San Diego Roundup : No. 8 UCSD Women Begin Play in Western Regional

UC San Diego (26-18), ranked eighth among Division 3 women’s volleyball teams, will host the NCAA Division 3 Western Regional this weekend. The Tritons are the defending NCAA champions.

Fourteenth-ranked La Verne (17-14) and No. 18 Claremont-Mudd (24-9) play tonight at 7:30 in UCSD’s Main Gym. The winner advances to the regional final against UCSD, Saturday night at 7:30. The regional champion will advance to the quarterfinals and play the winner of the East Regional.

UCSD, which has reached the championship match the last four years, enters the playoffs without its top hitter, Carol Lipson. An All-NCAA Tournament selection last year, Lipson had 252 kills before breaking her arm earlier this month. Coach Doug Dannevik’s other leading hitters are Janet Hughes, Monica Bradley and Kim Stonecipher.

More than 30 sports and entertainment celebrities are scheduled to be on hand for the third Michelob-Kurt Bevacqua Golf Tournament, which takes place today and Saturday at La Costa. The event, a benefit for Children’s Hospital and Health Center, starts at 9 a.m. today and 10 a.m. Saturday.

Among those in the 144-person field are Willie McCovey, Elgin Baylor and Ernest Borgnine.

The Charlton Heston Pro Celebrity Tennis Tournament, a fund-raiser for the San Diego State men’s tennis and volleyball teams, will be Saturday and Sunday at the Kona Kai Club. Heston, Pancho Segura and Alex Olmedo are to appear.

An exhibition match pitting a doubles team from SDSU against Segura and Olmedo will be Sunday at 11:30 a.m.

Scott Tinley, who won the ninth annual Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii last month, has been named local athlete of the month for October by the San Diego Hall of Champions. Tinley completed the course--a 2.4-mile ocean swim, 112-mile bicycle race and 26.2-mile run--in a record time of 8 hours, 54 minutes and 50 seconds.

The Hall also selected three prep athletes of the month: Karen Taeatafa, outside hitter and setter for the Sweetwater volleyball team; Tom Dabasinskas, center for the San Pasqual football team, and Terry Rodgers, tailback for the Sweetwater football team.

The purse for the MONY Tournament of Champions has been increased by $100,000 to $500,000, tournament officials announced. The winner will earn $90,000, compared to $72,000 this year.

The tournament, open only to winners of PGA events in 1985, will be Jan. 8-11 at La Costa. Defending champion Tom Kite and 30 others, including nine rookies, have qualified.