Sports briefs for April 5, 2005

Tuesday, April 5, 2005 | 9:12 a.m.

Italy suspends sports events for funeral

Italian sports events will be suspended Friday as a mark of respect for the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

The Italian Olympic Committee's decision on Tuesday means that the Italian swimming championships at Riccione and a world tourism car championship practice session at the Monza circuit will be stopped.

All horse racing and a golf tournament at San Remo also will not proceed.

Rebels post most wins in eight years

The 40th-ranked UNLV men's team lost only one set en route to a 7-0 whitewashing of unranked UC Riverside.

By posting its sixth shutout of the spring, UNLV (14-6) has scored the program's most victories in a season since a 20-7 record in 1997. In fact, the Rebels are now 26-13 in their two years under head coach Owen Hambrook since bottoming out at 2-14 in 2003.

The Rebels began the day by sweeping three doubles matches for one team point. Winning for UNLV were Joel Kielbowicz and David Campbell at the top spot, Henner Nehles and Sean Hubbard at No. 2 and Aviram Salomon and Martin Redelinghuys at No. 3.

In singles play, UNLV won in straight sets on the first five courts. At the No. 1 position Nehles took his sixth in a row, 7-6, 6-3 against Justin Montgomery, to improve to 24-8 overall as a senior.

Kielbowicz also continued his hot streak with a 6-3, 7-5 victory against Mark Contreras at No. 2 to move to 19-8 on the year.

Luca, Cruz honored by Mountain West

A weekend sweep of San Diego State was followed by a sweep of the MWC baseball player of the week awards for UNLV as Matt Luca and Mike Cruz each earned the honor.

Luca was named the league's pitcher of the week for April 4 after allowing one earned run and three hits in eight innings of work in the opening game of the SDSU series. He struck out eight and through one stretch retired 16 consecutive Aztecs batters in leading UNLV to a 6-1 win.

Cruz had a big week offensively for the Rebels, hitting .500 (6-12) with a home run, triple, double and six RBIs.

Female amateur dies

Amateur boxer Becky Zerlentes, 34, of Fort Collins, Colo., died Sunday from injuries suffered in the ring Saturday night in the Colorado Golden Gloves competition at the National Western Complex.

The Denver County coroner's office said Monday the preliminary cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. Results from an autopsy conducted Monday were not immediately available.

-- Sun wire services