Vandals collect first win

Stacey Barr scored the last five points of the game for Idaho in the final three minutes as the visiting Vandals women overcame UC Santa Barbara 47-44 on Monday night for their first win to salvage a split on a season-opening trip to California.

The score in the see-saw game was tied at 42 when Barr knocked down a 3-pointer with 2:56 to play. She capped a 20-point game with two free throws with 25 seconds left.

Christina Salvatore added 15 points and a team-leading nine rebounds.

• Offense is the tie that binds the three latest recruits Washington State coach June Daugherty signed.

Borislava Hristova, a 6-foot guard/forward from Varna, Bulgaria, was MVP of the 2014 U18 European Championship who averaged 27.9 points last season.

Maria Kostourkova, a 6-4 center from Lisbon, Portugal, averaged 13.9 points this past summer at the U18 European Championships, and Alexys Swedlund, a 5-11 guard from Rapid City, South Dakota, averaged 20.3 while shooting over 46 percent and hitting a state-record 64 3-pointers as a junior.

• Gonzaga climbed into the Associated Press women’s Top 25 this week in three-way tie for 24th following its 75-65 season-opening win over then-No. 22 Dayton. Washington State is among others receiving votes.

Men’s soccer

Whitworth, 17-1-3 and ranked 12th, will face No. 17 Christopher Newport (18-3-4) in the third round of the NCAA Division III championships Saturday in Gambier, Ohio.

Sixth-ranked Kenyon (18-1-2) will face conference rival and No. 14 Ohio Wesleyan (16-4-3) in another third-round game on the Kenyon campus with the winners meeting Sunday.

• Washington, one of a conference-record five Pac-12 teams selected for the NCAA Division I College Cup, received a No. 14 seed, a first-round bye and a host role in the tournament that begins Saturday. The Huskies (12-5-1) will face the winner of Saturday’s Alabama-Birmingham vs. Furman match in the second round Sunday.

• Lars Ludwigs, a Gonzaga senior who capped his career by heading in the winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Portland on Saturday, is the West Coast Conference Player of the Week. His second goal of the season was the eighth of his career.