IN BRIEF

Cavaliers match offer for forward Varejao

Anderson Varejao will play for the Cleveland Cavaliers this season, after all.

The Cavaliers matched the Charlotte Bobcats’ $17 million, three-year offer sheet for the restricted free agent Wednesday, ending a contract dispute and giving Cleveland some much needed help.

The Cavaliers had a week to match the offer sheet or lose the 6-foot-10-inch Varejao to the Bobcats.

The Cavs’ decision came the day after their fourth straight loss, and they later got beat at Washington. Cleveland is 0-4 without LeBron James, who sprained his left index finger a week ago.

Also: The trial of Indiana Pacers players Jamaal Tinsley and Marquis Daniels stemming from a bar fight in Indianapolis almost a year ago was delayed until Jan. 14.

Defense attorney James Voyles confirmed the new date. The trial was to have begun Monday, but Voyles requested the delay, the second since September, because the Pacers play at Cleveland on Tuesday.

COLLEGES

UNLV volleyball coach nets West Region honor

UNLV volleyball coach Allison Keeley was named West Region Division I Coach of the Year by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, and the Rebels’ Lauren Miramontes made the All-West Region team.

Keeley guided UNLV to a 24-6 record, the Mountain West Conference title and a first-ever NCAA Tournament berth. The Rebels were also ranked for two weeks, at No. 25, for the first time in the program’s history.

Miramontes, Most Valuable Player of the conference tournament, totaled 521 kills this season and 132 blocks (100 assisted, 32 solo), and she had double-digit kills in 29 matches. She had 20 or more kills in 10 matches.

Also: UNLV’s Kim Bonney was named MWC women’s Co-Swimmer of the Week after helping the Rebels take seventh at the Texas Invitational in Austin, Texas.

Bonney took sixth in the 200-yard breaststroke and eighth in the 100 breaststroke. She also swam on the seventh-place 400 freestyle relay team and the eighth-place 200 and 400 medley relay teams.

The first female commissioner of a major college conference will resign next year after leading the Atlantic 10 since 1994.

Linda Bruno’s resignation will take effect June 30. That will leave two other women as commissioners of Division I conferences — Carolyn Schlie Femovich of the Patriot League and Brenda Weare of the Northeast Conference.

MISCELLANEOUS

UFC champ Sherk gets suspension reduced

Sean Sherk’s steroid suspension was cut in half, allowing the Ultimate Fighting Championship titleholder to compete starting Jan. 6.

The California State Athletic Commission reduced the one-year ban after a hearing in Los Angeles. The UFC lightweight champion was suspended in July after testing positive for nandrolone.

The UFC already has scheduled an “interim” lightweight title match between B.J. Penn and Joe Stevenson for Jan. 19 in Newcastle, England.

Also: Former IBF junior welterweight champion Juan Urango (19-1) stopped Marty Robbins (22-40-1) in the fifth round in Hollywood, Fla.

Goalkeepers Hope Solo and Briana Scurry, who were at the center of a World Cup firestorm, were invited to the U.S. women’s national team training camp by new coach Pia Sundhage.

The camp, in Carson, Calif., marks the beginning of preparations for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.