BRIEFLY.

Byline: - Daily News Staff and Wire Services

CSUN taps Schulz as women's coach

Cal State Northridge conducted a nationwide search to find a new women's basketball coach but in the end, the school decided the best choice was already there.

Staci Schulz, 32, an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at the school the past three years, was named head coach Tuesday. She replaces Tammy Holder, who resigned June 10 to become the top assistant at the University of South Carolina.

``I've been here for three years and it's developed into my home and my family so I'm really excited to be able to stay here and keep the energy level going and take it even higher,'' Schulz said. ``I went through the rebuilding process the first two years and then last year, it finally took off for us so I think we could just be a step or two away from some real greatness.''

Schulz, who has been the interim coach since Holder resigned, said she would retain assistant coaches Margo Clark and Carla Houser and look to add one more assistant.

After winning just nine games in two seasons, Northridge improved to 18-11 last season and finished fourth in the Big West Conference, earning Holder Coach of the Year honors.

All five starters, including three-time first-team all-conference selection Ofa Tulikihihifo, return.

- Ramona Shelburne 

TRACK: The governing body of track and field will consider lifetime bans for first-time steroid offenders, changes to the false-start rule and tougher regulations for nationality switches.

The issues will come up for a vote today and Thursday when the International Association of Athletics Federations meets in Helsinki, Finland before the upcoming world championships.

HORSE RACING: Classic Photo, the 6-5 favorite, drew post position No. 5 for the $1.5 million Hambletonian. The purse is a record for the world's most famous harness race to be run Saturday at Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, N.J.

-- Rafael Bejarano, one of the nation's leading jockeys, has a broken ankle and will miss the final five weeks of the racing meet at Saratoga Race Course.

Bejarano, 23, was injured when his mount, Sadler's Charm, flipped in the starting gate before Monday's fifth race.

JURISPRUDENCE: A lawyer for the NIT took a shot at restoring the tournament's lost luster Tuesday, telling a jury that the NCAA's March Madness was purposefully ruining it.

Jeffrey Kessler, a lawyer for the five schools which sponsor the preseason and postseason National Invitation Tournament, said the NCAA ``willfully, deliberately set out to get a monopoly, to eliminate competition, to make it impossible to compete.''

In a civil case, the NIT - the older of the two tournaments - is asking a jury to find that the NCAA violated federal antitrust laws.

SOCCER: Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard scored his seventh goal in Champions League qualifying as defending champion Liverpool advanced to the third round of European soccer's premier club competition with a 2-0 (5-1 aggregate) victory over Lithuania's FBK Kaunas.

--Mexico's soccer federation will not appeal sanctions by FIFA for failing to follow anti-doping procedures and announced it will begin random drug testing for professional players in Mexico. Previously, all tests were announced ahead of time.