Nov 5, 2019 4 min read

F-C, South Fayette ousted from playoffs

The Fort Cherry and South Fayette girls volleyball teams each were knocked out of the PIAA playoffs in the first round Monday night.

Fort Cherry, the WPIAL Class A runner-up, lost in four games to Northern Cambria, the District 6 champion, in a match played at Forest Hills High School. South Fayette, the WPIAL’s fourth-place finisher in Class 3A, lost in three games to WPIAL champion Knoch.

Fort Cherry had a good start, winning the first game 25-21 before Northern Cambria (20-1) rallied and won the next three, 25-16, 25-14 and 26-24. Fort Cherry ends the season with a 15-6 record.

South Fayette never got going against Knoch (22-1), losing 25-11, 25-18 and 25-20. The Lions finish with a 17-3 record.

World Series gets bad TV ratings

It may be no solace to the Houston Astros, but the Washington Nationals’ comeback win in the World Series helped baseball avoid a dubious record.

The series’ seventh and deciding game reached 23.2 million people, eclipsing even “Sunday Night Football” and enabling the Series to average just under 14 million viewers per game, the Nielsen company said. The last game drew nearly 7 million more viewers than any of the other games.

Through five games, the series was on pace to be the least-watched Fall Classic ever.

At least for another year, San Francisco’s four-game sweep of Detroit in 2012 keeps the record of least popular series ever. It averaged 12.66 million viewers.

Minnesota coach gets contract extension

Minnesota made a major commitment toward keeping football coach P.J. Fleck in place for the long term.

Undefeated and 13th-ranked Minnesota agreed with Fleck on a contract extension through the 2026 season, including an annual raise of more than 25% from his current salary and an eight-figure buyout for the first year to cover the university if he were to leave.

Fleck signed his new deal Tuesday afternoon, delaying his regular weekly news conference by a half-hour. The contract, which is pending final approval by the Board of Regents, will pay Fleck $4.6 million in 2020 with a $50,000 raise scheduled for each season thereafter.

Referencing Big Ten West Division foes Iowa, Northwestern and Wisconsin and the low turnover on their coaching staffs, Fleck spoke of establishing the same type of continuity with a program that has lacked it for decades. Senior linebacker Thomas Barber, whose father and two older brothers also played for the Gophers, noted that his family has been associated with seven head coaches.

The Gophers (5-0 Big Ten, 8-0) host sixth-ranked Penn State on Saturday, the first time they’ve been a part of a game with two top-15 teams in the Associated Press poll since 2004, when Michigan visited Minnesota.

In the NBA

Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce said the team will support forward John Collins following his suspension for a positive drug test.

Collins, Atlanta’s leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, was suspended for 25 games without pay on Tuesday for a violation of the NBA’s anti-drug program after testing positive for a growth hormone.

Pierce insisted his first concern is helping Collins “get through this, not as a player but as a person,” but the coach likewise acknowledged that Collins let the team down.

“Of course it’s disturbing, that this is something you hope you can prevent, and we hope we can educate him on that, but he made a decision, or someone made a decision and somehow we got to this point,” Pierce said. “It’s our job to get to the information, to keep all our guys from making this decision or being in this position again, but it hurts our team.”

In the NHL

Sean Couturier had a goal and an assist, Travis Konecny scored the tiebreaker early in the third period and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 on Tuesday night.

Claude Giroux and Joel Farabee also scored, and Matt Niskanen had two assists for Philadelphia. Carter Hart made 33 saves.

Lucas Wallmark scored for Carolina, which has lost six of 10 after a 5-0 start.

• Cole Bardreau scored his first NHL goal on a penalty shot in the second period, and the New York Islanders beat the Ottawa Senators 4-1 for their 10th straight win.

Cal Clutterbuck and Casey Cizikas each had a goal and an assist, and Josh Bailey also scored to help the Islanders win their first game in Brooklyn this season and extend their winning streak to the second-longest in franchise history, trailing only a 15-game run Jan. 21 to Feb. 20, 1982. Thomas Greiss stopped 27 shots.