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Jewish star guard Abby Meyers leads University of Maryland into top-10 spot in the NCAA tournament
(JTA) — Last July, Abby Meyers helped lead Team USA to a gold medal in women’s basketball at the Maccabiah Games, or the “Jewish Olympics,” in Israel. Starting next week, she hopes to embark on a run towards another championship: a Division I NCAA tournament title.
Meyers, a graduate transfer at the University of Maryland, is the starting shooting guard for a Terrapins team ranked sixth in the nation going into this Sunday, when the March Madness bracket seedings will be revealed. She averaged 14.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per game this season and was named to the All-Big Ten Second Team, an honor that singles her out as one of the best players in the powerhouse conference.
Last week, Maryland lost to Iowa in the Big 10 tournament semifinals. Last March, they lost in the Sweet 16 round to Stanford.
“I think it just gives us more motivation going into the NCAA tournament,” Meyers said. “Especially if you’re a competitor, no one likes losing. But that’s part of the game, right? You live, you learn. And we’re lucky to have another opportunity.”
One particular group could help motivate her during what she hopes will be a deep tournament run: her Jewish fans.
“There’s an amazing following of Jewish students who come to my games, who support me and love the fact that I’m Jewish,” she said. Her school has one of the largest populations of Jewish students in the country, at around 6,000.
Growing up in Maryland’s Montgomery County, she attended synagogue at the Reform Washington Hebrew Congregation in Washington, D.C. and was surrounded by Jewish friends in the DMV area — the colloquial acronym for the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia region. She didn’t begin playing basketball competitively until high school.
She played with her two sisters, Emily and Olivia, in high school, then went first to Princeton. There she played with two Jewish teammates, Kira Emsbo and Maddie Plank, who also played with Meyers at the Maccabiah Games last summer.
“I see myself as a female Jewish athlete, and I think it really came to fruition this past summer when I went to the Maccabiah Games in Israel and was able to play alongside so many amazing, talented Jewish athletes from all over the world,” Meyers said. “That was different for me, because I’ve never been around so many Jewish athletes before.”
Meyers had tried out and made the Maccabi USA women’s basketball team in 2017, but decided not to play because she was about to enter college — a decision she now calls naive. The Maccabiah Games is a quadrennial sports competition that convenes thousands of Jewish athletes from around the world for an Olympics-style tournament in Israel.
So when the 21st Maccabiah Games were set to return in 2022, Meyers didn’t want to miss out again. She found out that Plank, who now plays at Davidson College in North Carolina, would be trying out, and that her assistant coach at Princeton, Lauren Battista, was a Maccabiah alum. Maccabi USA women’s basketball coach Sherry Levin also reached out to Meyers, and chose the 6-foot guard as team captain early on.
“I can’t speak more highly of a player that I’ve coached than Abby Meyers. And I’ve coached a lot,” Levin said. She hailed Meyers’ basketball IQ, her selflessness on the court and her leadership. “She checks every box.”
Meyers, who had never been to Israel, said the experience was “by far the most fun I’ve ever had.”
“It’s way more than just basketball. It’s really learning about your history, your ancestry and just appreciating all things Jewish,” Meyers said.
In addition to winning the gold medal, Meyers said her visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem stood out to her.
“To be there, in Jerusalem in that moment, it was really just a reflective moment,” Meyers said. “It made me just appreciate the opportunity I had to represent my country being a Jewish athlete, and to also have that opportunity to be there, in person, to be safe, to be healthy, and to just appreciate those who came before me.”
Plank echoed Levin’s praise for her teammate.
“Abby is probably the most basketball-loving, passionate, driven character that I’ve ever been around in my life,” Plank said. “She just leads by example. It’s such a pleasure being on the court with her.”
Plank said she and Meyers keep in touch now that they’ve both left Princeton (they played against each other this season — Maryland beat Davidson 70-52). She said she hopes to see Meyers in the WNBA one day.
If that WNBA dream doesn’t come to fruition for Meyers, she said that she is open to the possibility of playing professionally in Israel.
Meyers joined her close-to-hometown school as a graduate transfer last year after three seasons at Princeton, where she was unanimously named the Ivy League Player of the Year and earned First Team All-Ivy honors in her final year. She made the move in part to be closer to her family, including her grandmother, who she said has not been able to see many of her games.
Back at Maryland, Meyers isn’t surrounded by many Jewish players on the court. But she does appreciate the opportunity to explain concepts such as synagogue, Hebrew school and the Holocaust to non-Jewish teammates.
“I’m always happy and proud to be able to not educate, but to inform them on what it’s like to be Jewish,” she said. “There’s plenty of Jewish stereotypes out there, whether it’s looks, or that we’re just hardworking go-getters, which I love, because we are. But it’s special to have that kind of interaction with them where they’re open and willing listeners and learners.”
On campus at both Princeton and now Maryland, Meyers said she has engaged with chapters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement — which performs outreach and holds programming for a wide range of Jewish students on campuses across the country — and other centers of Jewish life.
“I was able to meet so many cool Jewish students who knew me and knew that I play basketball and have been to my games,” Meyers said. “It was just great to tap into that community, because automatically you feel like they’re your immediate friends.”
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Iran Promises ‘Crushing’ Attacks Against the US and Israel
Symbolic mock-ups of Iranian missiles are displayed on a street, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 22, 2026. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
i24 News – Iran has issued a stark warning of “crushing” retaliatory attacks against the United States and Israel following threats from US President Donald Trump to escalate military operations in the coming weeks.
In a statement aired on Iranian state television, the Khatam al-Anbiya operational command said, “this war will continue until your humiliation, your disgrace, your permanent and certain regret, and your surrender,” framing the conflict as a long-term confrontation and invoking “trust in Almighty God.”
Iranian officials further warned that future operations would be “more crushing, broader, and more destructive,” signaling the potential expansion of the conflict across multiple fronts amid ongoing missile and drone exchanges in the region.
The escalation comes after Trump publicly suggested intensifying strikes on Iran, saying operations would continue until “the job is finished” and claiming significant military gains against Iranian strategic capabilities. As tensions rise, both sides appear to be hardening their positions, increasing fears of a wider regional confrontation.
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Trump Speech Unleashes More Pain on US Consumers with $5 Gasoline, Record Diesel in Sight
US President Donald Trump arrives to award the medal of honor to Master Sgt. Roderick ‘Roddie’ W. Edmonds, Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis, and retired Command Sgt. Maj. Terry P. Richardson during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 02 March 2026.
US President Donald Trump’s address to the nation on Wednesday, in which he vowed more aggressive strikes on Iran, has put consumers on course for record fuel prices at the pumps just ahead of the country’s peak summer travel season, market experts said.
Americans expected Trump’s speech to outline a plan to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, as Iran’s blockade of the global oil conduit has sent oil and fuel prices skyrocketing, pinching consumers’ wallets. But instead, Trump vowed to bomb Iran back into the “Stone Ages” and said the strait would just open “naturally” when the war ends.
The comments sent US crude oil prices surging more than 10 percent on Thursday, and US average retail gasoline prices are now set to climb to between $4.25 and $4.45 a gallon by next week after crossing $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022 at the start of this week, said Patrick De Haan.
The pain could worsen. If there is no viable plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the US average price of gasoline will likely cross $5 a gallon and hit record levels within a month, De Haan said.
Wholesale markets had begun moving higher on Thursday, with midmorning increases of 17 cents a gallon in the Great Lakes, Great Plains, Northeast and West Coast markets, and a 19-cent-a gallon hike in the Gulf Coast, said Tom Kloza, chief energy adviser to Gulf Oil on social media.
Meanwhile, diesel prices, less visible to consumers but arguably more impactful as they are directly tied to the cost of making and moving goods, could hit a record high within two weeks, De Haan said.
The national average retail diesel price is set to climb from $5.47 a gallon on Thursday to between $5.80 and over $6 a gallon within the next two weeks, De Haan said. The record US average retail price was $5.83 a gallon in 2022.
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Britain Says 40 Countries Discuss Reopening Strait of Hormuz After Iran Blockade
A map showing the Strait of Hormuz is seen in this illustration taken June 22, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
About 40 countries are discussing joint action to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to stop Iran holding “the global economy hostage,” Britain said on Thursday, after US President Donald Trump said securing the waterway was for others to resolve.
British foreign minister Yvette Cooper said Iran’s “recklessness” in blockading the waterway was “hitting our global economic security” as she chaired the virtual meeting, which included France, Germany, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and India.
“We have seen Iran hijack an international shipping route to hold the global economy hostage,” Cooper said in opening remarks broadcast to the media before the rest of the meeting took place behind closed doors.
The United States did not attend the talks, one official said. The discussions, involving representatives of some 40 countries, took place after Trump said on Wednesday evening that the Strait could open “naturally” and it was the responsibility of countries that rely on the waterway to ensure it was open.
FOCUS ON DIPLOMATIC AND MILITARY OPTIONS
Iran has effectively shut down the key waterway, which carries about a fifth of the world’s total oil consumption, in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes which began in late February. Reopening it has become a priority for governments around the world as energy prices soar.
European countries initially refused Trump’s demand to send their navies to the area because of fears about being dragged into the conflict.
But concerns about the impact of the rising cost of energy on the global economy have prompted them to try to form a coalition to see how they can defend their own interests.
European diplomats said putting the coalition together was at an early stage, with Britain and France leading.
Officials said the discussions on Thursday would focus on which countries were prepared to participate.
France’s Armed Forces spokesperson Guillaume Vernet told a news conference on Thursday that the process would be multi-phased and could not happen until hostilities had calmed or ended.
A key focus of the talks would be how to ensure ship-owners could feel confident enough for vessels to resume traveling through the area and to bring down insurance premiums.
There would also eventually need to be coordination with Iran to ensure that there will be security guarantees for ships, Vernet said, something that is unlikely for now.
Talks had also started on what military assets could be provided, he said.
“We will need to assemble a sufficient number of vessels and have coordination capabilities in the air, at sea, as well as the ability to share intelligence,” he said.
Britain said it would host a meeting of military planners for talks next week.
Trump said on Wednesday evening that other countries that use the Strait of Hormuz should “build up some delayed courage” and “just grab it.”
“Just take it, protect it, use it for yourselves,” he said.
But France’s President Emmanuel Macron speaking in South Korea on Thursday said seizing the Strait militarily was an “unrealistic” option.
“It would take an indefinite amount of time, and it would expose all those who venture through this Strait to coastal risks from the Revolutionary Guards, as well as ballistic missiles,” he said.