traylor, Brianna Turner, Sequoia Holmes, Deja Kelly, Isabelle HarrisonEclipse (Alysha Clark): Mercedes Russell, Shey Peddy, Ariel Atkins, Alissa Pili, Aaliyah Nye, Tina Charles, Jaylyn Sherrod, JoJo Lacey, Alaina Coates<\/p>\n

Since there aren\u2019t as many traditional centers in the player pool as there are guards and perimeter players, it makes sense that each captain took a big early in the draft. Clark drafted a particularly large roster for the Eclipse, with Russell, Charles and Coates all standing at 6-foot-4 or taller.<\/p>\n

Gardner, meanwhile, opted for a guard with her first pick, drafting Sims to the Glow. Sims is currently leading Athletes Unlimited in scoring, which shouldn\u2019t be a surprise to anyone who has followed the league prior to 2026; she\u2019s been one of its most prolific scorers from day one, averaging 23.7 points in 57 career Athletes Unlimited games, and she\u2019ll surely be leaned upon once again in her first go-around with the Glow.<\/p>\n

As for the Gold Rush, watch for the captain herself. Chen was terrific in Week 1, averaging 14.3 points and 4.3 assists per game while shooting 66.7 percent from the field, and she currently leads all players in total points with 1,583. Her efficiency as a scorer and innate ability to get the ball where it needs to go should complement the skills of players like Hall and Nurse, who combined to make 13 3-pointers in Week 1.<\/p>\n

When and how to watch Week 2 of AU<\/p>\n

As is typical for Athletes Unlimited, this week\u2019s games will begin with a Wednesday matinee and run through the weekend. Here\u2019s the complete schedule:<\/p>\n

Rhythm vs. Glow (11:30 a.m. ET; ESPN App)<\/p>\n

Gold Rush vs. Eclipse (8:00 p.m. ET; ESPN App)<\/p>\n

Eclipse vs. Glow (6:30 p.m. ET; ESPN App)<\/p>\n

Rhythm vs. Gold Rush (9:00 p.m. ET; ESPN App)<\/p>\n

Eclipse vs. Rhythm (6:30 p.m. ET; ESPN App)<\/p>\n

Glow vs. Gold Rush (9:00 p.m. ET; ESPN App)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Athletes Unlimited is now in its fifth season, and that\u2019s been more than enough time for its foundational…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[9210,99,434],"class_list":["post-462219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-athletes-unlimited","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}