Bruin Netters Start Season in Desert and Citrus Tourneys

Six of UCLA tennis Coach Glenn Bassett’s players will begin their seasons in separate tournaments this weekend.

Sophomores Dan Nahirny, Tim Trigueiro, Buff Farrow and Pat Galbraith will compete in the Mitsubishi-Desert Princess National Collegiate Tournament on Friday through Sunday at Cathedral City near Palm Springs.

Senior captain Brett Greenwood and Brian Garrow, a freshman from Los Altos Hills and Northern California’s top junior, will play in the Citrus Bowl tournament, a sidelight to the USC-Auburn football game at Orlando, Fla., on New Year’s Day.

Bassett said Greenwood has looked sharp in winter workouts and that his team will be balanced. But he said he must find replacements for last year’s top players, sophomore Brad Pearce, who left early to join the professional tour, and senior Michael Kures.

Other Bruin regulars will be sophomore Jamie Talbot and junior Otis Smith, who upset Rick Leach, one of the nation’s best at USC last season, in a satellite tournament in Hawaii last November.

The Venice High School soccer team, which won the Western League championship with a 10-0 record and is the top seed in the City playoffs, will play host to Narbonne in a first-round match at 2:30 p.m. next Thursday.

In league play, Coach Gregory Durio’s Gondoliers outscored opponents 26-1, and Venice’s top scorer was Fabrizzio Luppi, senior midfielder and co-captain, who had 7 goals and 4 assists. Other leading scorers were senior forward Luis Lopez with 6 goals and 3 assists and senior forward Jose Guerra with 5 goals.

The Gondolier defense is led by senior sweeper and co-captain Daniel Behrendt and junior goalkeeper Jorge Leal, who had 9 shutouts and 13 saves.

The UCLA women’s basketball team, 5-3 after snapping a three-game losing streak last Monday with an 81-56 rout of San Diego State, will open its first Pac-10 Conference season on the road this weekend.

Coach Billie Moore’s Bruins, who were spurred against the Aztecs by junior guard Jaime Brown’s 25 points, will meet Stanford on Friday night at Palo Alto and face the Cal Bears on Sunday. UCLA will play host to Notre Dame at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Pauley Pavilion.

In a pre-season poll on the first year of Pac-10 sponsorship of women’s sports, conference coaches picked the Bruins to finish fourth. USC, Oregon and Washington are the one-two-three choices.

UCLA senior All-American golfer Kristal Parker will lead the Bruins in the Lady Aztec Invitational Tournament Jan. 7-9 at San Diego State.

The UCLA tennis doubles team of All-Americans Jane Thomas and Jennifer Fuchs and their teammates will compete in the Milwaukee Tennis Classic Jan. 7-11. In a pre-season coaches’ poll, Thomas and Fuchs were ranked fourth in the nation and the Bruins were rated ninth.