Four Butler County players are members of the Pittsburgh 3-Rivers volleyball team, which has started the AAU season with two tournament championships.

Stephanie Mock and Becky Smith of Butler, and Meghan Franz and Alex Karika of Seneca Valley play for the team, which finished first in the 54-team M.L.K. Kickoff Classic at Franklin &Marshall College.

The team also finished first in the Pittsburgh Elite Winter Blast in Elizabeth and fifth out of 48 teams at the Asics Early Bird Extravaganza in Columbus, Ohio.

PITTSBURGH — Offensive tackle Max Starks was designated as the Pittsburgh Steelers' franchise player Thursday, the second successive year they have retained the two-time Super Bowl starter by placing a tag on him.Starks made $6.9 million last year as a transition player, although he didn't begin the season as a starter. He ended up starting 11 games at left tackle after Marvel Smith was injured.By being designated as a franchise player, Starks must make $8.451 million in 2009, the average of the NFL's top five offensive linemen last season.Another team could sign Starks because he is designated as nonexclusive, but that team would owe the Steelers a pair of first-round draft picks.

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge barred prosecutors from showing jurors three positive steroid tests and other key evidence in Barry Bonds' perjury trial next month.The Thursday decision is a setback for the government in its five-year pursuit of Bonds, who has pleaded not guilty to lying to a grand jury on Dec. 4, 2003, when he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said the test results — urine samples that are positive for steroids — are inadmissible because prosecutors can't prove conclusively that they belong to Bonds.