In Brief

GOLF

Byrd goes on late birdie binge,
leads Wells Fargo by one shot

Jonathan Byrd ran off five birdies in six holes to start the back nine and shot a 5-under-par 67 on Saturday to take a one-shot lead into the final round of the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C.

At 15-under 201, Byrd will be going after his third victory in the last seven months.

Pat Perez held onto his two-shot lead until the 13th hole. He stayed close with a bold tee shot to a back pin on the par-3 17th for a birdie and wound up with a 70 to get into the final group.

Stewart Cink (68) and Lucas Glover (69) were three shots off the lead.

Also: Mark Calcavecchia gave away nearly all his big lead in the Regions Tradition, setting up a tight final round at Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Ala.

Calcavecchia shot a third-round 1-under 71 in the Champions Tour major, faltering with a double bogey and two bogeys on the final eight holes. He finished at 12-under 204 for a one-stroke lead over Jay Haas, who shot a 68.

Thomas Aiken of South Africa maintained his lead after a somber third day of the Spanish Open overshadowed by the death of golf great Seve Ballesteros.

Aiken shot par 72 in Terrassa for an 8-under 208, two shots ahead of first-round leader Scott Jamieson (68), Andres Hansen (69), Romain Wattel (67) and Pablo Larrazabal (67).

LOCAL COLLEGES

Ernst takes individual honors;
Rebels third in MWC tourney

Derek Ernst captured medalist honors with a birdie on the third playoff hole, but the UNLV golf team finished third at the Mountain West Conference Championship at OMNI Tucson National Resort in Tucson, Ariz.

The Rebels shot a final round 10-over-par 294 to finish at 2-over 854, seven strokes behind winner San Diego State and five behind runner-up Texas Christian.

After finishing regulation play with a 54-hole score of 6-under 207, Ernst earned top individual honors by beating Colorado State's Ryan Peterson and New Mexico's Travis Ross when he hit his pitching wedge from 130 yards to 18 inches from the cup for birdie on the third playoff hole.

Also: The UNLV women's golf team finished 21st at the NCAA Central Region championship in South Bend, Ind., falling 13 places shy of advancing to the national finals.

The Rebels shot a final-round 23-over 311, which gave them a 54-hole total of 90-over 954 -- 45 strokes behind what it would have taken to advance.

UNLV's Therese Koelbaek (77-76-72) tied for 18th individually at 9-over 225.

The UNLV baseball team surrendered an early 4-0 lead to Washington State and suffered a 4-3 loss to the Cougars in a nonconference game in Pullman, Wash.

Trevor Kirk singled home a run in the fifth inning and Travis Feiner hit a two-run homer in the eighth for the Rebels (29-19).

Tayler Van Acker delivered a two-run walk-off home run as the UNLV softball team beat San Diego State 11-10 in a Mountain West Conference game at Eller Media Stadium extended to eight innings.

With the score tied at 8 after the regulation seven innings, the Aztecs scored twice in the eighth before the Rebels (23-18, 5-5 MWC) rallied for three in the bottom of the inning.

Ashlii Holland, who went 5-for-5, hit the second of her two home runs in the eighth before Van Acker came through with the winning blast.

The College of Southern Nevada split a Scenic West Athletic Conference softball doubleheader with Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, winning the opener 8-3, then losing, 5-2.

Katie Uriarte and Alicia Firelein each went 3-for-4 for the Coyotes (36-26, 29-19 SWAC).

MISCELLANEOUS

Nadal cries over Ballesteros,
beats Federer in Madrid semis

Rafael Nadal cried for countryman Seve Ballesteros, then went out and extended his dominance on clay to beat rival Roger Federer in front of the Spanish fans.

The top-ranked Nadal rallied to reach his third straight Madrid Open final with a 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 victory. Novak Djokovic awaits today after the Serb beat unseeded Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

The first match got off to a somber start, with Nadal tearing up during an homage to Ballesteros, the golf great who died earlier in the day.

On the women's side, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus ended German Julia Goerges' 10-match winning streak 6-4, 6-2 to set up the women's final against Czech Petra Kvitova, who ousted sixth-seeded Li Na of China, 6-3, 6-1.

Also: Former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield stopped Denmark's Brian Nielsen on a technical knockout in the 10th round in Copenhagen.

The 48-year-old Holyfield (44-10-2, 29 knockouts) pressed Nielsen in the corner in the decisive round, and the bout was halted after he landed several jabs and the Dane spat out blood. Nielsen said after the bout he was hit by Holyfield's head butts.

Australia's Daniel Geale took the IBF middleweight title from Germany's Sebastian Sylvester, winning a split decision in Neubrandenburg, Germany.

Gaela (25-1) received winning scores of 118-110 from judge Steve Epstein and 118-112 from Marcus McDonell, while Berit Andreasen scored it 118-110 in favor of the defending champion.

Sean Miller signed an extension to remain the basketball coach at Arizona. Miller had been mentioned as a candidate to replace Gary Williams at Maryland. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Kentucky forward Terrence Jones announced via Twitter that he was taking his name out of the NBA Draft and returning for his sophomore year with the Wildcats. The 6-foot-8-inch Jones averaged 15.7 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocks last season.

Pittsburgh junior guard Ashton Gibbs, who averaged 16.8 points and hit 102 3-pointers last season, will withdraw his name from NBA Draft consideration and return to coach Jamie Dixon's program, the school announced.

Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel will again lead from the front at the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul after the German driver secured his fourth straight pole position of the season.

Red Bull will start today's race 1-2 on the grid after teammate Mark Webber posted the second-fastest time, with Nico Rosberg carrying over his impressive form in practice to take the third spot for Mercedes.

Ryan Villopoto placed third in the 20-lap AMA Supercross finale to win his first season championship at Sam Boyd Stadium before a sellout crowd of about 39,000. Chad Reed won the race and finished second in points.

For more details, go to lvrj.com/motorsports.

Canada advanced to the quarterfinals of the ice hockey world championship in Kosice, Slovakia, after beating Norway 3-2, and the United States moved closer to doing the same with a 3-2 win over France.

Shawn Sangrey had a game-high 30 kills and three spikes late in the decisive fifth set as Ohio State won its first NCAA men's volleyball title with a 20-25, 25-20, 25-19, 22-25, 15-9 victory over UC Santa Barbara in State College, Pa.