The Enquirer and wire reports

The return of St. Xavier High graduate Steve Sollmann from surgery on a broken jaw has boosted Notre Dame's hopes of reaching the College World Series.

The No. 6-ranked Irish (49-10) play Kent State (35-25) Friday at South Bend in the first round of the NCAA Division I regionals.

Since Sollmann's return May 9, the Fighting Irish have won 14 of 15 games, including the Big East tournament. Sollmann, whose 297 hits, rank second in school history, has a .487 batting average in 18 NCAA Tournament games.

The second baseman was injured April 3 in a collision while chasing a pop fly against Villanova. Without Sollmann, Notre Dame had a 15-6 record. "After Sollmann's injury happened ... we lost a little of our swagger, our confidence, our fight," Irish coach Paul Mainieri said. "Sollmann made that kind of difference."

NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL: The Irish changed their schedule and will open the season at BYU Sept. 4, giving them a game before they play Michigan. Notre Dame didn't want to open its season against Michigan Sept. 11, especially with the Wolverines having already played a game. Michigan opens the season against the Miami RedHawks Sept. 4.

MIAMI TRACK: Freshman long jumper Lashonda Davis earned one of the 12 at-large bids to compete at the NCAA Championships June 9-12 in Austin, Texas.

Davis finished ninth at last weekend's regional in Baton Rouge, La., and was the third at-large jumper taken by the committee. Earlier, she set the school long jump record of 20 feet, 7 1/2 inches.

Davis joins senior Andrea Kremer at the NCAA Championships. Kremer earned her third automatic bid in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a fourth-place finish at the regional meet.

NEVADA BASKETBALL: Mark Fox was hired as head coach after working four years as an assistant under Trent Johnson. Johnson, who led Nevada to a 25-9 season and its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament round of 16, resigned a week ago to coach Stanford.

ARKANSAS: An attempt by the athletic department fund-raising arm to reclaim money it has paid to Nolan Richardson was dismissed. A federal judge ruled the fired coach has made adequate attempts to find work under terms of his contract.

The Razorback Foundation, which is buying out Richardson's contract at $500,000 a year through June 2008, had filed a counterclaim to the ex-coach's discrimination lawsuit.

Under terms of Richardson's buyout, he had to seek a new job and any money he would receive coaching basketball at another school or with a professional team would reduce the foundation's obligation to him by the same amount. The Razorback Foundation said Richardson hadn't made serious attempts to find work.

Golf

U.S. OPEN: Sergio Garcia, winner of the Byron Nelson Championship in May, and Miguel Angel Jimenez, winner of three events on the 2004 European PGA Tour, are two of the 12 golfers who earned full exemptions into the June 17-20 championship at the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y.

Garcia and Jimenez earned their exemptions by staying in the top 50 in the world rankings. The other 10 who earned full exemptions by being in the top 50 are Stephen Ames, Angel Cabrera, Stewart Cink, Fred Couples, Todd Hamilton, Joakim Haeggman, Scott Hoch, Zach Johnson, Shigeki Maruyama and Craig Parry.

That brings to 76 the number of fully exempt golfers.

Gymnastics

U.S. CHAMPIONSHIPS: Hollie Vise, runner-up last year, withdrew from this year's competition because of back problems.