Sports FYI
BY Staff and Wire reports
Saturday, January 19, 2013
1/19/13 at 3:08 AM
Soccer
OSU's Franch drafted sixth overall: Oklahoma State goalkeeper AD Franch was selected by the Western New York Flash with the sixth overall pick of Friday's National Women's Soccer League college draft.
Franch becomes the highest-ever Cowgirl draft pick in women's professional soccer.
OSU head coach Colin Carmichael said the sky is the limit for Franch in professional soccer and in her goal of earning a spot on the U.S. Women's National Team.
"We're really proud and excited for AD and can't wait to watch her play," Carmichael said. "This is the next step in her development."
The NWSL is a new professional league that was created in November by the U.S. Soccer Federation and includes eight teams. The league, which is set to begin play in April, is being subsidized by the USSF, the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) and the Mexican Football Federation (FMF). The three federations are paying the salaries of their national team players to aid the teams in creating world-class rosters. Earlier this month, 55 players were distributed among the eight teams in an allocation process.
Tennis
ORU men fall to Nicholls State: Freshman Jason Mechali earned a point at No. 2 singles, but Oral Roberts University fell to Nicholls State 6-1 in its 2013 season opener on Friday afternoon.
Mechali's victory came over Damian Despotovski, 2-6, 7-5, 10-5, but ORU (0-1, 0-1 Southland Conference) fell in the other eight contested matches.
The Golden Eagles will finish their season-opening road trip on Saturday afternoon when they face the University of New Orleans.
College
Maryland attorney general files suit against ACC: The Maryland Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the Atlantic Coast Conference on Friday, saying its approximately $53 million exit fee for the University of Maryland's departure to the Big Ten is invalid and unenforceable.
Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler filed the suit on behalf of the school and its board of regents in Prince George's County Circuit Court.
The ACC sued Maryland in November in a North Carolina court to make the school pay the exit fee. Gansler also filed a motion Friday to dismiss that lawsuit, saying a court in that state has no jurisdiction over Maryland.
The league says the school must pay $52,266,342 - three times the league's annual operating budget for 2012-13 - after its member schools voted in September to increase the fee.
The attorney general's lawsuit seeks, among other remedies, nearly $157 million in damages.
Gansler said in an interview with The Associated Press that he hoped a settlement would be reached, and that the lawsuit was prompted by the ACC's withholding of more than $3 million in December, money paid to ACC teams each month for television rights. The lawsuit seeks to prevent the ACC from continuing to withhold those funds.
