Sports briefs for April 1, 2004

Thursday, April 1, 2004 | 9:29 a.m.

Wranglers clinch spot despite loss to Gulls

The Las Vegas Wranglers' offensive slump continued Wednesday, but they clinched the second seed in ECHL Pacific Division despite a 2-1 overtime loss at San Diego.

Joff Kehler scored his first professional goal in the second period for the Wranglers, tying the game at 1-1, but Brian Gornick scored in overtime.

Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan again blamed the team's recent offensive slump on a shortage of players.

"We only had 12 players, and didn't want to get into a shootout with another team," Gulutzan said. "When you're playing that short, you're trying to keep the game a one-goal game. We played very, very well defensively."

The Wranglers were without forward Tom Nelson, who is out with a leg bruise but is expected back for the playoffs. Center Morten Ask's ankle sprain is slow to heal, but Gulutzan said Ask would try to skate in practice today.

The best-of-five Kelly Cup first round will begin for the Wranglers with games Tuesday and Friday at the Orleans Arena against Idaho.

Venus out in quarters

Venus Williams sprained her right foot in the second set, but her sloppy shotmaking hurt more as she lost to Elena Dementieva 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (3) in a quarterfinal at the Nasdaq-100 Open in Key Biscayne, Fla. In men's play, No. 3-seeded Guillermo Coria and No. 21 Fernando Gonzalez advanced to meet in an all-South American semifinal.

Aloha Bowl sues NCAA

Aloha Sports Inc. is suing the NCAA for antitrust violations, claiming that requiring bowl game operators to pay participating schools a minimum of $750,000 or 75 percent of gross revenue was "price fixing" and forced the Aloha Bowl and Seattle Bowl to go out of business.

Moore wins again

UNLV junior Ryan Moore was named Mountain West Conference golf of the month a day after he won the National Invitation Tournament at Tucson, Ariz.

Security for flights

U.S. athletes will have increased security on flights to the Athens Olympics and an evacuation strategy in case of a major terrorist attack, the Washington Post reported today.