BRIEFLY : TENNESSEE STAR HOLDSCLAW WINS SULLIVAN AWARD.

Byline: Daily News Wire Services

University of Tennessee forward Chamique Holdsclaw on Thursday won the 1998 Sullivan Award, given annually to the nation's top amateur athlete.

Holdsclaw, the first woman basketball player to win the award, led the Lady Volunteers basketball team to a 39-0 record and its third consecutive national championship last season.

She has Tennessee on track for a fourth straight title this year. The Lady Volunteers are 23-1 and ranked No. 1 in the nation.

The last woman to win the award was speedskater Bonnie Blair in 1992.

Former Volunteers quarterback Peyton Manning won it last year.

Holdsclaw joins UCLA great Bill Walton in 1973 and Princeton standout Bill Bradley in 1965 as the only basketball players to be honored.

Rudy Tomjanovich did such a good job coaching replacement players that USA Basketball decided to give him a shot with the first string.

Tomjanovich was picked to lead the United States team in the Americas Olympic qualifying tournament next summer at San Juan, Puerto Rico. The United States must finish first or second to qualify for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Last summer, NBA players responded to the league's lockout by boycotting the World Championships, leaving Tomjanovich, coach of the Houston Rockets, to run a team of fill-ins pulled together from the CBA and Europe. The United States finished third.

Chris Porter, the leading scorer and rebounder for No. 3 Auburn, said he will return to school for his senior season.

The WNBA will play its first All-Star Game in Madison Square Garden on July 14, with the game to be televised by ESPN.

TENNIS: Steffi Graf and Venus Williams advanced in the Hanover WTA tournament in Germany, while defending champion Patty Schnyder of Switzerland was beaten.

The third-seeded Graf, relying on her powerful forehand, beat No. 8-seeded Barbara Schett of Austria 6-3, 6-2, ending the quarterfinal match with an ace. The second-seeded Williams posted a 6-4, 7-5 second-round win over Japan's Ai Sugiyama.

Schnyder, seeded fourth, lost to Russia's Elena Lichovtseva 7-5, 6-3 in the second round, after double-faulting at match point.

Todd Martin, stretched to three sets in his second-round match two days earlier, had 23 unforced errors but beat Kenneth Carlsen 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 in the third round of the St. Jude Indoor tournament in Memphis, Tenn.

Martin blamed his problems on playing too passively, which he will try to fix against seventh-seeded Jan-Michael Gambill in the quarterfinals. Gambill advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) victory over Scott Draper, while No. 3 Tommy Haas downed 13th-seeded Ramon Delgado 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.

SOCCER: In the first trade between the Galaxy and one of new owner Philip F. Anschutz's two other Major League Soccer teams, the Galaxy acquired defender/midfielder Zak Ibsen from the Chicago Fire. The Fire will receive a second-round choice in the 2001 college draft. Anschutz also owns the Colorado Rapids.

HOCKEY: Detroit Red Wings star Sergei Fedorov is contributing his entire $2 million salary for 1998-99 to a new charity that will help area children. Fedorov said the charity would give money to a variety of causes.