In Brief

LOCAL COLLEGES

UNLV baseball team picked to take second in MWC

UNLV's baseball team was picked to finish second behind unanimous favorite Texas Christian in the Mountain West Conference coaches preseason poll released Friday.

TCU, the six-time defending champion, received all five first-place votes and 25 points. The Rebels received 16 points, followed by New Mexico (15), San Diego State (12) and Air Force (seven).

Senior second baseman Scott Dysinger and junior outfielder Brandon Bayardi was voted to the preseason all-conference team for the Rebels, who finished 33-25 (10-13 MWC) last season under first-year coach Tim Chambers. UNLV opens the season Friday at Loyola Marymount.

Also: UNLV opened its softball season with two losses in the Sportco Kick-Off Classic at Eller Media Stadium. The Rebels managed only three hits in a 5-0 loss to Oklahoma, then were whipped by Weber State, 11-5.

The UNLV men's tennis team lost to Oklahoma State 4-3 at the Fertitta Tennis Complex. The Rebels (3-4) won two of three doubles matches to take a 1-0 lead, but lost four of six singles matches.

Jack LaMarca and Morgan Stotts each went 3-for-4 to lead College of Southern Nevada to a 7-5 baseball victory over Pacifica College (Calif.) at Morse Stadium. Starter Joey Lauria pitched six shutout innings, giving up four hits and striking out seven, to improve to 2-0 for CSN (6-3).

Alicia Firelein went 5-for-9 with four home runs, eight RBIs and five runs to power the College of Southern Nevada softball team to 11-6 and 8-5 Scenic West Athletic Conference victories over North Idaho in St. George, Utah. Firelein hit three of her homers in the second game, and Brigit Godfrey and Erin Romero each totaled four hits for CSN (8-10, 3-3 SWAC).

GOLF

South Korean Ryu leads LPGA opener by one shot

U.S. Women's Open champion So Yeon Ryu shot a 4-under-par 69 to take a one-stroke lead over fellow South Korean Hee Kyung Seo after two rounds of the LPGA Tour's season-opening Women's Australian Open in Melbourne.

Ryu had a 6-under 140 total on Royal Melbourne's Composite Course. Seo shot 66, the best score in the first two days, with nine birdies and two bogeys.

American Stacy Lewis, the first-round co-leader, shot 73 and is at 4-under 142. Two-time defending champion and top-ranked Yani Tseng was at 146 after a 76 that included a quadruple-bogey 8 on the seventh hole.

Also: Corey Pavin shot an 8-under 64 to take a two-shot lead over Fred Funk, Bernhard Langer and Peter Senior after the first round of the Champions Tour's Allianz Championship at Boca Raton, Fla. Pavin had six birdies in a seven-hole stretch to fire a back-nine 29.

Rory McIlroy and Thomas Bjorn each shot 7-under 65 to share the second-round lead of the European Tour's Dubai Desert Classic in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. They are at 13-under 131.

FOOTBALL

Sandusky calls out public after court appearance

Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky declared that people have turned against him, moments after he asked a Pennsylvania judge for greater freedom while he awaits trial on child sex abuse charges.

Sandusky, 68, asked a judge to let him see relatives, including supervised visits with his grandchildren, and friends. The judge could rule early next week.

Sandusky, who denies the criminal allegations, said he thought people who had been welcomed in his home were now trying to keep him confined indoors.

"I've associated with thousands of young people over the years," said Sandusky, charged with 52 criminal counts involving 10 victims over 15 years. "And now, all of a sudden, because of allegations and perceptions that have been tried to be created of me, now I can't take our dog on my deck and throw out biscuits to him."

Also: New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski underwent arthroscopic surgery on the left ankle that hampered him in the Super Bowl loss to the New York Giants on Sunday. His recovery is expected to last 10 to 12 weeks.

BASKETBALL

No. 25 Harvard nudges Penn for ninth straight win

Corbin Mille and Kyle Casey scored 17 points apiece to spark No. 25 Harvard to a 56-50 Ivy League win over Penn in Philadelphia. The Crimson (21-2, 7-0) broke a tie midway through the second half with an 11-2 run and hung on for their ninth straight victory overall and sixth in a row against the Quakers (12-11, 4-2).

Also: The NCAA rejected Connecticut's request for a waiver that would allow its men's basketball team to play in the 2013 national championship tournament. UConn doesn't qualify because of below-standard academic results.

Guard Manu Ginobili will return to the San Antonio Spurs' lineup today in New Jersey after missing more than a month with a broken left hand. Coach Gregg Popovich said Ginobili's minutes would be limited against the Nets.

Cleveland Cavaliers rookie guard Kyrie Irving missed Friday's game against the Milwaukee Bucks and will miss today's against the Philadelphia 76ers because of a concussion. Irving also missed Wednesday's game against the Los Angeles Clippers.

New Orleans Hornets starting point guard Jarrett Jack is expected to be out at least a week because of soreness in his left knee. He already has missed three games because of the injury.

MISCELLANEOUS

Isner stuns Federer, lifts U.S. to 2-0 Davis Cup lead

John Isner jolted Roger Federer with his big serve and booming ground strokes, winning 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2 to give the United States a 2-0 lead over Switzerland in the first round of the Davis Cup in Fribourg, Switzerland. The loss was Federer's first in Davis Cup singles in eight years.

In the first match, Mardy Fish outlasted Stanislas Wawrinka, 6-2, 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 9-7. The U.S. can eliminate Switzerland in doubles in the best-of-5 series today, when Mike Bryan and teenager Ryan Harrison face Federer and Wawrinka.

Seven other first-round series in the top tier were contested. Croatia-Japan and Canada-France were tied 1-1. Ahead 2-0 were Serbia (vs. Sweden), Austria (vs. Russia), Argentina (vs. Germany), Spain (vs. Kazakhstan) and Czech Republic (vs. Italy).

Also: Top-seeded Maria Sharapova was upset by unseeded Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of Open GDF Suez in Paris. Kerber, a U.S. Open semifinalist last year, broke serve three times in the first set and rallied from 3-1 down in the second, clinching the victory when Sharapova hit a forehand long for her 33rd unforced error.

All-Star shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera and the Cleveland Indians agreed to terms on a one-year, $4.55 million contract, extending the franchise's streak of avoiding arbitration to 21 years. The agreement was $75,000 above the midpoint between the $5.2 million Cabrera asked for and the $3.75 million the Indians had offered. Cabrera, 26, hit .273 with 25 home runs, 92 RBIs and 32 doubles last season, when he made $2.13 million.

Bob Tasca raced to the provisional No. 1 qualifying position in Funny Car with a 4.109-second pass at 309.34 mph in the season-opening NHRA Winternationals at Pomona, Calif. Morgan Lucas (Top Fuel) and Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) also led second-round qualifying.

Jason Zucker of Las Vegas scored the decisive goal in the second period as Denver beat second-ranked Minnesota 5-3 in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association game at Denver. Zucker was helped from the ice later in the period after a hard check that earned Kyle Rau a game misconduct. Zucker was down for an extended period.

Ivan Pravilov, a 49-year-old Ukrainian hockey coach who was in custody in Philadelphia on child-molestation charges, was found dead in his cell of a suspected suicide.