Soccer

Kansas City wins NWSL championship — Amy Rodriguez scored off a header in the 78th minute and FC Kansas City sent midfielder Lauren Holiday into retirement with a 1-0 victory over the Seattle Reign for the National Women’s Soccer League championship game Thursday night in Portland. Rodriguez scored off a cross from Heather O’Reilly. Just moments later there was a scary moment when Holiday went down and a stretcher was brought on to the field. Holiday walked to the sideline on her own and eventually returned for the final minutes of her last competitive game. Holiday announced plans to step away from the game in July, shortly after winning the FIFA Women’s World Cup with the U.S. national team, but she vowed to first finish out the season with her NWSL club.

Morris sends U.S. to win over Canada in qualifier — Jordan Morris scored a pair of goals, the second off a steal and feed from Wil Trapp, to give the United States a 3-1 victory over Canada in Kansas City, Kansas, on Thursday night in the opener of Olympic qualifying. Morris also scored in the first minute off a cross from Jerome Kiesewetter, while Luis Gil tacked on a penalty kick for the U.S. in extra time to put the game away. Canada got its lone goal from Michael Petrasso after a corner kick in the 80th minute.

Baseball

Mendoza to call AL wild-card game in a first — Jessica Mendoza will become the first female analyst to call a nationally televised Major League Baseball postseason game when she works the American League wild-card matchup next week for ESPN. Mendoza had replaced Curt Schilling on the network’s top MLB announcing team for the rest of the regular season after the former pitcher was suspended last month in the wake of his anti-Muslim tweet. ESPN said Thursday that Mendoza will remain in the role alongside Dan Shulman and John Kruk for Tuesday’s wild-card game.

Basketball

Warriors coach Steve Kerr to take leave of absence — Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr will take a leave of absence as he recovers from back surgery and will be replaced on an interim basis by Luke Walton. The Warriors announced Thursday that Kerr will need time off for rehabilitation and recovery. Kerr underwent back surgery to repair a ruptured disc in late July and had follow-up surgery in September. The Warriors said they don’t know yet how long Kerr will be out.

NCAA women’s tournament returns to Saturday start — The NCAA women’s basketball tournament is reverting to its old format. The tournament will have first-round games on Saturday and Sunday this season a year after moving them up a day to begin on Friday. Regional semifinals will also be on Saturday and Sunday. The move to begin the tournament on Friday was originally made to help improve attendance, which had become stagnant over the past few years. The change in days and the top 16 seeds hosting lifted attendance to its third-highest total since 2004, but viewership on ESPN was down. While the first four rounds are changing back their start days, the NCAA decided to keep its Final Four in a Sunday-Tuesday format for next season.

Football

Arizona Bowl to debut in Tucson this December — A new bowl game is coming to Arizona Stadium in Tucson this December. The Arizona Bowl will feature teams from Conference USA, the Sun Belt or Mountain West Conference on Dec. 29 at Arizona’s home stadium. It will be the first bowl game in Tucson since 1999. The addition of the Arizona Bowl brings the total to a record 41 bowl games this season, meaning nearly two-thirds of FBS teams will play in bowl games. The NCAA certified three new bowls in May, in Arizona, Orlando and Austin, Texas. Austin bowl officials decided not to start their bowl this season.

Tennis

Serena withdraws from WTA Finals, China Open — The 2015 season is over for Serena Williams. The No. 1-ranked Williams withdrew from her final two scheduled tournaments of the year on Thursday, saying she needs time to heal from a series of injuries and the heartbreak of coming up short in a bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam. Williams hasn’t played since losing to Roberta Vinci in the semifinals of the U.S. Open, where she came two matches short of becoming the first player to win all four majors in the same year since Steffi Graf in 1988.

— From wire reports