Briefs | Syracuse takes men's lacrosse title as 48,970 watch

Lacrosse

Orange beats defending champion Johns Hopkins: Syracuse beat defending champion Johns Hopkins 13-10 in the NCAA men's final Monday in Foxborough, Mass., before 48,970, the largest crowd to see an NCAA championship outdoors in any sport (the BCS National Championship Game in football is not an NCAA event).

Syracuse became the first school to win its 10th Division I men's lacrosse championship game — counting the 1990 title that was vacated because of an ineligible player — and improved to 3-2 in national finals played against Johns Hopkins.

"When you get recruited at Syracuse, you're going there to win a national championship," said the Orange's Mike Leveille, who was voted the tournament's most outstanding player. "It's certainly been an up-and-down road for the seniors. But we hung in there."

It was Syracuse's fourth championship this decade but first since 2004. Last year, when three players were suspended for off-field behavior, the Orange missed the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1982.

"There were a lot of people doubting us as a team," said midfielder Dan Hardy, who scored three goals for Syracuse (16-2).

Since 1983, one class has graduated from Syracuse without winning a national championship in its four years.

Paul Rabil of Johns Hopkins (11-6) scored a career-high six goals.

Golf

Memorial has six of world's top 10 players: Vijay Singh withdrew from this week's Memorial tournament in Dublin, Ohio, because of a rib injury and third-ranked Ernie Els said on his Web site that he won't be playing until next week.

That would leave the Memorial with six of the top 10 players from the Official World Golf Ranking. Top-ranked Tiger Woods, recovering from surgery on his left knee, did not enter and No. 4 Adam Scott decided not to play.

Ninth-ranked Singh, who won the Memorial in 1997, said he injured a muscle near his ribs upon arriving in England last week for the BMW Championship and felt pain while warming up on the range before the first round.

Oberholser is knocked out of U.S. Open: Arron Oberholser already has had a tough time this year because of a hand injury. He was dealt another blow when he was knocked out of the U.S. Open by the tiniest of margins based on tournaments held on three continents.

Oberholser was losing a spot or two each week in the world ranking while recovering from injuries to his left hand, falling to No. 45. But he dropped six spots to No. 51 at the worst time — the cutoff for the top 50 being exempt to the U.S. Open, which starts June 12 at Torrey Pines in San Diego.

He wound up .004 points behind Denmark's Soren Hansen, who already was eligible for the U.S. Open.

"It's a goofy system — we all know that. But it's the system we have," Oberholser said.

Seventy-two players were exempt from qualifying. That leaves 84 spots available at 36-hole sectional qualifiers Monday.

Beach volleyball

Walsh, May-Treanor prevail: Olympic gold medalists Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor won their fourth AVP title of the season with a 21-14, 21-11 victory over Annett Davis and Jenny Johnson Jordan in Louisville, Ky., in their first tournament since Walsh suffered a setback after shoulder surgery.

In the men's final, Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers defeated John Hyden and Brad Keenan 22-20, 17-21, 15-13.

Soccer

Osborne to miss Olympics: Leslie Osborne, a midfielder on the U.S. women's team, will miss the Olympics after tearing a ligament in her left knee in practice Thursday in Carson, Calif.

Auto racing

Dixon strikes it rich: Scott Dixon, who won Sunday's Indianapolis 500, took home a record prize of $2,988,065 at the annual victory dinner.

College tennis

NCAA finals: Defending champion Somdev Devvarman of Virginia won the NCAA men's title and Georgia Tech's Amanda McDowell took the women's title in Tulsa, Okla.

Seattle Times news services