IN BRIEF

Major League Soccer players have overwhelmingly voted to authorize the first strike in the league's history, which would wipe out openers scheduled to start March 25.

The league's first labor contract, a five-year deal, originally was set to run out Jan. 31 but was extended twice while negotiations continued. It expired Feb. 25 after the MLS Players Union refused another extension.

Unhappy with the single-entity structure that has seen the league negotiate all contracts since play began in 1996, players want greater free-agent rights and a higher percentage of guaranteed deals. The threat of labor strife comes as the Philadelphia Union, the league's 16th team, is set to start play. The Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps have been added for 2011.

Also: American forward Charlie Davies said Thursday he hopes to resume training with French club Sochaux by late March and appear in matches next month.

Recovering from a one-vehicle accident Oct. 13 in Virginia, the 23-year-old has been rehabilitating at the Cap Sport Centre in Capbreton, France, since late February. He sustained two broken bones in his right leg, a broken and dislocated left elbow, a broken nose, forehead and eye socket, a fracture in his face, a ruptured bladder and bleeding on his brain.

Davies said he hopes to make the U.S. World Cup roster, which appears to be a long shot.

HOCKEY

Penguins' Guerin: Hits to head
should be declared illegal

Pittsburgh Penguins forward Bill Guerin said the NHL must outlaw hits to the head.

That includes the kind of hit leveled by Guerin's teammate, Matt Cooke, against the Boston Bruins' Marc Savard.

Savard is out indefinitely with a Grade 2 concussion sustained during a shoulder-to-head hit by Cooke on Sunday, but Cooke was not suspended.

NHL enforcement chief Colin Campbell said precedent was set when the Flyers' Mike Richards wasn't suspended for a similar hit on Florida's David Booth this season.

NHL general managers recommended during their meeting Wednesday that a blind-side hit to the head -- the kind Cooke inflicted upon Savard -- should not be permitted.

Guerin expected Cooke to be suspended.

"If a guy gets hurt like that with a shot to the head, there's got to be something," Guerin said. "Actions happen. Guys don't mean to hurt each other, but they do. You've got to pay a price for that."

Also: Los Angeles Kings goalie Jonathan Quick has left the team's road trip for the birth of his first child.

Quick is the NHL leader with 37 victories this season. He returned to Los Angeles on Thursday, and he's likely to miss the Kings' game against the Dallas Stars tonight.

MISCELLANEOUS

UNLV baseball team rumbles
to victory over Northwestern

The UNLV baseball team routed Northwestern 12-4 at Wilson Stadium in the opener of a four-game series.

The Rebels (11-4) trailed 2-0 through four innings, then exploded for nine runs in the fifth, seven of them with two outs. Cash Thomas had a two-run triple, and R.J. Arnold had a two-run single in the outburst.

Brandon Bayardi went 4-for-5 with three runs scored and an RBI for UNLV, and Arnold finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs and a run scored.

Also: The gender case of South African standout Caster Semenya remains unresolved after seven months, leaving her future in track uncertain.

The International Association of Athletics Federations said it is still working on the case of Semenya, who won the women's 800 meters at the world championships in Berlin in August.

Seve Ballesteros, who has been battling brain cancer for more than a year, has fully recovered from a head injury after falling off a golf cart last week in Pedrena, Spain.

The three-time British Open champion underwent hospital exams for four days before being discharged. The 52-year-old Spaniard banged his head on the ground when he fell out of the vehicle.

A high school in Washington, D.C., has hired a woman to coach its varsity football team. Natalie Randolph, 29, will be introduced today as coach at Calvin Coolidge Senior High School. She is believed to be the first woman to coach a high school varsity football team in the United States.

Henry Wittenberg, an amateur wrestler who went undefeated for more than 300 matches and won a gold medal at the 1948 London Olympics, has died. He was 91. His family said Wittenberg died Tuesday at his home in Somers, N.Y.