Venus Williams in Hamburg Final

Venus Williams easily defeated Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain, 6-1, 6-3, Saturday in the semifinals of the $520,000 Betty Barclay Cup at Hamburg, Germany.

Williams will face Mary Pierce of France in today’s final. Pierce advanced by beating Barbara Schett of Austria, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, gaining the final break during a final set in which serves were broken for five consecutive games.

Miscellany

Brigham Young’s top-ranked men’s volleyball team defeated No. 7 USC, 14-16, 15-9, 15-8, 15-11, before a crowd of 5,558 at Provo, Utah, to win the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title and the league’s automatic berth in the NCAA Final Four at UCLA this week.

The top-ranked UCLA softball team had its 20-game home winning streak ended by No. 18 Oregon State as the Beavers beat the Bruins, 5-2, in the second game of a Pacific 10 doubleheader.

UCLA, 50-3 overall and 17-3 in Pac-10 play, won the first game, 5-2, to remain unbeaten at Easton Stadium. Oregon State is 36-21 and 7-12.

Eric Forkel defeated Mark Mosayebi, 243-231, in the first outdoor final of a Professional Bowling Assn. tour event, the New York City PBA Experience. The fifth victory of Forkel’s career came at Bryant Park in downtown Manhattan.

The United States defeated Japan, 7-1, in its opening game in the World Hockey Championship at Oslo. Tom Bisset scored twice, including the first goal 1:08 into the game.

Real estate developer Howard Milstein wants to be paid back for the millions of dollars he spent on his unsuccessful quest to buy the Washington Redskins, according to the Washington Post. A lawyer for Milstein asked for a refund of his $30-million deposit, plus reimbursement for other expenses. . . . Bob Ferguson, who joined the Arizona Cardinals as vice president for player personnel in 1996, was promoted to general manager.

Jurisprudence

A state appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a former New Jersey sportswriter who said he suffered emotional distress after former New Jersey Net Coach John Calipari used a racial slur against him in a confrontation. Dan Garcia, who was a sportswriter for the Star-Ledger of Newark, maintained in his lawsuit that he suffered “extreme humiliation and emotional distress” because Calipari called him “a Mexican idiot” in a confrontation after a team practice on March 20, 1997.

Florida State defensive tackle Bryne Malone was denied bond at his first court appearance in Tallahassee on attempted murder charges, a day after he and a friend were arrested in connection with a drive-by shooting at a home of some Florida State students the friend had a running feud with.

Names in the News

Josh Fisher, a 6-3 guard from Mercer Island High in Washington, has asked Pepperdine to be released from a letter-of-intent he signed in November. Fisher said he liked new Coach Jan van Breda Kolff but didn’t feel comfortable after Lorenzo Romar left for the Saint Louis coaching job.