Sports briefs 5/30/06

Baseball

• A day after right-hander Jae Kuk Ryu's first Major League start with the Chicago Cubs ended with four home runs in 1 1/3 innings, the team announced Monday that he is being optioned to Triple-A Iowa.

Against Atlanta on Sunday, Ryu was overmatched by the Braves lineup. He gave up four home runs to the first 10 batters he faced. The Cubs lost to the Braves 13-12 in 11 innings.

Lacrosse

• Virginia completed an undefeated season with its fourth NCAA men's lacrosse title Monday, beating unseeded Massachusetts 15-7 behind five goals each from Matt Poskay and Matt Ward.

The Cavaliers finished 17-0, the second straight year the NCAA champion was unbeaten. Johns Hopkins went 16-0 last year.

Before a record crowd of 47,062, Massachusetts (13-5) tied it 5-5 early in the third quarter and pulled to 7-6 when the Cavaliers went on a tear with six straight goals to lead 13-6 with 9:37 left.

* Aly Josephs scored four goals to lead Northwestern to its second consecutive NCAA women's lacrosse championship with a 7-4 win over Dartmouth on Sunday.

Soccer

• Brian McBride scored in the 43rd minute, and the United States completed a grueling series of three World Cup warmup games in six days by beating Latvia 1-0 Sunday night.

Following a 1-0 loss to Morocco and a 2-0 victory over Venezuela, the Americans looked sharper and dominated possession until tiring midway through the second half.

-- The Associated Press