Dinara Safina reacts after missing a shot in her three-set loss to Zheng Jie at the L.A. Women's Tennis Championships in Carson, Calif., Thursday.

Defending national champion Florida tops the USA Today preseason football coaches' poll, receiving 53 of 59 first-place votes.

Texas was second in the poll released today, followed by Oklahoma, Southern California, Alabama, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Penn State, LSU and Mississippi.

Texas had four first-place votes, and Oklahoma and Southern California each had one.

CARSON, Calif. — Zheng Jie upset top-ranked Dinara Safina 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in the third round of the L.A. Women's Tennis Championships Thursday, beating the Russian for the first time in five career meetings.Safina, the defending tournament champion and runner-up at the Australian and French opens this year, struggled with her serve and numerous unforced errors throughout the match. Safina netted a backhand on match point after being broken at love in the previous game.Earlier, Maria Sharapova rallied for a 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 win over Alona Bondarenko and Samantha Stosur defeated sixth-seeded Ana Ivanovic 6-3, 6-2, in the third round.

WASHINGTON — Andy Roddick won the 500th match of his professional career with a 7-6 (4), 6-4 win Thursday over Sam Querrey in the third round of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.Roddick became the 36th player and the fourth active one to reach the milestone, joining Roger Federer, Carlos Moya and Lleyton Hewitt, who fell to No. 2 seed Juan Martin del Potro 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2).No. 10 seed Tommy Haas defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 2-6, 6-1. Fifth-seeded Robin Soderling also needed three sets, but ousted Marc Gicquel 7-5, 5-7, 6-3.No. 4 seed Fernando Gonzalez advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-4 win over American Wayne Odesnik.

BUFFALO TWP — The Unified Force Race Championship — known as the UFo Tour — makes its first appearance at Lernerville Speedway tonight.The UFo Series is designed to link major unsanctioned Super Late Model events. The series has its own car and motor specifications, and adapts to track rules as well.Tonight's Late Model feature is the Lunarville 33, a 33-lap event that pays $2,000 to the winner. Lernerville Late Model points will not be in effect this evening.Points racing will take place for the Sprints, Modifieds and Sportsman Stocks.Five drivers familiar to Lernerville's track top the UFo points list. John Mollick of Toronto, Ohio, leads the way with 359. Two-time defending Lernerville points champion Alex Ferree is second with 347, followed by South Park's Keith Barbara with 343, Jared Miley with 257 and Zelienople's John Flinner with 253.Ferree won the UFo points crown last year with 877.5, beating out Miley by 24.Tonight marks the fifth race of the series. Earlier feature winners are Flinner, Bart Hartman, Mollick and Zack Dohm.Five races remain in the series, including three-day events at Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway Sept. 17 to 19 and Hesston Speedway, located east of Altoona, Oct. 8 to 10.

SLIPPERY ROCK — Mariah Casserly was named the first full-time assistant coach in the history of the Slippery Rock University women's lacrosse program.Casserly joins The Rock after serving three seasons as an assistant at St. Lawrence (N.Y.) University.She earned her undergraduate degree from Ithaca College in 2005, where she earned all-conference honors in four consecutive years, finishing here career with 136 points and 184 ground balls.Casserly earned a master's from St. Lawrence in 2008.

SEWICKLEY — John Aubrey Sr. of Aubrey's Dubbs Dred carded a 4-under 66 to take the first-day lead at the Tri-State Senior PGA Professional Championship Qualifier-Senior Section Championship at Allegheny Country Club Thursday.Aubrey leads Roy Vucinich by two strokes with the second and final round scheduled for today.Paul Hollstein of Butler Country Club is tied for 23rd at 81.