Briefs | Penn State beats Stanford for women's title

Volleyball

Penn State goes the distance: The Penn State women won their second national title, dropping two games in six NCAA tournament matches.

Megan Hodge had 26 kills as the Nittany Lions beat top-seeded Stanford 30-25, 30-26, 23-30, 19-30, 15-8 in the championship match in Sacramento, Calif. Penn State beat Stanford for its first title in 1999.

Hodge was selected the tournament's most valuable player.

Soccer

Manchester City defeats Bolton: Manchester City stretched its perfect home record in the English Premier League to nine matches Saturday with a 4-2 win over Bolton.

Manchester City climbed to fourth place because Portsmouth lost its unbeaten home record and 11-match undefeated streak with a 1-0 loss to Tottenham. City has 33 points, four fewer than leader Arsenal.

Meanwhile, Reading goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann made a string of saves to help his team to a 1-1 draw at Birmingham. Hahnemann, 35, is a former Seattle Pacific and Seattle Sounders standout.

Boca Juniors, AC Milan to meet in Club World Cup final: The final of the FIFA Club World Cup in Yokohama, Japan, has a familiar look.

Boca Juniors of Argentina faces Italian powerhouse AC Milan in a repeat of the final of the 2003 Toyota Cup, which Boca won on penalty kicks.

Auto racing

Waltrip's team hires three crew chiefs: Michael Waltrip Racing has hired three new crew chiefs, including Ryan Pemberton.

Pemberton, who left Dale Earnhardt Inc. last week, will be the crew chief for David Reutimann. Paul Andrews will work with Waltrip. Bill Pappas was hired to lead MWR's third entry.

"The degree of difficulty in our monumental startup in 2007 was evident and standing flat-footed heading into 2008 was not an option for us," Waltrip said. "I could not be more proud of the recent developments."

Horse racing

Country Star excels: Country Star beat Grace and Power by 2-¾ lengths to take the Grade I Hollywood Starlet for 2-year-old fillies at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif.

Country Star, trained by Bobby Frankel and ridden by Rafael Bejarano, set a record on Hollywood's synthetic Cushion Track by running 1-1/16 miles in 1 minute, 40-2/5 seconds. She paid $4 to win in the $425,500 race.

Rodeo

Brazile earns triple crown: Trevor Brazile of Decatur, Texas, became the first PRCA triple-crown winner since 1983, winning the tie-down-roping title in the 10th and final round of the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. Earlier, he had clinched the steer-roping and all-around titles.

Brazile, 31, is the first triple-crown champion since Roy Cooper, his father-in-law.

Obituary

Former bodyguard to Harding dies: Brian Sean Griffith, a former bodyguard to figure-skater Tonya Harding who admitted a role in the attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan, died Wednesday. Griffith, a Beaverton, Ore., resident, was 40.

Griffith died of what his doctor reported as natural causes.

Formerly Shawn Eckardt, Griffith had changed his name since the attack in an attempt to put it behind him.

Griffith was Harding's bodyguard when the Portland-born skater competed for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team in 1994.

That January, an assailant clubbed Kerrigan in the knee, forcing her out of nationals. The U.S. Figure Skating granted Kerrigan a spot anyway, and she recovered in time to win a silver medal at the Olympics.

Days after the attack, Griffith confessed, detailing a plan he and Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, had hatched. Shane Stant, who struck Kerrigan, eventually was convicted.

Griffith was sentenced to 18 months in prison for racketeering but was released four months early, in September 1995.

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