Sports briefs: 1/3/12

Storm trades Cash to Sky

The Seattle Storm has traded WNBA All-Star Swin Cash and forward Le'coe Willingham to the Chicago Sky for the No. 2 pick in the 2012 draft.

The teams announced the deal Monday. Seattle also sent a second-round pick to Chicago, the 23rd overall.

Cash, of McKeesport High School, averaged 12.7 points and 6.2 rebounds in her four seasons with the Storm and helped Seattle to the 2010 WNBA title.

Baseball

Hanley Ramirez says he'll accept a position switch to third base so Miami Marlins newcomer Jose Reyes can play shortstop. When Reyes signed a $106 million, six-year deal with Miami last month, there was speculation Ramirez was unhappy about being supplanted at short. But new manager Ozzie Guillen sold Ramirez on the idea.

Soccer

U.S. coach Pia Sundhage is gathering 29 players for a nine-day training camp before paring the roster to 20 for Olympic women's soccer qualifying. The group will train from Jan. 7-15 in Carson, Calif. Players will then head to Vancouver, British Columbia, for the qualifying tournament for the North and Central American and Caribbean region. The Americans won the 2008 Olympic gold medal. They play the Dominican Republic Jan. 20, Guatemala two days later and Mexico Jan. 24. The top two teams in the group advance to the semifinals Jan. 27, with both semifinal winners qualifying for the London Olympics. All 29 players attended a December training camp.

Auto racing

Defending bike champion Marc Coma of Spain won the second stage of the Dakar Rally and took the category lead after the 185-mile leg. In cars, defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar captured the stage while Stephane Peterhansel of France pulled into the overall lead. This year's rally, considered one of the most dangerous in motor sports, has already claimed three lives.

Tennis

The United States lost to Denmark, 2-1, at the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia, with late-arriving Caroline Wozniacki and Frederik Nielsen beating Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Mardy Fish, 7-5, 6-3, in the deciding mixed doubles match. Fish gave the U.S. an opening victory in this Australian Open tuneup, defeating Nielsen, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4. The top-ranked Wozniacki made it to the tournament only four hours earlier on a flight from Thailand. She beat Mattek-Sands, 7-6 (4), 6-2 to tie the best-of-three series before the Danish pair combined to win mixed doubles.

? Sixth-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy was eliminated and fifth-seeded Ivan Dodig of Croatia escaped in the first round of the Chennai Open in India.

First published on January 3, 2012 at 12:00 am

Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12003/1200958-139.stm?cmpid=sportsother.xml

twas the night before christmas detroit lions cincinnati bengals norad santa epic beard man new york jets nfl standings