IN BRIEF

HOCKEY

Wranglers win opener behind Czuy, Curry

Forward Kelly Czuy slipped a backhanded shot between the legs of Fresno goalkeeper Kris Mayotte with 1:28 remaining in overtime Friday night as the Wranglers opened their ECHL season with a 2-1 victory over the Falcons at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif.

Rookie goalie John Curry made 33 saves for Las Vegas.

Aaron Power had a second-period goal and assisted on the game winner for Las Vegas.

Jason Josza assisted on both goals.

The Wranglers will play their home opener at 7:05 p.m. Sunday at the Orleans Arena.

Also: Pittsburgh Penguins co-owner Mario Lemieux will get $21 million as part of the team's settlement of its 1990s bankruptcy, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported

Lemieux was owed $32 million in deferred compensation when he retired as a player in 1997.

GOLF

Pettersen tied for lead in South Korean event

Norway's Suzann Pettersen birdied the final two holes for a 3-under-par 69 and a share of the first-round lead in the LPGA Tour's Hana Bank KOLON Championship in Gyeongju, South Korea.

Seeking her fourth LPGA Tour victory and fifth overall title of the year, Pettersen had five birdies in a bogey-free back nine after making the turn in 2 over.

South Korea's Meena Lee also shot 69.

Also: Champions Tour rookie Mark O'Meara made a successful return to the site of one of his PGA Tour victories, shooting an 8-under 63 to take the first-round lead in the AT&T Championship in San Antonio.

O'Meara had an eagle, eight birdies and two bogeys at Oak Hills Country Club, the A.W. Tillinghast-designed course where he closed with a 63 to win the 1990 Texas Open.

John Cook, making his second start, and Wayne Levi were two strokes back after bogey-free 65s.

Argentina's Daniel Vancsik followed his opening 11-under 61 with a 66 to take a two-stroke lead in the Portugal Masters in Vilamoura.

TENNIS

Ailing Nadal stumbles in return from layoff

Rafael Nadal, coming off a five-week layoff because of ailing knees, lost to David Nalbandian 6-1, 6-2 in the Madrid Masters quarterfinals in Spain.

It was Nadal's most lopsided defeat in three years.

Roger Federer downed Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (4), 6-4 to set up a matchup against 112th-ranked Nicolas Kiefer, who beat fifth-seeded Fernando Gonzalez, 7-6 (5), 6-2.

Nadal, who sat out after the U.S. Open because of tendinitis, had five winners and 29 unforced errors against Nalbandian.

Also: Justine Henin reached the semifinals of the Zurich Open in Switzerland by defeating Polish teenager Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-4, 6-2.

Henin, seeking her ninth title of the year, is 56-4 this season and has reached the semifinals in every tournament she has entered since April 2006. She next will play Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic.

UNLV ATHLETICS

Volleyball team claims fifth straight match

Maria Aladjova and Lauren Miramontes had 23 kills apiece as the Rebels volleyball team won its fifth straight match with a 22-30, 30-16, 30-28, 30-22 Mountain West Conference victory over San Diego State at Cox Pavilion.

The victory improved UNLV to 7-2 in league and 16-3 overall.

Also: Brianna Moore scored eight minutes into overtime to lift the women's soccer team to a 2-1 win at New Mexico.

The Rebels, who also received a goal from Jessica Destito, improved to 2-0-1 in Mountain West Conference play and 7-3-5 overall.

Women's tennis standout Elena Gantcheva won twice to advance to the singles quarterfinals of the ITA West Regional Championships in San Diego.

Kristina Nedeltcheva won her first match before falling in the second round.

In doubles, Gantcheva and Nedeltcheva, ranked fifth nationally, advanced to today's round of 16, as did the UNLV duo of Katy Williams and Anna Maskaljun.

All three men's entries in the ITA Mountain Regional at the Darling Tennis Center were eliminated: singles player Elliott Wronski in the quarterfinals of the main draw and the doubles teams of Wronski-Wesley Burrows and Luca Barlocchi-David Campbell in the quarterfinals.

The women's golf team was tied for ninth after the first day of the three-day Stanford Intercollegiate in Palo Alto, Calif.

The Rebels stood at 20-over-par 304, 22 shots behind second-ranked Duke. Freshman Therese Koelbaek led UNLV with a 4-over 75.

MISCELLANEOUS

John Henry eulogized as 'tremendous legend'

More than 500 people attended a graveside memorial in Lexington, Ky., for John Henry, the thoroughbred great remembered by jockey Chris McCarron as a "tremendous legend."

John Henry, who won $6.5 million and became America's richest racehorse before retiring in 1985, was euthanized last week at age 32 at Kentucky Horse Park.

Also: A former head football coach at Louisiana-Lafayette won a $2 million judgment in a lawsuit claiming the school fired him because of his race, not his 6-27 record.

According to the jury, university officials broke Jerry Baldwin's contract and inflicted emotional distress through negligence.

Sacramento, Calif., police plan to send the findings of their sexual assault investigation of Kings player Justin Williams to prosecutors but said they do not know how long that might take.

Police announced Thursday they were investigating allegations by a woman in her 20s who said she was sexually assaulted by Williams at his home on Oct. 12.

Dallas Mavericks forward Josh Howard was suspended for the first two games of the regular season, punishment for a fight with Sacramento center Brad Miller in an exhibition game Tuesday.