Elkington Leads by One

Steve Elkington shot an eight-under-par 64 on Thursday in the opening round of the BellSouth Classic at Duluth, Ga., to take a one-stroke lead over Phil Mickelson.

There was a five-way logjam at 66 with Dudley Hart, Thomas Bjorn, Jesper Parnevik, Frank Nobilo and Ian Leggatt.

Four of the world’s top five players are resting up for the Masters, including No. 1 Tiger Woods, No. 3 Ernie Els, No. 4 David Duval and No. 5 Sergio Garcia.

Women’s Basketball

Marianne Stanley was hired as coach of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics and Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt became a consultant.

Stanley won three national championships at Old Dominion and was an assistant with the Mystics last year. She also coached at USC and was an assistant with the Sparks.

Summitt, who led Tennessee to six national titles, will remain the Lady Vols’ coach. She will assist the Mystics in the upcoming draft.

Tennis

Top-seeded Jelena Dokic of Yugoslavia easily advanced to the Sarasota Open quarterfinals, beating Israel’s Anna Smashnova, 6-1, 6-0, at Sarasota, Fla. She will face Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder in the quarterfinals.

Russia’s Anastasia Myskina outlasted France’s Mary Pierce, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4).

College Football

The USC football team will probably be without several key players for the annual “Trojan Huddle” scrimmage Saturday at the Coliseum.

Receiver Kareem Kelly, offensive tackle Jacob Rogers and cornerback Kevin Arbet are nursing what appeared to be minor injuries suffered in practice Thursday. At tailback, Justin Fargas is still recovering from a knee injury and Malaefou MacKenzie, who missed last season, is easing back into the rotation.

Saturday’s scrimmage and barbecue begins at 11 a.m. with the gates opening at 10 a.m.

Two Miami Hurricane playbooks, one offensive and one defensive, were stolen last month and parts of them were posted on the Internet. Police and FBI officials are involved in the case but have no suspects.

Coach Larry Coker said he wasn’t too concerned about the theft.

“They do have some basic things in them that are important,” Coker said, “but nothing they can’t get off of video.”

Miscellany

The first round of interviews for the UCLA athletic director opening have been completed and one of seven candidates, San Diego State Athletic Director Rick Bay, has withdrawn from consideration.

A second round of interviews will begin next week. Athletic directors Dan Guerrero of UC Irvine, Gene Bleymaier of Boise State, Gary Walters of Princeton and Gary Cunningham of UC Santa Barbara are candidates along with UCLA assistant athletic directors Betsy Stephenson and Rick Purdy.

Maine defeated New Hampshire, 7-2, and Minnesota defeated Michigan, 3-0, in the Frozen Four semifinals at St. Paul, Minn. The final is Saturday.