In brief

Davenport to end year at the top

By wire services
Published November 12, 2005

LOS ANGELES - Lindsay Davenport lost to Maria Sharapova at the WTA Championships, yet still won.

Davenport got help from Amelie Mauresmo, who beat Elena Dementieva, to clinch the year-end No. 1 ranking for the fourth time.

"It is a really, really bizarre feeling to put your fate in other people's hands," she said. "It is hard to really cheer for someone else to lock something up for me."

Davenport led Kim Clijsters by 155 points coming in, and the Belgian needed to make the semifinals to pass Davenport. Clijsters lost twice in the round-robin format and Mauresmo's win late Thursday eliminated Clijsters.

Davenport, Sharapova, Mauresmo and Mary Pierce advanced to today's semifinals in the season-ending tournament.

Half of the players on the U.S. roster for today's match against Scotland in Glasgow, the first post-qualifying World Cup tuneup for the Americans, are 23 or younger. Young U.S. players on the roster include 19-year-olds Eddie Gaven and Jonathan Spector. It's the last match in a year that has seen the squad go 13-3-3, a record number of wins for the Americans.

MLS: Two-time MVP Preki headlined a group of five veterans selected to the league's 10th anniversary team. Preki joined fellow midfielder Jaime Moreno, defenders Eddie Pope and Jeff Agoos and goalkeeper Tony Meola, all of whom have played every year of the league's existence. The team also includes former Mutiny midfielder Carlos Valderrama, who retired.

Senior Jane Collymore had 15 kills and senior Rachel Engel added 24 digs to lead host Florida past Mississippi 30-18, 30-15, 30-12 as the Gators clinched their 15th straight SEC volleyball title.

SOFTBALL: Infielder Tara Toscano of Palm Harbor University High, a Times first-team All-Suncoast pick this year, signed a letter of intent with South Florida.

SWIMMING: Florida swept Florida Atlantic in its home opener; the UF men beat the Owls 180-109 and the women won 164.5-124.5. Freshman diver Jonathan Wilcox had 408.92 points, breaking the UF record of 379.50 set last year by his older brother, Zach.

Because of this year's hurricanes, Gulfstream Park won't complete renovations before the 2006 meeting starts Jan. 4. Only part of a new four-story main building will be open, with work going until the season ends April 23. There was no structural damage from Katrina and Wilma.

Canada and the United States, the favorites in Olympic women's hockey, play today in Turin, Italy, in the second of a two-game series. Canada won 5-0 Thursday.

SPEED SKATING: Olympic champion Apolo Anton Ohno won a 1,500-meter short-track race in Bormio, Italy.

Chinese teen Gu Wei broke two world records in the women's 128-pound division at the world championships in Doha, Qatar. Gu, 19, set the clean-and-jerk mark at 306 pounds; Thailand's Wandee Kameaim set the mark of 298 earlier in the meet. Gu had a total of 531, breaking the 529 set by compatriot Li Wang in 2003.

BAN: American Shannon Hartnett was suspended for two years for testing positive for steroid byproducts, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said.

BOXING: A judge ordered Mike Tyson to return to Brazil in March to face trial for allegedly assaulting a cameraman in a nightclub. A cameraman says Tyson broke his camera Thursday and hit him on the head with camera equipment. ... WBA and WBC champion Jean-Marc Mormeck and IBF titleholder O'Neil Bell agreed to a cruiserweight unification bout in January. No site or date has been set.

[Last modified November 12, 2005, 00:55:15]