PSU lacrosse victorious
Top-ranked Nittany Lion men notch big win, first trip to national semifinals.
The consensus No. 1 Penn State men’s lacrosse team blew by No. 8 Loyola Maryland, 21-14, Sunday in East Hartford, Conn., reaching the program’s first national semifinal.
The Nittany Lions (16-1) will face defending champion Yale Saturday in Philadelphia. Duke and Virginia round out the final four, with the title game set for May 27 at 1 p.m. on ESPN2.
Penn State, the nation’s top offense, had 46 goals in the school’s first two NCAA playoff wins. Attacker Mac O’Keefe had nine goals Sunday, tying an NCAA tournament record, and Grant Ament added eight assists.
Jessie Harper went 5 for 5 with three home runs in Tucson to lead No. 6 Arizona’s 12-3 win over Auburn and the Wildcats to super regionals. Harper’s 28 homers tied for fourth in program history, and her threeblast day tied a record.
• Overall No. 1 Oklahoma bounced back from a loss earlier Sunday in Norman, Okla., by beating Wisconsin, 2-0, to reach its 10th consecutive super regional.
• No. 8 Alabama erased a five-run deficit to beat Arizona State, 9-8, in Tuscaloosa. After a 40th consecutive regional win at home, the Tide will play its 15th consecutive super regional.
• Down 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Mississippi rallied to beat Louisiana, 5-4, in Oxford. The Rebels will play the second super regional in school history after beating the Ragin’ Cajuns twice Sunday.
• Regionals hosted by Michigan and Minnesota were delayed by weather and will conclude Monday.
Soccer
Riverhounds SC’s match Saturday against Memphis 901 FC was postponed due to weather and will be replayed in full at a later date. The Hounds led at half, 1-0, off a goal from forward Christian Volesky.
• Chris Wondolowski scored four times Saturday to pass Landon Donovan for most MLS goals as the San Jose Earthquakes beat the Chicago Fire, 4-1. Wondolowski tied the mark (145) and added three tallies after entering the game goalless.
• Lionel Messi led Barcelona to a 2-2 draw at Eibar, scoring his 35th and 36th goals to claim his sixth Pichichi Trophy as the Spanish league’s top scorer. He also hit 50 goals across all competitions for the sixth time in his career.
• Shakhtar Donetsk sealed the Ukrainian Premier League title with a 1-0 win at Zorya Luhansk, marking the team’s third title in a row. Shakhtar, riding a 26-game unbeaten run, has been away from its home of Donetsk since 2014 due to conflict in Ukraine.
Tennis
After losing three consecutive clay-court tournaments, Rafael Nadal beat Novak Djokovic, 6-0, 4-6, 6-1, for a record-extending ninth Italian Open title in Rome. It was the first time in 54 matches between the rivals that Nadal won a set without losing a game. … In the women’s final, Karolina Pliskova beat Johanna Konta, 6-3, 6-4. The win will move Pliskova to No. 2 in world rankings.
Horse racing
War of Will trainer Mark Casse said the Preakness winner will likely race in the Belmont Stakes. If he wins, he’d be the first since Afleet Alex in 2005 to lose the Kentucky Derby before capturing the Triple Crown’s last two jewels.
Pro football
Defensive lineman Chris Long announced his retirement, ending an 11-year career. Long, 33, had 70 career sacks and won Super Bowls with the Patriots (2017) and Eagles (2018) and the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award (2018).