SportsScope : UCLA Women Gymnasts Face 3 of Nation’s Best Teams

Four of the nation’s top 10 women’s gymnastics teams will compete in the UCLA-Los Angeles Times invitational at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Pauley Pavilion.

The field includes of No. 7 UCLA, No. 2 Arizona State, No. 6 Cal State Fullerton and No. 10 Nebraska.

The Bruins are led by freshmen Tanya Service, a former U. S. national team member, and Gigi Zosa, a member of Canada’s 1984 Olympic team. Service has been her team’s best all-around performer in four meets this season; her best marks have been 38.10 in the all-around, 9.6 in the vault, 9.7 on the parallel bars, 9.54 on the beam and 9.55 in floor exercise. Zosa is having a strong year, especially on the bars.

Arizona State has six gymnasts back from last year, when the team finished second in the NCAAs. Top performers for the Sun Devils include Lisa Zeis, who was the NCAA beam champion in 1983 and 1985, and 1984 national bars titlist Jackie Brummer. Kim Neal, runner-up in the all-around at last year’s NCAAs, has been injured and has not performed often this season.

Top all-around gymnasts for Fullerton are Taunia Rogers, who has scored a 37.70 this season, and Tami Elliott, who was the U. S. team’s top finisher at the World University Games last summer in Japan.

Nebraska is paced by freshman all-arounders Jeaneane Smith, who has a mark of 37.20 this season, and Crystal Savage (37.10).

The program includes exhibitions by Tracee Talavera, a member of the 1984 U. S. Olympics team, and top rhythmic gymnast Stacy Oversier.

The Pepperdine men’s swim team (6-2 overall and 2-1 in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn.) will play host to Cal State Long Beach at 1 p.m. Saturday at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool on the Malibu campus.

Last Saturday, the Waves lost a PCAA meet to UC Santa Barbara, 63-50, after it was announced that the school was dropping men’s swimming from its athletic program.

At Santa Barbara, Pepperdine individual winners were freshman Mike Bushore in the 200 backstroke in 1:55.57, junior Peter Rohde in the 200 individual medley (1:54.26) and junior Scott Grasmoen in the 100 freestyle (47.42).

Long Beach is led by diver Jon Hauselmann, freestyler Kevin Zirzow and breast-stroker Rob Williams.

Saturday’s final home meet will mark the last on-campus appearance for Pepperdine seniors Doug Barker, Bart Hoey, Paul Marble, Brian Whitehead and team captain Darren Phelan.

The UCLA women’s softball team, which has won two straight NCAA championships, will open the season against Cal State Northridge, defending NCAA Division II titlist, in a double-header that starts at 1 p.m. today at UCLA’s Sunset Canyon diamond.

Coach Sharon Backus’ Bruins will play another double-header Saturday at Fullerton Community College.

Two heralded UCLA freshman pitchers, Samantha Ford of Newhall’s Hart High School and Michelle Phillips of Norco High, will take over the mound chores for All-Americans Tracy Compton and Debbie Doom, who have completed their eligibility.

All-American center fielder Mary Ricks is back; she led the Bruins last year with a .268 batting average, 38 hits, 10 stolen bases and 15 sacrifices. Other returning starters are outfielder Debbie Ruelas, first baseman Gina Holmstrom and third baseman Chris Olivie, who last year started at second, shortstop and designated hitter.

The starting shortstop is Santa Ana College transfer Samantha Arledge, who hit .384 last season and led Santa Ana to a state championship.

The No. 3 UCLA men’s tennis team (4-0) will play host to No. 9 South Carolina on Saturday and No. 7 Louisiana State on Sunday. Both matches start at noon at UCLA’s Los Angeles Tennis Center.

UCLA Coach Glenn Bassett, whose team was rained out of earlier matches with Pepperdine and UC Irvine, said the weekend matches “are easily our toughest tests to date.” They are part of a six-game, $20 season-ticket package that includes home matches March 22 with USC, April 22 with Cal, April 19 with Stanford and May 5 against Pepperdine. Individual admission is $4. This weekend UCLA All-American sophomore Brad Pearce, who lost a tight match to Stanford’s Dan Goldie in the finals of the Rolex national championships in Houston last week, will compete at No. 1 singles against No. 10 Jan Sandburg of South Carolina and No. 12 Fernando Perez of LSU.

The Pepperdine baseball team, 1-3 after losing three straight one-run games to No. 3 Arizona last week, will play host to Cal State Los Angeles at 2:30 p.m. today, Cal State Northridge at 1 p.m. Saturday and USC at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Top hitters for the Waves have been third baseman Chris Costley, who is batting .444; center fielder Steve Kirkpatrick and left fielder Mike DiReda, both at .333, and shortstop Andy Stankieewicz, .312.

The UCLA women’s basketball team, 9-13 overall and 1-3 in the Pac West Conference, will try to snap a three-game losing streak at Arizona tonight and Arizona State on Saturday.

Last week UCLA guard Anne Dean scored a team-high 20 points, but the Bruins lost to No. 6 Cal State Long Beach, 85-69. Dean leads the Bruins with 14.8 points a game, guard Jaime Brown has averaged 16.5 points in the last two games in a starting role, and forward Dora Dome has averaged 15 points in the last four games.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team, 4-17 overall and 2-4 in the West Coast Athletic Conference, will meet Loyola Marymount at 4 p.m. Saturday at Loyola. The game precedes a 7:30 game between the schools’ men, who are fighting for first place in the WCAC.

Pepperdine forward Maureen Formico, the school’s career scoring leader among women, added to her laurels in last week’s 75-54 conference loss at Nevada Reno. She is averaging 23 points and 12.3 rebounds.

The UCLA women’s swim team (5-3) will close out its home schedule against USC at 1 p.m. Saturday at the UCLA Men’s Gymnasium pool.

Last week the Bruins defeated Cal State Long Beach, 80-58, and sophomore Sofia Kraft swam a team season-best time of 2:07.63 in winning the 200 individual medley. The 200 medley relay team swam a season best of 1:49.19. Members of that relay team were Tina Kluth, Kathy Clarke, Kelley Wely and Kathy Long.

The No.7 UCLA women’s tennis team (3-0) will entertain the University of San Diego at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Sunset Canyon Recreation Center.