HOCKEY

On-again, off-again talks are on again, after threat to take a two-week break

So much for a two-week break. Just over one week since the last set of failed negotiations, the NHL and the locked-out players’ association are returning to the bargaining table Monday.

Conversations that restarted Friday between NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and NHLPA special counsel Steve Fehr produced enough positive feeling Saturday for the sides to set up another face-to-face meeting that the sides hope will lead to an agreement to save the hockey season.

COLLEGES

CROSS COUNTRY: Abbey Leonardi of Kennebunk and her Oregon teammates won the NCAA Division I women’s championship in Louisville, Ky., and Oklahoma State won the men’s title for the fourth time in five years.

Leonardi was the No. 7 runner for Oregon and finished 162nd in 21 minutes, 12 seconds for 6 kilometers.

TENNIS

DAVIS CUP: The Czech Republic won the doubles to take a 2-1 lead over defending champion Spain in the final at Prague, moving one win away from its first title as an independent nation.

Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek rallied to beat Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-3 to give the Czechs the edge going into Sunday’s reverse singles.

GOLF

LPGA: U.S. Women’s Open champion Na Yeon Choi was steady after an early three-putt bogey and finished with a 3-under 69 that gave her a one-shot lead in the Titleholders at Naples, Fla.

Choi took over the lead early when Ai Miyazato made double bogey on the par-5 second hole. So Yeon Ryu, the LPGA rookie of the year, is two shots back.

EUROPEAN TOUR: Henrik Stenson of Sweden took a three-shot lead into the final round of the South African Open at Johannesburg, despite George Coetzee shooting a course-record 63.

Stenson had six birdies and three bogeys in a 69 for a 16-under total of 200. Coetzee and Magnus Carlsson were three shots back.

HONG KONG OPEN: Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain shot a 2-under 68 to share the third-round lead with New Zealand’s Michael Campbell.

AUSTRALIAN MASTERS: Defending champion Ian Poulter shot an 8-under-par 64 to take a one-stroke lead over Adam Scott after three rounds at Melbourne, Australia.

BOBSLED

WORLD CUP: Alexandr Zubkov put together two solid runs to win the four-man bobsled event, depriving Park City native Steven Holcomb — who won gold in the two-man bobsled Friday — of a gold-medal sweep on his home course in Park City, Utah. A week ago in Lake Placid, N.Y., he also couldn’t catch Zubkov.

BOXING

IBF: Britain’s Carl Froch stopped American Yusaf Mack in the third round to retain the IBF super middleweight title at Nottingham, England.

Mack keeled over after being struck with a right-left combination into his ribs from Froch, with the one-sided fight ending with 28 seconds left in the round.

It was Froch’s 30th win in 32 fights, and he is set for a rematch next with Canada’s Lucien Bute.

— From staff and news services