May-Treanor, Walsh Win Again

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh reached a milestone Saturday when they defeated Elaine Youngs and Rachel Wacholder, 21-14, 21-14, in the final of the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Santa Barbara Open and notched their 50th career victory as a team.

It was the 29th domestic victory for the duo, which has won 21 international events, including the 2004 Olympics in Athens. No other American team has more than 30 victories. Shelda Bede and Adriana Behar of Brazil have 33 international victories, but it is unknown how many tournaments they have won on the Brazilian domestic tour.

“It’s a very good milestone,” said May-Treanor, who has played with Walsh in 75 tournaments. “I don’t keep track of too many numbers, that’s not why we play, but that is a good one.”

The No. 1 team in the world fell behind, 10-8, in the first game, but made an adjustment on offense and dominated the rest of the match. It is their third victory in three AVP tournaments this year and fifth consecutive AVP title.

Youngs and Wacholder, who defeated May-Treanor and Walsh three times in AVP finals last year, were making their first appearance in a final this year.

Top-seeded Mike Lambert and Stein Metzger advanced to today’s final four, but second-seeded Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal and third-seeded Dax Holdren and Sean Scott were eliminated Saturday.

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-- Peter Yoon

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TENNIS

Hingis Rallies to Beat

Venus Williams at Rome

Martina Hingis rallied to beat Venus Williams, 0-6, 6-3, 6-3, and reach the Italian Open final at Rome.

Hingis is seeking her first title since returning in January, after sitting out nearly three years because of foot and ankle injuries. Hingis will face Dinara Safina, who beat Svetlana Kuznetsova, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Tommy Robredo defeated Mario Ancic, 7-5, 6-4, and will face Radek Stepanek in the final of the Hamburg Masters in Germany. Earlier, Stepanek defeated Jose Acasuso 6-4, 7-6 (5), to secure a top-10 ranking for the first time.

Meghann Shaughnessy and Martina Sucha won semifinal matches and will meet today for the title at the clay-court Grand Prix SAR at Rabat, Morocco.

Shaughnessy beat Yan Zi, 6-0, 6-2, and Sucha defeated Alona Bondarenko, 6-3, 6-2.

GOLF

Sorenstam Shoots 67

to Stay in LPGA Hunt

Annika Sorenstam shot a four-under-par 67 in the second round of the LPGA Sybase Classic at New Rochelle, N.Y., a round good enough to have her one stroke behind leader Gloria Park (67).

Sorenstam, was at three-under 139 after two rounds in a tournament that was shortened to 54 holes because of rain.

Tim Herron holed a bunker shot for birdie on No. 14 and rebounded from two late bogeys with a birdie on the 18th for a share of the third-round lead in the Colonial at Fort Worth with Rod Pampling.

COLLEGES

Pepperdine Men Reach

Tennis Quarterfinals

Second-seeded Pepperdine overcame a loss at No. 1 doubles to beat Florida, 4-0, and reach the quarterfinals of the NCAA men’s tennis championships.

The Waves (33-2) got singles wins by Pedro Rico, Ivor Lovrak and Omar Altmann to rebound after Andre Begemann and Scott Doerner were beaten 8-3 by Florida’s Janne Holmia and Vladimir Obradovic in doubles.

Pepperdine will next play No. 10 UCLA today in the quarterfinals. UCLA defeated No. 7 Illinois, 4-2.

The USC women’s tennis team will play Miami in a national semifinal today after Friday’s 4-3 quarterfinal win over Northwestern at Stanford.

USC didn’t clinch the match until No. 6 singles when Carine Vermeulen defeated Nazlie Ghazal, 6-4, 6-2.

Anjelica Selden pitched a two-hitter to lead UCLA to a 5-0 win over Long Beach State in an NCAA softball regional.

UCLA will play San Diego State today for the regional title, with the Bruins needing only one victory to advance. San Diego State, which eliminated Long Beach State, 3-1, would have to win twice to move on.

At the Fresno Regional, Cal State Fullerton was eliminated by Stanford, 4-1.

MISCELLANY

Sweden Reaches Final

in World Hockey Event

Mikael Samuelsson and Jonas Nordquist scored early in the second period and Sweden held off Canada, 5-4, at Riga, Latvia, to reach the title game of the world hockey championship. Sweden will play the Czech Republic, a 3-1 winner over Finland.

Sherdrick Bonner threw five touchdown passes to help the Arizona Rattlers beat the expansion Utah Blaze, 57-34, at Phoenix in the Arena Football League’s wild-card round.