Sports in Brief | Penn State scraps lottery for tickets

Under fire from undergraduates, the Penn State athletic department bowed to students' wishes yesterday and scrapped a plan to distribute 21,800 football tickets by lottery. Penn State will return to the first-come, first-served policy.

"It became very apparent, very quickly, that most Penn State students want the first-come, first-served system," associate athletic director Greg Myford said. "So that's what we are going to do."

With a capacity of 107,282, Beaver Stadium is the second-largest in the country behind Michigan Stadium (107,501).

Cal-Irvine (28-5) beat Penn State, 3-1, in the semifinals of the NCAA men's volleyball tournament in Columbus, Ohio. Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne (23-7) beat defending national champion Pepperdine, 3-1.

Penn State finished 22-8. Pepperdine finished 26-3.

Elsewhere: Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino signed a new deal that will keep him with the Cardinals through 2013. . . . Former La Salle coach Billy Hahn was named an assistant basketball coach at West Virginia. . . . New St. Louis coach Rick Majerus named former Illinois State coach Porter Moser as assistant coach and signed 6-foot-7 forward Barry Eberhardt from Coffeyville Junior College in Kansas. . . . Notre Dame's Mike Brey, the Big East coach of the year, signed a two-year contract extension to remain with the Irish through the 2012-13 season.

David Beckham

can play Sunday in Real Madrid's league match against Sevilla after the Spanish soccer federation lifted his one-game suspension, triggered by his 10th yellow card of the season.

Elsewhere: The Los Angeles Galaxy traded defender Shavar Thomas to CD Chivas USA for a second-round selection in the 2009 MLS superdraft. . . . Jason Kreis, MLS's all-time leading scorer, retired as a player to become Real Salt Lake's coach. Kreis replaces John Ellinger.

International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion

Wladimir Klitschko

was hit with a $5 million lawsuit over last year's canceled fight with

Shannon Briggs

at Madison Square Garden.

The suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, alleges breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation.

Chicago, chosen last month as the U.S. candidate for the 2016 Summer Olympics, was awarded the 2007 world boxing championships, two months after Moscow was stripped of the event. About 600 boxers from 100 countries will compete at the Oct. 17-Nov. 1 event, which also will serve as the opening qualifier for the Beijing Olympics.

A lack of wind postponed Louis Vuitton Cup match racing off Valencia, Spain. When the competition resumes, there will be a race between the teams tied for the lead of the America's Cup challengers series: American entry BMW Oracle Racing and Italy's Luna Rossa.

World 100-meter record-holder Asafa Powell could be out of track competition for several weeks because of knee tendinitis. Powell did not race for Jamaica's sprint relay team at the Penn Relays last weekend.

Boston Bruins teammates Brandon Bochenski and Phil Kessel each had a goal and an assist to lift the United States past Slovakia, 4-2, in the hockey world championships in Mytischi, Russia.

Qualifier Julia Vakulenko beat second-seeded Kim Clijsters, 7-6 (3), 6-3, to advance to the quarterfinals of the clay court tennis J&S Cup in Warsaw. Venus Williams beat seventh-seeded Elena Dementieva, 6-1, 7-6 (4).

Elsewhere: NASCAR driver Scott Wimmer has filed a lawsuit against former employer Bill Davis Racing, asking for $1.2 million in unpaid salary for the 2006 season. . . . Former Olympic freestyle skiing gold medalist Ales Valenta of the Czech Republic retired at 34 because of recurring health problems.