Sports in Brief | Woods widens his lead in World Challenge

Tiger Woods

shot a 5-under 67 yesterday to widen his lead to 6 strokes ahead of

Jim Furyk

in the Target World Challenge at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Woods enters the final round at 18-under 198.

Masters champion

Zach Johnson

only had three birdies, with his 69 leaving him 7 shots behind.

Robert Allenby

and fellow Australian

James Nitties

shot 3-under 69s and shared the third-round lead at the Australian Open in Sydney.

Fulfilling one of their major off-season goals, the Los Angeles Dodgers agreed to terms with Japanese free-agent righthander

Hiroki Kuroda

, 32, on a three-year, $35.2 million contract.

The New York Mets will raise ticket prices about 20 percent for next season, reflecting their high payroll and 2009 move to a new ballpark, Citi Field.

Missouri football coach

Gary Pinkel

, who has been mentioned for the Michigan opening, said he will remain with the Tigers.

La Salle's seven baseball recruits for 2008-09 are infielder-outfielder

Charles Bartlett

of Rockville, Md.; pitcher

Brian Conrad

of Souderton High; infielder

Jeff Flax

of Washington; infielder-pitcher

Jon Gyles

of Central Bucks West High; outfielder

Tony Negrin

of New Rochelle, N.Y.; outfielder

Jim Tarabocchia

of Camden Catholic High; and pitcher

Craig Miller

of Alexandria, Va.

La Salle women's soccer star

Kristin Hextall

has been named to the all-Mid-Atlantic third team by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

Penn State (34-2) played near-perfect volleyball in an amazing NCAA run, winning its second national title while dropping only two games in six tournament matches in Sacramento, Calif.

The scrappy Nittany Lions even found a way to stun top-seeded Stanford (32-3) last night, getting 26 kills from tournament MVP

Megan Hodge

and 19 from

Nicole Fawcett

against the same school they beat for their first championship in 1999.

The Nittany Lions beat Stanford, 30-25, 30-26, 23-30, 19-30, 15-8, exactly three months to the day after losing a five-game thriller to the Cardinal - the last defeat for the Nittany Lions.

NASCAR has approved Penske Racing's request to transfer the owner points from

Kurt Busch

to

Sam Hornish Jr.

, a move that locks the three-time IndyCar Series champion into the first five races of next season.

Hornish, a former Indianapolis 500 winner, is leaving that series for NASCAR next season.

Two-time world champion

Stephane Lambiel

won the Grand Prix men's figure skating title, edging Japan's

Daisuke Takahashi

in Turin, Italy.

As in the short program, American men

Evan Lysacek

and

Johnny Weir

committed errors - both falling in the free skate - to finish third and fourth, respectively.

South Korea's

Kim Yu-na

successfully defended her Grand Prix women's title. U.S. champion

Kimmie Meissner

fell three times and ended up last in sixth place.

Sanja Jovanovic

of Croatia set a world record in the women's 50-meter backstroke at the European Short Course Swimming Championships with a time of 26.50 seconds in Debrecen, Hungary.