Lady Vols drop to No. 25 in women’s poll

U Conn and South Carolina remain the top two teams in The Associated Press women’ s basketball poll. Notre Dame, Baylor and Maryland round out the top five.

Tennessee fell to No. 25, the first time the Lady Vols have been ranked that low during their 564- week streak of being in the Top 25 that started on Feb. 17, 1985. They split their games last week, beating Arkansas before falling to Texas A&M in overtime Sunday. The Lady Vols will visit Vanderbilt on Thursday.

Mississippi State remained at No .11 after a road victory at LS U and a home win against Missouri last week. The Bulldogs will visit No .15 Texas A& Mon Thursday.

COLLEGES

The University of Memphis rifle squad, ranked No. 9 in the nation, will compete today against No. 15 Ole Miss. The neutral-site-match is set for an 8 a.m. start in Jacksonville, Alabama. ... Steve Spurrier has a new role at South Carolina— special assistant to president Harris Pastides and athletic director Ray Tanner. Spurrier resigned as football coach in October.

BASEBALL

Right-handed reliever Tyler Clippard agreed to a two-year contract with the Arizona Diamond backs. He had a 2.92 ERA last year with the Oakland Athletics and New York Mets. ... Right-hander Gavin Floyd and the Toronto Blue Jays agreed to a $1 million, one-year-contract.

TENNIS

Nicolas Almagro of Spain advanced to the second round of the clay-court Argentina Open in Buenos Aires after defeating countryman Albert Montanes 6-3, 6-3. In another first-round match on Monday between unseeded players, Santiago Giraldo of Colombia defeated Inigo Cervantes of Spain 6-1, 7-5. Top-seeded Rafael Nadal has a bye into the second round, as does Spanish countryman and second-ranked David Ferrer. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, ranked third, and fourth-seeded-John Isner also have first-round byes.

Second-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia had 10 aces ina 7-6 (5), 6-4 win against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the first round of the World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on Monday. Countryman Ivan Dodig joins Ci li ci nth en ext round after beating seventhseeded Benoit Paire of France 6-3,7-6(4).