The final tennis Grand Slam of the year finished yesterday, capping off an exciting two weeks in New York. Fans witnessed a first-time champion, a historic achievement, and the end of a television era. Here are some of the key moments from the past fortnight at Flushing Meadows.

Resurrection of Cilic

Around this time last year, Croatian Marin Cilic was handed a nine-month ban for a positive drug test, although the suspension was later shortened to four months. Cilic arrived in the Big Apple as the 14th seed, but mostly cruised through the tournament, losing only three sets. His straight-set semifinal win over Roger Federer, coupled with Kei Nishikori’s win over Novak Djokovic, set up an unlikely final Monday night. Cilic proved too strong for Nishikori throughout the match, and became the second Croatian to win a men’s singles Grand Slam championship (his coach, Goran Ivanisevic, won Wimbledon in 2001).

Serena Continues Run

After early exits in both the singles and doubles competitions at Wimbledon, Serena Williams arrived at the U.S. Open as the top seed and played as such; the closest her opponents would get to winning a set all tournament long was 3-6. Serena’s championship round opponent, Caroline Wozniacki, was seeking her first Grand Slam title, but Williams emerged victorious to win her third straight U.S. Open, and her 18th major singles win overall; she is tied for fourth in most majors won overall, four behind Steffi Graf.

CBS Bids Goodbye

2014 marked the 47th, and final, year that CBS televised the final tennis major of the season, as the full TV rights will switch to ESPN in 2015. The Tiffany Network’s coverage has provided many historic moments at the championship, and it showcased the talents of terrific broadcasters like Pat Summerall, Dick Enberg, and Mary Carillo. Now that ESPN has captured the rights, the French Open will be the only tennis major shown on any “free-to-air” television (on NBC, which has received criticism in the past for how they’ve handled the time difference).

Another highlight worth mentioning: the Bryan brothers took their era of doubles dominance to new heights over the weekend, winning their 100th overall tournament at Flushing Meadows. It is their 16th major title and their fifth U.S. Open.

That concludes another year of major tennis championships. What will fans witness in 2015?

In English soccer, the promotion/relegation system allows for 3-4 teams to be promoted to a higher tier each season. 2-3 teams go up automatically, but to determine who gets the final opening, the next 4 teams get drawn into a two-leg play-off semifinal, with those winners meeting each other in a one-game play-off final, to decide who goes up a level and who stays where they are now. This weekend, England’s 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tiers will hold their play-off finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Here’s a quick look at each…

League Two: Fleetwood Town vs. Burton Albion, Monday, May 26

Fleetwood Town finished 4th in League Two, and defeated 7th-placed York City in the semifinal, while Burton Albion was 6th during the season and held off Southend United in their encounter. In the two matches this season between FTFC and BAFC, the visiting side won both meetings, with Fleetwood outscoring Burton in those games 6-5. Fleetwood will be looking for a big outing from midfielder Antoni Sarcevic, the team leader in goals this year, while the Brewers have relied on the striking duo of Billy Kee and Adam McGurk all season long. Neither team has ever placed better than 4th in League Two, but the winner of this game will move up with Chesterfield, Scunthorpe United, and Rochdale to League One.

League One: Leyton Orient vs. Rotherham United, Sunday, May 25

Leyton Orient finished 3rd and defeated Peterborough United in their semifinal, while Rotherham was 4th and advanced past Preston North End. Orient scored 3 goals to the Millers’ 2 in the regular season matches (a 1-0 home win and a 2-2 draw in Rotherham). The O’s can boast 4 players this season with more than 10 goals, while RUFC has primarily been led by Kieran Agard. The Millers may have extra incentive to win because having finished 2nd in League Two in 2013, RUFC can make it consecutive seasons of promotion. The winner of this game will advance to the Championship along with Wolverhampton and Brentford.

League Championship: Derby County vs. Queens Park Rangers, Saturday, May 24

The Championship Play-Off Final is often called “the richest game in football“, with the winner granted status into the Premier League and all the financial joys it brings. Both Derby and QPR have made the Premier League before, so both sides are more than eager to return to the top tier in English football. Derby finished 3rd and ran past Brighton in the semifinal, while QPR needed extra time to see off Wigan Athletic. Both teams won hard-fought home matches against each other during the season (Derby 1-0 at home, QPR 2-1 in London). Both teams have big names on their roster, with the Rams managed by former England chief Steve McClaren, and QPR boasting multiple players with previous EPL experience (Bobby Zamora, Jermaine Jenas, Richard Dunne, etc.) The Rangers were relegated to the Championship in 2013, so the opportunity to come back after just one season could be a deciding factor toward who wins. Leicester and Burnley have already clinched automatic promotion.

Who will have fond memories of Wembley this weekend? Who will have to wait until 2015 for another chance to move up?

Last week, I commentated on the USCAA & NCCAA Softball National Championships, in Ohio and Virginia, respectively. Both tournaments had exciting moments, although the weather had its own say throughout the week as well.

The USCAA, in fact, shortened its championship because rain had forced administrators to change the format to single-elimination, as Lindenwood-Belleville won a second straight national championship by virtue of taking the Winner’s Bracket Final over St. Mary-of-the-Woods. One of the highlights from the tournament was a no-hitter from SMWC pitcher Brooke Jordan, in a win over Penn State Mont Alto. Jordan was also effective as a batter, going 2-for-3 in the 2-0 loss to the Lady Lynx that was ultimately the Championship Game. Overall 14 games finished out of the 18 scheduled, with Game 15 in progress when the tournament officially ended on Wednesday.

A 7-hour drive straight from Akron to Roanoke followed, in which I drove through multiple areas under tornado warnings. More rain came to Roanoke on early Thursday morning, but by Friday the skies had cleared, and the NCCAA was able to get all its scheduled games in by Saturday night. Championship Saturday was one to remember for the Shorter Hawks from Rome, Georgia. After defeating Oklahoma Christian 10-0 in 5 innings earlier that morning (due to the 8-run rule), Shorter faced the Eagles once again, this time in the championship round. After being no-hit through 6.2 innings, OCU’s Monique Elliott scored on an RBI from Sarah Endres, the first run given up all tournament by the Hawks. Shorter would win in the 9th inning on a walk-off RBI from Kayla Cooper, giving the Hawks the 2014 National Championship, their 4th Championship of the Spring season.

This past week provided some great softball, with a lot of memories for each player to take away. It will be interesting to see the new memories made in 2015.