College Football
Road loss to LSU moves Ole Miss out of top four
Mississippi’s first loss of the season dropped the Rebels four spots in The Associated Press college football poll to No. 7 and left Mississippi State, Florida State, Alabama and Auburn in the top four as the College Football Playoff selection committee prepares its first rankings.
No. 1 Mississippi State (46 first-place votes) and No. 2 Florida State (14) are the only unbeaten teams left in the Big Five conferences.
Golf
Streb clinches Masters bid; Allen gets 2nd win of season
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Robert Streb earned his first PGA Tour win on Sunday by closing with a 7-under 63 and making a 4-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole in the McGladrey Classic.
The victory sends Streb to the Masters in April. The 27-year-old from Oklahoma never has played in a major.
SAN ANTONIO – Michael Allen made a 5-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a 6-under 66 and a two-stroke victory Sunday in the Champions Tour’s AT&T Championship, and Bernhard Langer wrapped up the Charles Schwab Cup title.
MLB
Cardinals’ OF Oscar Taveras killed in a car accident
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras, a 22-year-old slugger who was regarded as one of the majors’ top prospects, died Sunday in a car accident in his native Dominican Republic.
Taveras was driving a 2014 Chevrolet Camaro at the time of the crash on a highway between the beaches of Sosua and Cabarete in Puerto Plata, about 215 miles north of the capital of Santo Domingo, said Col. Diego Pesqueira of the Metropolitan Transportation Agency.
Skiing
Hirscher starts where he left off in the giant slalom
SOELDEN, Austria – Overall champion Marcel Hirscher held on to his first-run lead to win the season-opening World Cup giant slalom Sunday.
The Austrian finished in an aggregate 2 minutes, 28.09 seconds to beat Fritz Dopfer of Germany by 1.58 seconds. Alexis Pinturault of France was already over two seconds behind in third.
Ted Ligety, the Olympic and world champion in GS, was second after the opening leg but dropped to 10th, trailing Hirscher by 3.02 seconds, following a disappointing final run in which he lost a lot of speed in the finish section.
Soccer
Wambach nets 4 for 5th CONCACAF title for USA
CHESTER, Pa. – Abby Wambach scored four goals and the World Cup-bound United States defeated Costa Rica 6-0 on Sunday night for the team’s fifth CONCACAF Women’s Championship title.
The U.S. women already had secured a trip to next year’s World Cup in Canada with a victory over Mexico in the semifinals of the eight-team, four-city tournament.
Tennis
Murray rallies in Valencia; Serena takes WTA Finals
VALENCIA, Spain – Andy Murray saved five match points in a thrilling fightback to beat Tommy Robredo 3-6, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (8) in a grueling Valencia Open final on Sunday.
In September, Murray also saved five match points against the Spaniard on his way to winning the final at Shenzhen.
Robredo took a one-set lead and pulled back a break to force a tiebreaker that could have earned him the title in Spain.
SINGAPORE – Serena Williams beat Simona Halep 6-3, 6-0 to win her third-successive title at the WTA Finals and fifth overall.
Associated Press
