As Tulane's football team embarked on an unexpected trip to Birmingham, Ala., with Hurricane Gustav on its mind, center Michael Parenton figured it couldn't be any worse than the last time the Green Wave left campus with a major storm threatening Louisiana's coast.

"We've been through it before and we made it," Parenton said, recalling the 2005 season, when Tulane played all its games on the road after Hurricane Katrina flooded most of New Orleans. "We'll be all right."

Across south Louisiana, college and pro teams spent the weekend packing up and leaving their regular training sites for safe havens away from the coast while, in many cases, trying to remain focused on the season ahead.

The New Orleans Saints, who like Tulane spent their entire 2005 regular season outside New Orleans, were in Indianapolis, where they intended to practice until Friday. The Saints tentatively scheduled a Saturday walkthrough back in New Orleans, hoping their Sept. 7 regular-season opener against Tampa Bay still can be played in the Louisiana Superdome.

The New Orleans Zephyrs, the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Mets, canceled their last two home games of the season yesterday and today.

After canceling its game Thursday at New Mexico State, Nicholls State's football team told players to evacuate and seek refuge with their families as Gustav threatened to unleash catastrophic damage in the low-lying town of Thibodaux, La., nearly 60 miles southwest of New Orleans, where the school's campus sits.

Louisiana-Lafayette and McNeese State football players also were told to ride out the storm with their families and stay in touch with coaches, who would give them instructions on when and where to regroup. McNeese spokesman Louis Bonnette said that if Gustav hits Lake Charles hard, as Rita did in 2005, the football team would join the schoolss soccer, tennis, volleyball and cross country teams at Northwestern State in Natchitoches, La.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

MAY-TREANOR, WALSH WIN STREAK FINISHED

Olympic beach volleyball stars Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh lost for the first time in more than a year, dropping a 21-19, 10-21, 25-23 decision to Elaine Youngs and Nicole Branagh yesterday in The AVP Crocs Cup Shootout in Mason, Ohio.

With the loss, the two-time Olympic champions' winning streak ended at 112 matches and 19 titles. They last lost Aug. 19, 2007, also to Branagh and Youngs.

In the men's final, Beijing winners Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers won their third straight Cincinnati title, beating Punahou School and University of Hawai'i alum Sean Scott and Nick Lucena, 21-15, 21-19.

ELSEWHERE

Tyler Hamilton edged Blake Caldwell by two-thousandths of a second yesterday in Greenville, S.C., to win the USA Cycling Professional Road Race championship. Hamilton and Caldwell finished in 4 hours, 38 minutes, 19 seconds. From the chase group of three riders, Caldwell's teammate Danny Pate took third, 4 seconds back ... Asafa Powell rebounded from another disappointing Olympics by winning the 100 meters in 9.87 seconds at the British Grand Prix yesterday in Gateshead, England. Powell, the former world record holder in the 100, finished fifth at the Beijing Games.