SportsScope : UCLA Tennis Champs Will Open Pac-10 Title Defense

The UCLA men’s tennis team, 6-0 in dual matches as the week started, will open defense of its Pac-10 Conference Southern Division championship when it entertains Arizona at 1 p.m. Friday and Arizona State at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on campus. Admission is $4 for each match.

The Bruins, who have won 47 straight matches at home, also will play host to Cal State Long Beach at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. The 49ers extended No. 1 USC recently before losing, 5-4. Admission is free for the Long Beach match.

UCLA Coach Glenn Bassett said that both Arizona and Arizona State have “good teams. We’ll be in trouble if we take either one lightly, especially Arizona State, which has added Doug Sachs, former Pepperdine star, to its lineup.”

During their sensational start, Bassett’s Bruins shut out five opponents, each by 9-0 margins, and the only match they lost was in an 8-1 victory over Pepperdine. Against the Waves at No. 2 singles, UCLA’s Tim Trigueiro lost to Martin Laurendeau, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6.

The Bruins’ shutouts have come against San Diego State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Nevada Las Vegas, the University of San Diego and Georgia Tech.

Starting singles players for UCLA, in descending order, are All-American Dan Nahirny, Trigueiro, Buff Farrow, Brett Greenwood, Otis Smith and Patrick Galbraith. In doubles, the top three teams have been Farrow-Trigueiro, Nahirny-Smith and Galbraith-Brian Garrow.

Pepperdine’s baseball team, coming off an 8-4 upset of UCLA last Sunday, will play three games before it meets UCLA again at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium.

The Waves, 3-1 at the start of the week, will play host to Cal State Northridge at 2:30 p.m. Friday and to USC at 1 p.m. Saturday at Eddy D. Field Stadium in Malibu. Pepperdine has an away game against Cal Poly Pomona at 2:30 p.m. Monday.

Pepperdine, ranked eighth nationally by Baseball America and 13th by Collegiate Baseball, had 10 hits in the home victory over UCLA, ranked second by Collegiate Baseball and third by Baseball America. Senior right-hander Tony Lewis, who went 6 innings and gave up two runs, picked up the win, and Paul Faries and Peter Kuld each had two hits for Pepperdine.

As a team, the Waves are batting .356, are averaging 7.5 runs a game and have hit 6 home runs, compared to just 19 homers in 61 games last season.

Coach Dave Gorrie said, “There is little question we are going to score more runs this season. Last year a two-run outburst was a big inning for us.

“I think this team can put runs on the scoreboard in bunches. We’ve hit the ball well, but there is plenty of room for improvement because we are leaving too many runners on base.”

Junior left-hander Doug Simons has pitched 8 scoreless innings and is 2-0 to lead the pitchers.

Riding a three-game winning streak, the UCLA women’s basketball team will try to move up in the Pac-10 Conference race when it plays host to Arizona at 5:45 this evening at Pauley Pavilion and to Arizona State at 4 p.m. Saturday at John Wooden Center.

Last week junior forward Dora Dome scored a career-high 42 points to lead the Bruins, 14-7 overall and 7-4 in the Pac-10, to a 92-80 win over Cal. UCLA, tied for fourth place in the conference with Oregon State, also downed Stanford, 64-49.

Dome’s outburst against the Bears set a women’s scoring record for Pauley Pavilion and was the second-highest total ever by a Bruin woman. The old Pauley mark of 40 points was set in 1981 against Cal State Fullerton by Denise Curry, who also scored the highest total for a UCLA women with 47 in 1979 against Oregon State.

Arizona (9-12 and 3-8) is led by junior center Dana Patterson, who is averaging 17.6 points and 9.6 rebounds a game. Senior forward Sherry Poole, averaging 17.6 points and 6.7 rebounds, paces the Sun Devils (9-11 and 3-8).

The No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball team, 16-3 overall after winning last week’s UCLA Reebok Classic, will play host to Hawaii in a Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. match at 2 p.m. Sunday at John Wooden Center.

The Rainbows, who had not opened their season as the week began, trail the Bruins in the series, 11-2.

In the finals of the Reebok tournament, the Bruins defeated No. 8 Stanford in three games after downing No. 4 USC in four. UCLA’s Ozzie Volstad had 15 kills and 14 digs in the final and was named the tourney’s most valuable player. Jeff Williams had 22 kills against the Trojans and Arne Lambergo had 19 kills and 7 blocks in the same match.

Besides Volstad, others on the all-tournament team were UCLA’s Matt Sonnichsen, USC’s Dave Yoder and Tom Duke, Pepperdine’s Matt Rigg and Stanford’s Stephen Blue.

Pepperdine’s men’s volleyball team, 4-3 overall after finishing fourth in last week’s UCLA Reebok Classic, will try to snap a three-match losing streak when it entertains USC at 7:30 tonight and UC Santa Barbara at 7:30 Tuesday in Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. matches at Firestone Fieldhouse.

The Waves, 1-0 in the WIVA, lost to USC in three games in the Reebok opener and to Stanford in two straight in the shortened consolation match.

Pepperdine Coach Rod Wilde, whose team defeated the Trojans in last year’s NCAA final, said USC “has an excellent team again. They play consistent, side-out volleyball and make very few mistakes.”

Wilde said that although the Waves didn’t play well against USC and will have to contend again with first-rate Trojans in Adam Johnson and middle blocker Tom Duke, he looks at the rematch as the start of a new season.

“We know we are one of the contenders for the NCAA title,” he said. “We have just not played too well in our last three matches.”

The No. 9 UCLA women’s tennis team, 5-0 after defeating the University of San Diego, 7-2, last week, will compete Friday through Sunday in the Arizona Team Tournament at Arizona State University in Tempe.

The unbeaten UCLA women’s gymnastics team, ranked fourth nationally, ran its record to 6-0 last week, defeating No. 6 Florida, 186.15 to 183.25. Sophomore Tanya Service won the all-around with a 38.30, the third-highest mark every by a UCLA gymnast and a John Wooden Center record.