Cordeiro to head U.S. soccer

Carlos Cordeiro was elected president of the U.S. Soccer Federation on Saturday in Orlando, Fla., assuming control of an organization that must chart a new course after its men’s team failed to qualify for this year’s World Cup.

Cordeiro has been the right-hand man of outgoing president Sunil Gulati.

He won on the third ballot with 68.6% of the vote. “This is incredibly humbling,” said Cordeiro, the USSF vice president the past two years.

The vote initially featured eight candidates. Cordeiro pulled away from Kathy Carter, on-leave president of Major League Soccer’s marketing arm. She had the backing of MLS Commissioner Don Garber and narrowly trailed Cordeiro on the first ballot.

AUTO RACING

Michael Self survived two multi-car melees in the closing laps to win the crash-filled ARCA Series season opener at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Self was one of three Venturini Motorsports entries to finish in the top five. Teammates Tom Hessert and Natalie Decker, the 20-year-pole-sitter from Eagle River, Wis., finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

TENNIS

Venus Williams used her 1,000th career singles match to get the United States off to a strong start in its Fed Cup title defense.

CoCo Vandeweghe needed to stage a comeback to make sure that momentum continued.

Williams and Vandeweghe won their singles matches Saturday in Asheville, N.C., to give the U.S. a 2-0 lead over the Netherlands in the best-of-five event.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Allie LeClaire scored 16 points and Jessica Lindstrom added 13 as No. 20 UW-Green Bay beat UWMilwaukee, 65-36, on Saturday at the Klotsche Center for its 11th straight win.

The Phoenix (22-2, 12-1 Horizon League) closed the first quarter with a 10-0 run to lead, 18-8, and had a 14-2 run, including the last seven points of the second quarter, to lead, 34-17, at the break.

No player had more than seven points for the Panthers (17-8, 8-5), who shot 11 of 40.

INDOOR SOCCER

The Milwaukee Wave’s defense had an uncharacteristic lapse on Saturday afternoon as the Baltimore Blast scored four times in the fourth quarter to pull out a 6-5 victory at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena in a matchup of division leaders in the MASL.

Tony Donatelli scored with 8 seconds left to send the Blast home a winner.

COLLEGE HOCKEY

Things got ugly real quickly for Wisconsin on Saturday night at the Kohl Center as the Minnesota Golden Gophers scored the first three goals of the game en route to a 7-1 thrashing of the Badgers.

Trent Frederic scored the lone goal for the Badgers (14-15-4, 8-11-3-1 Big Ten) at the end of the first period, but the Gophers (18-13-1, 9-10-1-1) tacked on two goals in each of the second and third periods.

Wisconsin 3, Minnesota-Duluth 3: Sophia Shaver scored two power-play goals in the third quarter for the top-ranked Badgers as they rallied for a draw against the Bulldogs in Duluth.

The Badgers (27-3-1, 18-2-1-1 conference), who wrapped up their three straight WCHA title on Friday night, also got a goal from Claudia Kepler.