Utah women’s team shaken by racial incidents in Idaho

SPOKANE, Wash. — Utah coach Lynne Roberts said her team experienced a series of “racial hate crimes” after arriving at its first women's NCAA Tournament hotel and was forced to change accommodation during the event for safety concerns.

Roberts revealed what happened after Utah lost to host Gonzaga in the second round of the NCAAs on Monday night. Roberts didn't go into detail but said there were several incidents that happened Thursday night after the team arrived in the area for the tournament and were disturbing to the traveling party to the point there were concerns about safety.

Utah was staying about 30 miles away in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and was relocated to a different hotel on Friday. Hotel space in Spokane was tight with eight men's NCAA teams also playing there.

“We had several instances of some kind of racial hate crimes toward our program and (it was) incredibly upsetting for all of us,” Roberts said.

Tony Stewart, an official with the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, said Tuesday the Utes were walking from the hotel to a restaurant when a truck with a Confederate flag drove up. The driver began using racist language, including

the N-word. After the team left the restaurant, the same driver again yelled at the players.

Coeur d'Alene police said they are working with the FBI on an investigation.

ELSEWHERE

Advincula leads Cal past Santa Clara

Jarren Advincula launched a game-ending three-run homer t with no outs in the ninth inning Monday night, giving Cal a 6-4 victory over Santa Clara (12-10) at Stu Gordon Stadium.

Cal (15-7) begins a three-game series at Arizona State on Thursday night. Also on Thursday evening, Stanford (10-11) opens a three-game set at Utah.

College football: Cal and Wisconsin announced an agreement to play in 2029 and 2030. The Badgers will come to Berkeley in '29. The Bears will travel to Madison in '30. Cal holds a 5-1 edge in the series, with the most recent game in 1990, a 28-12 win for the Bears at Wisconsin.

Steve Kroner

Washington hires Washington State AD: Washington is hiring athletic director Pat Chun away from Apple Cup rival Washington State, reaching across the state to fill its AD job about a week after it surprisingly came open when Troy Dannen left for Nebraska.

Tennis: Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the Miami Open in the round of 16.

Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2 on Monday night, hours after the thirdseeded Gauff fell to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.

On Tuesday, defending champion Daniil Medvedev won his 350th career match to move into the quarterfinals for a fourth straight year, beating Dominik Koepfer 7-6 (5), 6-0