COLLEGES
Brendan Martin had eight goals, including three in the first quarter, as St Joseph’s beat the University of Southern Maine 17-8 Wednesday in a nonconference men’s lacrosse game at Standish.
The Monks (3-0) built a 10-6 halftime advantage and pulled away from the Huskies (0-3).
Shane Puleo had three goals and added three assists for St. Joseph’s.
Nick James had three goals and three assists for Southern Maine.
HIGH SCHOOLS
VOLLEYBALL: Sage Study and Lillian Findlan combined for 20 kills as Sanford as beat visiting Kennebunk, 25-19, 25-20, 26-24.
Grace Davies had 23 assists for Sanford, Tori Lawrence contributed 13 digs and Kora Eckelman had eight blocks.
HOCKEY: Vermont has its first known case of a school athletics team spreading the virus to another team.
Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said Tuesday that the Missisquoi Valley Union High School hockey team appears to have spread the virus to members of the Essex High School team.
“That’s the only time we’ve seen that in Vermont thus far,” Levine said during the governor’s twice-weekly virus briefing. “Missisquoi has its outbreak related to the team. It also has a separate number of cases that don’t seem to have any connection to the team.”
The school has switched to remote learning and canceled the rest of its winter season.
Meanwhile, two more school hockey teams have withdrawn from the state’s high school playoffs because of COVID-related situations.
The Vermont Principals’ Association said Tuesday that the Rice Memorial boys team and the North Country/Lyndon girls team have forfeited their upcoming quarterfinal games, the Burlington Free Press reported.
On Monday, South Burlington withdrew its boys hockey team from the playoffs because of a presumed positive COVID-19 result, the newspaper reported.
AUTO RACING
OBIT: Sabine Schmitz, the first and only female race car driver to win the annual 24-hour race on the famed Nürburgring circuit and a renowned TV personality, has died. She was 51.
Schmitz had been ill with cancer since 2017 and continued racing until 2019. The 24-hour race’s organizers said she died Tuesday following “a years-long battle with her disease.”
Schmitz grew up near the Nürburgring, a fearsome track which winds through the hills of western Germany. Its 13-mile Nordschleife configuration is regarded as one of the most demanding and dangerous tracks in the world.
Schmitz moved through lower-level racing categories before winning the 24-hour race in 1996 and 1997 as part of a team driving a BMW M3. She also won the VLN championship of endurance races at the Nürburgring in 1998.
SOCCER
GERMANY: German soccer club Cologne canceled training after a member of staff tested positive for the coronavirus.
The club said it made the decision after speaking with local health authorities following the positive test of the unnamed member of staff on Tuesday. Players will work on their fitness at home.
Cologne said all players and staff were negative in tests conducted Wednesday with rapid testing kits. However, the club said it will only resume training after it gets negative results from tests using the more sensitive and time-consuming polymerase chain reaction test. Those PCR tests are planned for Thursday.
Cologne is scheduled to host Borussia Dortmund on Saturday in a game which could be significant for both teams this season. Cologne could fall into the relegation zone with a loss, while a win could put Dortmund back into the Champions League places.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Bayern Munich moved a step closer to defending its title by beating Lazio 2-1 at home to seal a 6-2 aggregate win and a place in the quarterfinals.
Robert Lewandowski gave Bayern the lead from the penalty spot in the 33rd minute for his 39th goal in all competitions this season. Lewandowski calmly struck the ball past his former Bayern teammate Pepe Reina after Lazio’s Vedat Muriqi was judged to have held Leon Goretzka as they jostled for position at a corner.
Lewandowski had the chance to reach 40 goals but he hit the post with a low drive from outside the penalty area.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting came off the bench to replace Lewandowski and soon scored Bayern’s second off a defense-splitting pass from David Alaba in the 73rd. The game was long since out of Lazio’s reach when Marco Parolo headed in a free kick in the 82nd. That marked Bayern’s seventh game in a row conceding at least one goal.
• Chelsea eased into the quarterfinals for the first time in seven years with a 2-0 victory over Atletico Madrid, completing a 3-0 win on aggregate.
Chelsea took the lead with a goal created by a trio of summer signings who cost more than $200 million.
Kai Havertz launched a counterattack after Kieran Trippier’s cross was intercepted before releasing Timo Werner to run down the left. Werner sent the ball in for Hakim Ziyech, who placed the shot under goalkeeper Jan Oblak in the 34th minute.
The goal meant Atletico needed to score twice but their slim chances ended when Stefan Savic was sent off in the 81st minute for elbowing Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger.
Two of Chelsea’s substitutes then combined for the second goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
Emerson Palmieri had only been on the pitch a minute when he was set up by Christian Pulisic on the break and he struck only his second goal in three years at Chelsea.
SKIING
WORLD CUP: Sofia Goggia and Beat Feuz became downhill World Cup champions on Wednesday without needing to put on their skis after the final races of the season in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, were canceled because of heavy snow.
It was the second title in the fastest discipline for Goggia, who has not raced since breaking a bone in her right knee seven weeks ago, and the fourth for Feuz.
The women’s and men’s contests in the overall World Cup standings tilted away from the Swiss challengers when organizers called off the day’s program. The Swiss ski federation cited “continuing snowfall and the present weather situation.”
Petra Vlhova and Alexis Pinturault each hold small leads in the overall standings and their nearest challengers – Switzerland teammates Lara Gut-Behrami and Marco Odermatt – are stronger in downhill.
Organizers had aimed for an ambitious program Wednesday with separate training runs for men and women in the morning and races starting after midday. The mandatory practice runs required under World Cup safety rules had not been possible Tuesday because of snow and strong winds on the Silvano Beltrametti slope.
SAILING
AMERICA’S CUP: Team New Zealand has retained the America’s Cup, beating Italian challenger Luna Rossa 7-3 in the 36th match for sailing’s oldest trophy.
The defender came into the sixth day of racing Wednesday at match point, with a 6-3 lead in the best-of-13 race series. It won the 10th race by 46 seconds in a shifty north-easterly breeze to complete its defense of the famous Auld Mug.
Team New Zealand crossed the finish line just after 5 p.m. local time in Auckland to a cacophony of horns and sirens from more than 1,000 spectator boats and the cheers of tens of thousands of fans who watched from vantage points ashore in COVID-free New Zealand.
Spectators thronged the downtown Viaduct Harbor to watch Team New Zealand return from the racecourse and later saw the crew lift the America’s Cup, the 170-year-old silver trophy which has long attracted the world’s best sailors.
“We’ve had messages from everyone from the Prime Minister to high school kids,” helmsman Peter Burling said. “We’re just blown away by being able to achieve what we have as a group and win another America’s Cup.”
• Just minutes after Team New Zealand won the America’s Cup sailing series on the water Wednesday, the government was offering up cash to keep the team together and the racing at home for the next match.
“We want to see it all over again in 2023,” said Stuart Nash, the minister responsible for the America’s Cup.
Indeed, the government took the unusual step of offering money to Team New Zealand before it had even asked. It didn’t say how much, but it’s likely to be several million dollars up front and much more later on.
In a sport dominated by billionaires, the New Zealand government wants to stay one step ahead of other teams eager to poach talent, and of moves that could see races held in another country.
TENNIS
DUBAI CHAMPIONSHIPS: Andrey Rublev and Denis Shapovalov eased into the quarterfinals and qualifier Lloyd Harris continued his run of upsets.
The second-seeded Rublev needed barely an hour to win 6-3, 6-1 against Taylor Fritz. He next faces a rematch against Marton Fucsovics, the player he beat in the Rotterdam final earlier this month.
Fucsovics won 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 against 11th-seeded Dusan Lajovic.
Playing his 200th tour-level match, the third-seeded Shapovalov held serve throughout a 6-4, 6-3 win over Hubert Hurkacz to set up a quarterfinal against Jeremy Chardy. If Shapovalov wins, it would be the first time this year that the 12th-ranked Canadian has won three consecutive matches. Chardy upset eighth-seeded Karen Khachanov 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4.
Harris won 7-6 (5), 6-4 against 14th-seeded Filip Krajinovic to follow his upset win over top-seeded Dominic Thiem on Wednesday.
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