Sports briefs for February 17, 2005

Thursday, Feb. 17, 2005 | 9:37 a.m.

Bledsoe in search of new team

Unwilling to accept a secondary role with the Buffalo Bills, quarterback Drew Bledsoe is seeking a new team for another shot at being a starter.

Granting Bledsoe's request to be cut, the Bills announced they will waive the 12-year veteran Feb. 22, the first day NFL teams are allowed to officially release players. The decision came after the Bills informed him last week of their plans to give the starting job to J.P. Losman, Buffalo's second of two first-round draft choices last year.

Roddick blows by Clement

Top-seeded Andy Roddick needed just an hour and 16 minutes to defeat Arnaud Clement 6-3, 6-3 in the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships at Memphis, Tenn.

Roddick, the tournament's 2002 champion, had dropped his previous two matches against Clement, both on clay.

But Roddick dominated with a powerful serve and knack for keeping points alive. Clement was getting to shots early but seemed to lose a step during the match.

The third-seeded Williams would earn the trophy by becoming the first player to win the tournament three times in a five-year span. She was the champion in 2002 and 2003, then missed last year with a knee injury.

Clijsters, like Williams a former No. 1, knocked off fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-1. This is Clijsters' first action in four months; she's been out with a left wrist injury that cost her much of 2004.

In second-round play, second-seeded Guillermo Coria was beaten 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3 by Paradorn Srichaphan, defending champion Juan Carlos Ferrero lost 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3 to Radek Stephanek, and sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko ousted Tomas Berdych 7-6 (8), 6-0.

UNLV senior named player of the week

Henner Nehles tied a school record by being named the Mountain West Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Week for the fourth time in his career, the league announced Wednesday.

Nehles joined former Rebel Asaf Tishler and former Lady Rebel Paulina Janus as the school's only four-time conference honorees. Tishler won his four while playing in the Western Athletic Conference from 1997-99 while Janus earned her quartet from the MWC in 2001-02.

Currently ranked 38th in the nation, Nehles raised his overall record to 15-5 in singles and 10-0 in doubles this season by going a combined 4-0 over the weekend at the No. 1 position in the lineup. He led his team to three wins as the Rebels took their own spring invitational for the first time in three years.

The Rebels (6-2) host No. 41 Oklahoma on Friday beginning at 1:30 p.m., weather permitting.

Three-game set moved from Reno to Vegas

The three-game series between UNLV and UNR originally scheduled for Friday-Sunday at UNR has been moved to Las Vegas due to poor weather in Reno.

Snow fell in Reno on Wednesday, and officials from both schools agreed to move the series down to UNLV.

The dates of the three games will remain the same, but the times are as follows: Friday at 6:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. All three games will be played at Earl E. Wilson Stadium.