Stanford women advance in soccer
Kyra Carusa and Catarina Macario scored second-half goals Friday night to lift top-ranked Stanford to a 2-0 win over visiting Auburn and into the third round of the NCAA women’s soccer tournament.
The Cardinal dominated play on its homefield at Cagan Stadium, finishing with a 13-2 advantage over the Tigers (8-7-5) in shots on goal, but the game was scoreless until Carusa scored in the 58th minute. Macario provided insurance in the 67th minute with the Cardinal’s school-record 81st goal of the season. Alison Jahansouz made two saves for the shutout.
The Cardinal (20-1) will host Florida State (13-6-1), the regional’s No. 4 seed, at 1 p.m. Sunday at Stanford.
Maddy Gonzalez scored Santa Clara’s first two goals and the Broncos beat Vanderbilt 3-1 in Columbia, S.C., to advance to the third round for the second straight year.
Maria Sanchez also scored for the Broncos (14-6-1), who play Sunday against regional top seed South Carolina (17-2-1), a 1-0 winner over Wisconsin on Friday.
MLS:
Coach Caleb Porter has parted ways with the Portland Timbers after five seasons with the team.
Porter, 42, compiled a 68-50-52 record and guided the team to the MLS Cup title in 2015. He was named the MLS Coach of the Year after his first season with the team in 2013.
Motor sports:
Martin Truex Jr. was the fastest of the four NASCAR Cup Series championship contenders in qualifying and will start second Sunday in the season finale in Homestead, Fla. Denny Hamlin took the pole from Truex on the last lap of qualifying.
The other championship candidates are Kyle Busch, who qualified third; Brad Keselowski, fifth; and Kevin Harvick, ninth.
Baseball:
John Hart left the Atlanta Braves less than a week after being stripped of his role as president of baseball operations.
The decision was not unexpected given the hiring of general manager Alex Anthopoulos, who is now in charge of all baseball-related decisions. Hart was bumped to the role of senior adviser, but clearly had no real power.
Aaron Boone, whose ALCS Game 7 home run lifted the Yankees to the 2003 American League pennant, was interviewed in New York’s search for a manager.
Tennis:
David Goffin took the last spot in the semifinals of the seasonending ATP Finals, defeating Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-1 in London.
Goffin will play Roger Federer on Saturday. Grigor Dimitrov will meet Jack Sock in the other semifinal.
Dimitrov defeated Pablo Carreno Busta 6-1, 6-1 in the late match to become the first player to win all three roundrobin matches in his debut since Andy Murray in 2008.
Murray and coach Ivan Lendl are calling it quits for a second time, ending a partnership that produced three Grand Slam titles and two Olympic gold medals.
With Lendl guiding him, Murray won the U.S. Open in 2012, and Wimbledon in 2013, becoming the first British man in 77 years to win the singles championship at the All England Club. They split in 2014, then reunited last year, about a month before Murray won his second title at Wimbledon.
Figure skating:
Twotime U.S. women’s champion Gracie Gold has withdrawn from the national championships in San Jose in January while she continues to seek treatment for depression, anxiety and an eating disorder.