Georgia Tech Loses Star for Season

Dion Glover, a sophomore guard who was expected to lead the Georgia Tech basketball team this season, will sit out the season after injuring a knee Saturday during the Yellow Jackets’ first practice.

Glover tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee while taking part in a seemingly harmless one-on-one drill during the morning workout, held just hours after the Yellow Jackets kicked off the season with a midnight practice.

“Everybody is stunned,” Coach Bobby Cremins said. “It’s a tremendous blow to us.”

An MRI will be performed Monday to confirm the extent of the damage, then Glover is expected to undergo surgery. A torn ACL is one of the most feared injuries in sports, but is relatively uncommon on the basketball court.

With the graduation of Matt Harpring, Glover was the undisputed leader of the Yellow Jackets.

The 6-foot-5 Glover was the No. 3 freshman scorer in the nation last season with an average of 18.5 points.

Tennis

Seeking his first title since Wimbledon, top-ranked Pete Sampras defeated Todd Martin, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), to advance to the final of the $800,000 CA Trophy tournament at Vienna.

He goes for his fourth title of the year today against seventh-ranked Karol Kucera of Slovakia, who defeated Britain’s Greg Rusedski, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4.

Sampras, in a close race with Patrick Rafter and Marcelo Rios for the top ranking as the season reaches its final weeks, entered the indoor tournament at the last moment as a wild card.

Australian Mark Woodforde advanced to both the singles and doubles finals at the Singapore Open.

Woodforde rallied to defeat Dutchman Sjeng Schalken, 0-6, 6-4, 6-2, in a singles semifinal, then teamed with countryman Todd Woodbridge to defeat Americans Jonathan Stark and Justin Gimelstob, 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, in a doubles semifinal.

In today’s singles final, Woodforde will face top-seeded Marcelo Rios of Chile, a 6-2, 6-1 winner over Jim Courier in the other semifinal. After that, Woodforde and Woodbridge will meet India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes in the doubles final. Bhupathi and Paes defeated Romania’s Andrei Pavel and Armenia’s Sargis Sargsian, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4, in the semifinals.

New world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport and Venus Williams each won semifinal matches, setting up an all-American, power-hitting final at the $1-million European Championships at Zurich, Switzerland.

Davenport, the defending champion, defeated Romania’s Irina Spirlea, 6-2, 6-3. Then, Williams, one day after defeating Mary Pierce with the fastest serve in the history of women’s tennis, spoiled Nathalie Tauziat’s 31st birthday, winning, 6-3, 6-4.

Hockey

John Byce scored his first goal of the season, but that turned out to be the extent of the Long Beach Ice Dogs’ offense and they lost to the Manitoba Moose, 3-1, in an International Hockey League game before 5,105 at Winnipeg.

The Ice Dogs (4-1-0) had scored 17 goals in winning their first four games.

Goaltender Christian Bronsard made 43 saves for the Moose (3-1-0), while the Ice Dogs’ Sergei Naumov stopped 27.

Byce tied the score, 1-1, but the Moose’s Ralph Intranuovo scored less than a minute later.

Names in the News

Thailand’s Pichit Chor Siriwat retained his WBA junior flyweight title against seventh-ranked contender Lee Tae Gil of South Korea at Bangkok, Thailand, when the ringside doctor stopped the fight at the end of the seventh round.

Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell, 68, who went from pitching in the National League to three terms in Congress, was upgraded to serious condition after an apparent heart attack while watching his son coach high school football in Welcome, N.C., about 60 miles southwest of Charlotte.

Craig Thompson is the new commissioner of a new conference that still doesn’t have a name. The league is made up of some former Western Athletic Conference members--Air Force, Brigham Young, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, Nevada Las Vegas, Utah and Wyoming. Thompson has been commissioner of the Sun Belt Conference.

Lee Bevilacqua, athletic department doctor at Creighton, died of a heart attack in Nashville, Tenn., hours after collapsing on the sidelines of a men’s soccer game Friday night. He was 71.