BCS commissioners reject 'plus one' playoff proposal

Despite its three games to none loss to Pepperdine in the Mountail Pacific Sports Federation tournament, Long Beach earned a trip to Irvine as the NCAA's wildcard selection.

-- Jim Peltz

TENNIS

Nadal wins easily in Barcelona Open

Rafael Nadal, seeking his fourth straight title in the tournament, reached the third round of the Barcelona Open by defeating Potito Starace, 6-4, 6-2, in Spain.

Top-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu reached the third round of the BMW Open with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Gianluca Naso in Munich, Germany.

Marat Safin defeated Carlos Berlocq, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Vania King was beaten, 6-2, 6-4, by fourth-seeded Aravane Rezai in the second round of the Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem in Fez, Morocco. . . . Jill Craybas lost to Roberta Vinci, 6-4, 6-4, in the second round of the Prague Open in the Czech Republic. . . . Maria Sharapova pulled out of next week's German Open because of an unspecified injury, and Daniela Hantuchova (foot) also withdrew.

MISCELLANY

Freshman Stanback will leave UCLA

UCLA swingman Chace Stanback, a freshman reserve who played in 25 games this season, will leave the program and transfer to another school.

The 6-foot-8 Stanback, a former California player of the year at Fairfax High, averaged 1.0 point, 0.7 rebounds and 5.8 minutes for the Bruins.

Chelsea advanced to the European Champions League final for the first time, with Frank Lampard returning from the death of his mother last week to score the go-ahead goal on a penalty kick in a 3-2 overtime victory over Liverpool in London.

Chelsea meets Manchester United on May 21 in Moscow.

The College World Series will be played in Omaha at least through 2030, under an agreement that calls for the construction of a new downtown ballpark to replace 60-year-old Rosenblatt Stadium.

Leading by two strokes going into the final day, USC failed to repeat as Pacific 10 Conference men's golf champions by losing to Arizona State by two strokes in a one-hole, six-player playoff.

Jesse Heilman used an array of back-handed maneuvers to post the high score during the 6.0 Lowers Pro in sloppy three-foot surf at Lower Trestles near San Clemente. His best-two-waves tally of 18.07 out of a possible 20 advances him to Round 4.

The annual Boxing Writers Assn. of America dinner will take place at 6:30 p.m. tonight at the downtown Biltmore Hotel, 506 S. Grand Ave.