Walsh Jennings joins forces with Sweat in Olympic pursuit
Beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh Jennings announced Tuesday that she will partner with Florida Olympian Brooke Sweat, a four-time defensive player of the year on the Association of Volleyball Professionals tour.
The pair will make its debut Oct. 18-21 at Walsh Jennings’ p1440 tournament in Las Vegas that is an Olympic qualifier for the 2020 Games in Toyko. Qualifying continues until June 15, 2020.
The 40-year-old Walsh Jennings, a former Archbishop Mitty and Stanford indoor star, is trying to reach her sixth — and final — Olympics.
She has won three gold medals and a bronze in beach volleyball and also was a member of the 2000 U.S. indoor team that placed fourth.
Walsh Jennings has been without a partner since spring when she split with Nicole Branagh of Orinda because of unsatisfactory results. She enjoyed her greatest success in the early 2000s with Misty May-Treanor. But May-Treanor retired after the pair won its third consecutive gold medal at the London Games. Walsh Jennings then joined with April Ross and finished third at the 2016 Rio Olympics. — Elliott Almond
Golf
KOEPKA NAMED PGA TOUR PLAYER OF THE YEAR >> U.S. Open and PGA champion Brooks Koepka added to his trophy collection Tuesday when he picked up the Jack Nicklaus Award trophy as the PGA Tour player of the year.
Koepka is the sixth player in the last six years to win the award, the longest streak of different winners since PGA Tour players began voting on the award in 1990.
Along with winning two majors, Koepka said he was most proud of his attitude when he wasn’t playing.
He missed four months at the start of the year recovering from a partially torn tendon in his left wrist but then made up for lost time in a big way.
In his fourth tournament back, he was runner-up at Colonial. Three weeks later, he held off Dustin Johnson at Shinnecock Hills to win the U.S. Open for the second straight year, becoming the first back-to-back U.S. Open champion since Curtis Strange in 1988 and 1989.
Two months later, Koepka held off Tiger Woods amid ear-splitting roars on the back nine at Bellerive to win the PGA Championship by two shots. Koepka tied a major championship record by finishing at 264.
He became the fifth player to win the U.S. Open and PGA Championship in the same year, joining Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen.
The tour does not disclose how many votes he received from a ballot that included Johnson, British Open champion Francesco Molinari, FedEx Cup champion Justin Rose, Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau.
MMA
CORMIER SETS UFC TITLE DEFENSE >> Daniel Cormier is set to defend his UFC heavyweight championship against Derrick Lewis at UFC 230 on Nov. 3 at Madison Square Garden.
Lewis has won nine of his last 10 bouts and will fight just weeks after he defeated Alexander Volkov at UFC 229 last weekend in Las Vegas.
Cormier (21-1) is UFC’s light heavyweight and heavyweight champion and hoped to fight Brock Lesnar next year. But UFC was short on star power at a venue where some of the biggest stars have fought since mixed martial arts was legalized in New York two years ago and pressed Lewis and Cormier into service.
College basketball
UCLA LOSES ANOTHER PLAYER >> UCLA freshman guard Tyger Campbell has a torn ACL in his left knee and will miss the upcoming season, making him the third player to be sidelined.
The school said Campbell got hurt in practice Sunday. He averaged 15.5 points and 7.2 assists as a senior at La Lumiere School in La Porte, Indiana.
Freshman forward Shareef O’Neal, the son of Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, also will sit out the season because of a heart condition he has described as “risky.”
Forward Alex Olesinski has a stress fracture in his right foot that will force him to miss two to three months.
Olympics
IOC EYES ’26 WINTER GAMES HOME >> The International Olympic Committee has approved three candidate bids for the 2026 Winter Games and will pick a winner in June. IOC members have formally backed three bids recommended last week by their executive board: Calgary, Stockholm and the combined Italian bid of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.
A fourth contender, Erzurum in Turkey, was dropped by the board last week.
College football
SOUTH CAROLINA QB CLEARED TO RETURN >> South Carolina got some good news about its quarterback situation with Jake Bentley expected to return as the Gamcocks’ starter against No. 22 Texas A&M after missing last week with a left knee injury. Coach Will Muschamp said Bentley has moved well, looked strong and, unless there’s a setback, will play Saturday.
Without Bentley, some good things happened for South Carolina (3-2, 2-2 Southeastern) last week as backup Michael Scarnecchia led the team to a 37-35 victory over Missouri.
Bentley said his knee feels fine expects to return against the Aggies (4-2, 2-1).