Sports in Brief: Filly Ria Antonia may run in the Preakness

Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Ria Antonia is a possibility to run against male horses in the Preakness Stakes.

If she is sent to Pimlico to run in the middle leg of the Triple Crown on May 17, Ria Antonia will be saddled by a new trainer. The filly's owners transferred her from the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert to Tom Amoss after she finished sixth in the Kentucky Oaks last week at Churchill Downs.

If Ria Antonia takes on the boys, including Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome, she will try to become the sixth filly to win the Preakness. Rachel Alexandra was the most recent filly to win, in 2009.

COLLEGES The Villanova football team announced Tuesday that it has added a 12th game to its 2014 schedule, Morgan State on Oct. 25. It will be the first meeting between the schools. Morgan State was 5-7 last year and 5-3 in the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference.

Temple named Molly Doyle (field hockey) and Gabriella Matautia (volleyball) co-winners of its award for female student-athlete of the year. Vaughn Spurrier (soccer) was named male student-athlete of the year.

Big Ten Conference commissioner Jim Delany said Washington will host the league's 2017 men's basketball tournament and join a "rotation" with Chicago and Indianapolis.

Delany officially announced Tuesday that Washington's Verizon Center - home of the NBA's Wizards and NHL's Capitals, as well as Georgetown men's basketball - will host the Big Ten tournament on March 8-12, 2017.

After four players transferred from Maryland's basketball team, athletic director Kevin Anderson said he fully supports coach Mark Turgeon. Turgeon said there's no trend or pattern to the transfers. He said "winning at a high level" would help prevent players from heading elsewhere.

Since the end of last season, when Maryland went 17-15, forward Nick Faust, center Shaq Cleare, and guards Roddy Peters and Seth Allen all left the team.

TENNIS Austrian qualifier Dominic Thiem scored the biggest victory of his young career when he rallied for a 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over third-ranked Stanislas Wawrinka at the Madrid Open.

The 20-year-old Thiem showed composure beyond his years in knocking the Australian Open champion out of the clay court event to reach the third round.

Wawrinka wasn't the only Swiss player to exit the tournament Tuesday. Roger Federer pulled out because of the birth of his second set of twins, this time boys - named Leo and Lenny.

The exit of Wawrinka plus the withdrawals of Federer and second-ranked Novak Djokovic - to injury - give defending champion Rafael Nadal the perfect opportunity to rebound from his worst clay court run in a decade. The top-ranked Spaniard opens on Wednesday against Juan Monaco of Argentina.

On the women's side, Maria Sharapova avoided an early exit after rallying to beat 56th-ranked American Christina McHale, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. - Staff and wire reports