SportsScope : Bruin Gymnasts Favored to Take Sixth Pac-10 Championship in Seven Years

The UCLA men’s gymnastics team is favored to win its sixth Pac-10 Conference crown in seven years in the championships Friday and Saturday at Stanford.

The Bruins are led by All-Americans Tony Pineda and Curtis Holdsworth, ranked among the nation’s best all-arounders and also top competitors on the pommel horse.

Pineda has won four all-around titles in dual meets this season, including one at the UCLA invitational in which he turned in a season-best score of 57.9. Holdsworth has won one all-around title and taken two seconds in dual meets. Holdsworth is defending NCAA champion on the pommel horse, and Pineda was the NCAA pommel horse champion in 1985.

Pepperdine’s baseball team, 8-1 in the West Coast Athletic Conference and 24-8-3 overall as the week began, will try to solidify its hold on first place in the WCAC when it plays host to the University of San Diego in a three-game series this weekend at Eddy D. Field Stadium in Malibu.

The Waves will play a single game with the Toreros (4-6 and 20-10-1) at 2:30 p.m. Friday and a double-header at noon Saturday.

Pepperdine’s home run hitters, led by junior designated hitter Ruben Gonzalez, are on a record-setting pace. The Waves have hit 50 and seem likely to break the 1985 school record of 63. Gonzalez has 11 round-trippers, and 12 others have hit at least one homer.

The last time the Waves met San Diego they took two out of three on the road. Pepperdine holds a 3 1/2-game lead in the WCAC over Santa Clara (5-5-1), Nevada Reno (4-4-1) and St. Mary’s (4-4-0).

Pepperdine, which has won 19 of its last 24 games, is ranked seventh in the nation by Baseball America and No. 9 by Collegiate Baseball.

The No. 1 UCLA men’s volleyball team, 13-0 in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. and 29-3 overall, will compete this weekend in the UC Santa Barbara Collegiate Classic. The Bruins will meet USC in the first round at 5:30 p.m. Friday.

Last week UCLA won two matches, defeating Hawaii in five games and Cal State Northridge in three. Against Hawaii, Ozzie Volstad had 23 kills and Arne Lamberg 21 for the Bruins. In the Northridge match, Lamberg had 15 kills, Jeff Williams added 12 and freshman Trevor Schirman had a season-best 10 kills and 10 digs.

The No. 2 Pepperdine men’s volleyball team, 12-2 in the WIVA and 18-5 overall at the start of the week, will play host to Loyola Marymount in a conference match at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

Last week the Waves defeated Hawaii and Ohio State, both in five games.

Pepperdine Coach Rod Wilde changed his lineup and used reserves Jerritt Elliott and Matt Morphy a great deal. Wilde said that Elliott and Morphy “did a great job.”

Pepperdine has won 14 of its last 16 matches and is in second place in the WIVA behind UCLA (13-0). USC (12-3) trails the Waves by half a game.

The No. 5 UCLA women’s softball team, 22-2 as the week began, will be at home for double-headers with Northwestern at 1 p.m. Friday and Fresno State at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Sunset Canyon diamond.

Last week was busy for the Bruins. They played 10 games, including double-headers with Utah State and Michigan and six contests in the San Jose Tournament. UCLA split with Utah State, swept Michigan and was 5-1 in tournament play, losing in the semifinals to No. 3 Nebraska. Tourney victories were over Oklahoma, New Mexico, Santa Clara, Utah and Cal.

Sandra (Sam) Aldredge leads the Bruins in hitting with a .481 average and teammate Karen Walker is batting .408. For the UCLA pitching staff, Michelle Phillips has an 8-0 record, Samantha Ford is 7-1 and Lisa Longaker 7-1.

The No. 3 UCLA men’s tennis team, 3-1 in the Pacific 6 Conference and 16-4 overall, will continue conference action at home this weekend, meeting Stanford (2-0, 8-5) at 1 p.m. Friday and Cal (1-1, 12-5) at 1 p.m. Saturday at the campus Los Angeles Tennis Center. Admission to each match is $4.

The Bruins also will play host to Chapman College at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the center.

UCLA Coach Glenn Bassett said that if his team defeats the Cardinal and the Bears, the Bruins “may have a chance of upsetting” No. 1 USC (4-0, 23-0) at UCLA on April 11. Admission is $4. Last week the Bruins won conference road matches against Arizona State and Arizona. Bassett said he was “impressed with our team spirit as well as our play in Arizona. I definitely feel we have snapped out of a recent slump and have regained our early-season confidence.”

Stanford is led by Patrick McEnroe, ranked 18th nationally in singles, and No. 24 Jeff Tarango, a freshman from Manhattan Beach. Cal’s top singles players are No. 3 Steve De Vries and Woody Hunt, a sophomore from Santa Barbara.

Vying for the UCLA top spot in singles have been Otis Smith, 16-4 in dual matches), Buff Farrow (13-5) and All-American Dan Nahirny (11-5). Other Bruin singles players records are Brett Greenwood (17-3), Tim Trigueiro (9-7) and Patrick Galbraith (16-3).

The No. 10 Pepperdine men’s tennis team, 15-4 in dual match play, will play host to No. 2 Cal State Long Beach at 1:30 p.m. Friday on the Malibu campus.

Last week the 49ers defeated the Waves, 5-4, in the semifinals of the Blue-Grey Tournament at Montgomery, Ala., before losing the championship to No. 1 USC, 5-2.

Pepperdine freshman Andrew Sznaidjer , ranked third nationally, is 13-1 for the season, losing only to UCLA’s Dan Nahirny. Other waves ranked highly are No. 22 Martin Laurendeau and No. 69 Robby Weiss.

The No. 3 UCLA women’s tennis team, 18-0, will travel to the Bay area for matches on Saturday against Cal and Sunday against Stanford.

Last week the Bruins raised their Pac-10 Conference record to 5-0 by defeating Arizona State, 6-3, and Arizona, 5-4.

The No. 7 UCLA men’s team will send 14 swimmers and two divers to the NCAA swim championships this weekend at Austin, Tex.

The Bruins are expecting strong performances from Giovannia Minervini in the 100-yard breaststroke, Craig Oppel in the middle-distance freestyle and Pepperdine transfer Peter Rohde in the sprints.

Last year Minervini won the 100 breaststroke in the NCAA meet with a career-best time of 53.75. His best this year is 55.41.

Oppel finished second in the 200 free at last year’s NCAAs, and last December he won the 200-meter free at the U.S. Open and finished second in the 100 and 400 freestyles.

Rohde was second at the open in the 50-meter free and third in the 200 individual medley. In the NCAAs, his chief competition will be Cal’s Matt Biondi, who last year became the first swimmer to sweep all three sprints at the NCAA meet.

The UCLA men’s track team will compete Saturday in the Fresno State Relays at Ratcliffe Stadium. The Bruin women (4-0 in dual meets) will send some athletes to the relays.

Last week the Bruin men raised their dual-meet record to 7-0, defeating Cal, 100 1/2 to 62 1/2 at Berkeley. UCLA was led by seniors Mark Junkermann and Jim Connolly and the 400-meter relay team.

Junkermann ran a season-best 8:42.7 in the 3,000 steeplechase, which qualified him for the NCAA meet. Connolly also qualified for the NCAAs with a 243-7 in the javelin. The 400 relay team of sophomore Mike Marsh, junior Raymond Young, freshman Eric Bixler and sophomore Henry Thomas tied Cal for first, each in an NCAA-qualifying time of 39.50.

UCLA’s women golfers, led by senior Kristal Parker, won the Hawaiian Tournament last week with a total of 927. Parker was the individual winner with a 54-hole total of 222, pacing the Bruins to their first tournament win of the year.