SportScope : Wave Spikers, Defending Champions, Open Season Against Talented Alumni

The Pepperdine men’s volleyball team, two-time defending NCAA champion, will showcase this year’s squad against an alumni team at 3 p.m. Saturday at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

Wave Coach Rod Wilde has four starters back, including All-American senior Troy Tanner, seniors Matt Rigg and Rob Scott and junior Doug Rigg, Matt’s brother and the primary setter in a 5-1 offense. But Wilde has to replace Mark Arnold and Steve Friedman, who completed their eligibility.

Friedman was named the most valuable player at the 1986 NCAA Tournament and Tanner received the same honor at the NCAA West Regional.

Wilde said Pepperdine’s successful record of the last two years “is pretty glowing, and our guys are determined to win a third straight championship this season. This team is hungry.”

Top candidates to replace Arnold and Friedman are junior outside hitter Randy Bergstedt, a reserve last year, and freshman middle blocker Rob Keller, who is from Pennsylvania and last year was named the nation’s fourth-best prep player by Volleyball Monthly. Keller is being pushed by junior Matt Morphy, who did not play last year but was on the 1985 team.

Other players include sophomore setter Jamie Smith, junior back-row specialist Joey Fuschetti, freshmen Jerritt Elliott from Palisades High School and Tom Parr from Loyola High and walk-ons Brian Merrick, Paul White and Chuck Williams.

The UCLA men’s volleyball team, runner-up to Pepperdine at last year’s NCAA West Regional, will play host to the Israeli national team at 1 p.m. Sunday at the UCLA men’s gymnasium.

Bruin Coach Al Scates, whose teams have won 11 NCAA championships, enters the season with a career record of 635-88 (.878).

Starters include three-time All-American Asbjorn Volstad, also an Academic All-American last year; seniors Jeff Williams and Arne Lamberg; junior Don Dendinger; sophomore Matt Sonnichsen and freshman Trevor Schirman.

The Bruins will play an alumni team at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Pauley Pavilion. The alumni squad is expected to include former All-Americans Karch Kiraly, Doug Partie, Ricci Luyties, Dave Saunders and Steve Salmons, top beach player Singin Smith, graduate assistant coaches Reed Sunahara and Andy Klussmann and former assistant coach Greg Giovanazzi.

The UCLA and UC Santa Barbara men’s gymnastics teams will open their seasons in a dual meet at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at UCLA’s John Wooden Center.

Bruin Coach Art Shurlock begins his 23rd season with a dual-meet record of 187-94. Shurlock’s teams have won five of the last six Pac-10 Conference championships, and the Bruins were national champions in 1984.

Sophomore All-American Curtis Holdsworth, the first freshman to win the pommel horse competition at the NCAA championships, is one of four veterans. The others are senior Luc Teurlings, the 1982 Belgian national champion, and national team veterans Michael Chaplin and David Moriel.

Shurlock has only eight performers on his roster, but it includes top freshmen Terry Notary of San Rafael Marin Academy and Chris Waller from Arlington, Ill.

The UCLA women gymnasts will open their season against Wisconsin at 7:30 p.m. Friday at John Wooden Center.

Bruin All-American sophomore Gigi Zosa may be out for the season after knee surgery, but newcomers Birgit Schier, a transfer from Cal State Fullerton, and freshman Jill Andrews from Cupertino are expected to add strength.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team (8-5) will play its last game before beginning West Coast Athletic Conference competition when the Waves play host to Texas El Paso at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

Coach Ron Fortner’s Waves have won seven of their last 10, including last week’s wins over Boise State and UC Davis that gave Pepperdine the championship in the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo tournament.

Freshman guard Kristy Greenberg was named the most valuable player in the Cal Poly tournament. Other Waves on the all-tourney squad were senior guard Janet Fulleton, who returned after missing the first nine games because of an injury, and junior forward Earnesta Grace, who leads the Waves in scoring with an average of 12.4 points a game and in blocks with a 3.6 average.

Fortner said his team’s winning record “has really generated a positive environment with our team. I think we can be awfully competitive during conference play.”

The UCLA women’s basketball team, 7-4 overall and 1-1 in the Pac-10 Conference, will be on the road for conference games at Arizona State (5-5, 0-2) this evening and at Arizona (5-5 overall) on Saturday evening.

Last week the Bruins split two league games, losing to Stanford, 62-60, and defeating Cal, 77-72. UCLA finished the week with a 67-65 nonconference win over Notre Dame in overtime.

Junior Dora Dome continues to lead UCLA with an average of about 15 points a game.

The Santa Monica College men’s basketball team (10-6) may be without several key players who are injured when the Corsairs open Western State Conference play tonight at 7 against Bakersfield College at the SMC gymnasium.

SMC Coach John McMullen said that 6-8 center Kevin Parks, who has a sprained ankle, 6-8 forward Antwon Barnett, with a knee injury, and 6-4 swingman Randall Moos, who has a bruised foot, are all on the “doubtful” list. He added that leading scorer Michael Courtney, a 6-5 1/2 freshman forward averaging 15.6 points, has been playing with a sore elbow and may not start.

Derrick Gathers, who is averaging 13.6 points and 6.8 rebounds, will start at one guard and Troy Whiteto at the other tonight for the Corsairs. Front-line starters will be 6-6 Jason Woodruff, 6-9 Brian Preiss and either 6-4 Darius Henderson or Courtney.

Bakersfield, 12-6 overall and 1-0 in conference play, is led by guard Everett Sutton, 6-2 forward Duan Tate and 6-6 freshman center Dexter Nicholson from Reseda High School.

McMullen said Bakersfield, which won its league opener over College of the Canyons, 99-92, “is balanced and quick.” His team, touted before the season began as one of the best McMullen has had, has suffered close losses to good teams, the coach said. He added that his players, many of them newcomers, “are still not acquainted.”

The UCLA men’s swim team, 4-2 overall and ranked sixth nationally, will play host to No. 7 Southern Methodist at 2 p.m. Friday at the men’s gymnasium.

The Bruins had a 3-1 record in the long-course (meters) season, which concluded in December at the U.S. Open, and are 1-1 in short-course (yards) meets after losing to No. 4 Texas, 62-51, last week.

At the open, UCLA sophomore All-American Craig Oppel won the 200-meter freestyle and was second in the 100 and 400 freestyles. Bruin senior Peter Rohde, the former Pepperdine star, was second in the open in the 50 free and third in the 200 individual medley. Against Texas, Rohde was a double winner in the 200 IM and the 100 free.

The No. 4 UCLA women swimmers, after a layoff of nearly a month, will play host to Cal State Chico at 4 p.m. Friday and to Southern Methodist at noon Saturday at the men’s gym.