SportsScope : UCLA and Pepperdine Tennis Players to Begin Tournament Play This Week

Men and women tennis players from Pepperdine and UCLA will be playing in NCAA tournaments this weekend but in different parts of the country. The men’s team competition will start Friday at the University of Georgia and the women’s today at UCLA and the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades.

In women’s team competition today at UCLA’s Los Angeles Tennis Center, top-seeded Florida (27-0) will meet No. 16 Harvard (14-6) at noon; No. 5 UCLA (21-6) takes on No. 12 Kentucky (21-6) at 4 p.m., and No. 4 Stanford (18-4) goes against No. 13 USC (14-12) at 9 a.m.

Today’s pairings at UCLA’s Sunset Canyon Recreation Center are: No. 8 Indiana (30-4) and No. 9 Northwestern (21-3) at 9 a.m.; No. 7 Trinity (17-8) and No. 10 Texas (18-7) at 2 p.m., and No. 2 Miami (Fla.) and No. 15 Georgia (23-4) at 11:30 a.m. Pairings today at Riviera are: No. 3 Cal (24-3) and No. 14 Oklahoma State (24-5) at 2 p.m., and No. 6 Brigham Young (24-3) and No. 11 Southern Methodist (16-8) at 9 a.m.

Friday’s team quarterfinal matches are at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. at the tennis center and 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Sunset. The semifinals are Saturday at noon and 4 p.m. at the center and the final is at 1 p.m. Sunday, also at the center.

Individual singles and doubles will be played Monday through next Thursday, with most matches at UCLA. In singles, UCLA will be represented by Jane Thomas, Joni Urban, Allyson Cooper and Jennifer Fuchs and Pepperdine by freshmen Carrie Crisell and Ginger Helgeson and Marisa Sanchez. The UCLA team of Catherine O’Meara and Maria La Franchi will compete in doubles.

Saturday at Athens, Ga., fifth-seeded Pepperdine will meet No. 12 California, and sixth-seeded UCLA will face No. 11 Texas Christian.

Pepperdine (19-5) defeated Cal, 5-4, earlier this season, and UCLA beat TCU, 5-3, in the National Indoor Championships.

Pepperdine Coach Allen Fox said that although USC is heavily favored in team play, “we always seem to play well at Athens. And I know other teams do not look forward to playing us at the NCAAs.

“We need a few breaks to win the tournament and we also need to play exceptionally well in singles because our doubles play has been sketchy this season.”

UCLA Coach Glenn Bassett said that if his team defeats TCU again, it will probably face third-seeded Southern Methodist, “another top Southwest Conference team. But we do have a very good draw, largely because favored USC is in the other half of the draw.”

In individual competition next week, Pepperdine will be represented in singles by freshman Andrew Sznaidjer and Martin Laurendeau and UCLA by Dan Nahirny, Brett Greenwood and Buff Farrow. In doubles, the Bruins will have the team of Patrick Galbraith and Brian Garrow.

Fourth-ranked UCLA women’s softball team (44-8) will meet No. 17 Cal State Long Beach (34-18) this weekend in a best-of-three series of the NCAA Northwest Regional at UCLA’s Sunset Canyon diamond. There will be a single game at 4 p.m. Friday and a double-header, if necessary, or another single game at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The Bruins, who have won 11 of their last 12 games, have defeated Long Beach twice this season, both times by 4-0 scores, but the 49ers have won 10 of their last 11 outings.

UCLA’s top hitters are senior Sandra (Sam) Aldredge with a .392 average, senior Gina Holmstrom .385 and sophomore Janice Parks .364. Top Bruin pitchers include sophomore Samantha Ford with a 14-3 record and a 0.23 earned run average and freshman Lisa Longaker, 16-4 and 0.38.

The 49ers’ batting and pitching leaders include Kathy Newberry, a .298 hitter, and Carla Williams, .284, and pitchers Sandy Winchester, 19-8 and a 0.50 ERA, and Kim Martin, 15-9 and 1.16.

UCLA Coach Sharron Backus has a career record of 378-99-3, and her teams have won national championships in 1982, 1984 and 1985.

UCLA men’s track team will send individuals to Saturday’s UCLA Pepsi Invitational, which starts at noon at Drake Stadium, and to Sunday’s all-day Los Angeles Invitational at Cal State Los Angeles.

In the UCLA/Pepsi meet, competing Bruins are sophomores Henry Thomas and Mike Marsh in the 100 meters, Danny Everett in the 400, senior Steve Kerho in the 110 high hurdles, sophomore Brandon Richards in the pole vault and senior Jim Banich and freshman Brian Blutreich in the shot put. Thomas may also run the 200, and either juniors Kevin Young or Raymond Young will run in the 110 highs.

On the Pepsi meet, UCLA Coach Bob Larsen said, “It will be interesting to see how we respond against world-class competition in all the events that we entered. It will be very helpful for all our athletes to gain experience against the best in the world, particularly with the Pac-10 and NCAA meets just down the road.”

UCLA women’s crew will compete in the Pac-10 Conference championships Friday and Saturday at Lake Natoma in Sacramento.

Perennial power Washington is favored in the championships. Washington won the recent San Diego Crew Classic and UCLA finished fourth behind Wisconsin and Stanford.

Coach Jean Reilly’s varsity won the Southern California Collegiate Women’s Championships and, in dual meets and regattas, has defeated USC, Cal, Mills and Stanford.

“We’ve had a good season thus far,” Reilly said. “Of course, both Washington and UCLA are much stronger now. However, our varsity has been using a new technique that we hope will put us in a more competitive position to challenge Washington.”

The top two crews, and possibly the third-place finisher, will advance to the National Collegiate Women’s Championships May 30-31 at Lake Natoma.

Pepperdine’s baseball team, which won the West Coast Athletic Conference Championship with a 22-2 record and finished 46-10-3 overall, was ranked second in the nation this week by Collegiate Baseball and third by Baseball America.

The Waves, who earned an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament as conference champions, are awaiting seeds and sites that will be announced Monday by the NCAA selection committee. Pepperdine won 21 consecutive games, a school record, for Coach Dave Gorrie and 35 of their last 40.

Loyola Marymount finished fourth in the WCAC behind St. Mary’s and Santa Clara but Lions’ baseball Coach Dave Snow still has hopes for an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament. Loyola Marymount was 36-21-1 overall while the Gaels and Santa Clara both had losing overall records.

Although his team lost six conference games to Pepperdine, Snow is still hoping that NCAA selection committee members will consider that St. Mary’s and Santa Clara each had to play Pepperdine just three times.

Snow also hopes the committee will look with favor on Loyola’s 26-9 record outside the conference, including an 8-3 mark against Pac-10 Conference teams and a 10-4 record against the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn.