SportsScope : Top Women Gymnasts to Compete in UCLA-Times Meet

Four college women gymnastic teams ranked among the nation’s top 20 teams, including No. 1 UCLA, will compete in the UCLA-Los Angeles Times women’s invitational meet at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Pauley Pavilion.

The Bruins, off to 2-0 start and record scores in each meet, will play host to No. 5 Arizona State, No. 13 Oregon State, No. 15 Cal State Fullerton and New Mexico.

In its season-opening victory over Arizona, UCLA scored 187.4 points, highest ever scored by the Bruins in a first meet, and followed that with a 190.05 to beat Washington, one of the highest scores ever by a college team and best in the nation this year.

UCLA is paced by five All-Americans: Kim Hamilton, Tanya Service, Jill Andrews, Amy Lucena and Gigi Zoza, who sat out last season with an injury after she was named a 1986 All-American in the bars, beam and all-around.

The Pepperdine baseball team, ranked seventh nationally in preseason by Collegiate Baseball, will play its home opener against USC at 2:30 p.m. Friday at Eddy D. Field Stadium.

The Waves also will face the Trojans at 1 p.m. Saturday at Dedeaux Field, play a road game against Cal Poly Pomona at 2:30 p.m. Monday and play host to Cal State Long Beach at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Pepperdine Coach Dave Gorrie’s 17 lettermen include four who made the All-West Coast Athletic Conference team: outfielder Rick Hirtensteiner, first baseman Scott Shockey and pitchers Doug Simons and Craig Stiveson.

Newcomers include sophomore transfers Richarack Barnwell and Wayne Helm. Outfielder Barnwell is from Lamar University and pitcher Helm from Arizona. Top freshmen include catcher Frank Charles, outfielder Jalal Leach and pitcher Dennis Burbank, who will get a late start in baseball after playing basketball.

The No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball team, 13-0 as the week began and a winner over Stanford last week in a Pacific 10 Conference opener, will play No. 10 George Mason (8-2) on Friday at Fairfax, Va.

Senior UCLA All-American Don Dendinger had 20 kills and teammate Mike Garcia had 19 as the Bruins defeated the Cardinals in four games. Trevor Schirman, who missed the Stanford match with flu, was replaced by junior Kent Robinett, who had a career-high 16 kills, 9 digs and 7 blocks.

Last week George Mason split four games in the Nittany Lion Invitational, defeating Ohio State in five games and Navy in four and losing to Ball State in five and host Penn State in three. The Patriots are led by senior outside hitters Uvaldo Acosta and John Kristick.

The No. 5 Pepperdine men’s volleyball team, 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. at the start of the week, will play No. 3 USC in a conference match at 7:30 p.m. Friday at USC.

Last week the Waves defeated Cal State Long Beach, 15-9, 15-1, 15-6. Pepperdine was led by junior outside hitter Randy Bergstedt with 15 kills and freshman outside hitter Geoff Hart with 14.

USC, runner-up in the NCAA championship match for the last three years, is led by veterans Tom Duke, Chris Martz and Mike Lauterman.

The UCLA men’s tennis team, 4-0, will open its Pacific 10 season when it plays host to Arizona State at 1:30 p.m. Friday and to Arizona at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. The Bruins will play a home match against Chapman College, defending NCAA Division II champion, at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Coach Glenn Bassett’s top two doubles teams of Patrick Galbraith-Brian Garrow and Robert Bierens-Buff Farrow were undefeated at the start of the week, as were his top five singles players: Farrow, Galbraith, Garrow, Jason Netter and Bierens.

The Pepperdine men’s tennis team, 3-0, will play host to Georgia Tech at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 14.

Last Monday the Waves blanked San Diego State, 9-0, and last week defeated UC Irvine 7-2.

Pepperdine sophomore Andrew Sznajder will compete in the Rolex National Indoor Intercollegiate Tennis Championships today through Sunday in Minneapolis.

UCLA seniors Allyson Cooper and Joni Urban, an All-American, and Pepperdine sophomore Ginger Helgeson will also play in the Rolex tournament.

The UCLA women are 6-0 after wins over Georgia (5-4), Texas Christian (7-2) and Brigham Young (6-3) in last week’s Brigham Young tournament. The Pepperdine women (2-1) last week lost to UC Irvine, 5-4, and defeated Fresno State, 5-4. The Waves played without Helgeson, sidelined with a knee injury, and sophomore Carrie Crisell, who was ill.

The No. 6 UCLA men’s swim team, 5-0 overall, will open its Pac-10 schedule at Arizona on Friday and Arizona State on Saturday.

Last week the Bruins defeated a U. S. national team, 141-106. Senior UCLA All-American Giovanni Minervini swam a 55.62, fastest time in the nation this year in the 100-yard breaststroke, to qualify for the NCAA meet. Double winners for the Bruins were freshman Richard Drewelow with a 15:54.56 in the 1,650 freestyle and a 4:35.28 in the 500 free and freshman Darren Ward with a 4:03.34 in the 400 individual medley and a 1:53.3 in the 200 individual medley.

Arizona, which finished second recently in the Nevada Las Vegas invitational, is 3-3 overall. The Wildcats are led by junior Max Rankin, who has qualified for the NCAAs in four events, and sophomore Scot Johnson, who has qualified in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes.

Arizona State, ranked third nationally in preseason, is 1-4 overall and 0-3 in conference meets, having lost to No. 2 USC, No. 4 Cal and No. 5 Stanford. The Sun Devils are led by senior All-Americans Gerhard Vanderwalt and Peter Boden.

The No. 9 UCLA women’s swim team, 7-4 overall and 1-3 in Pac-10 meets, will play host to No. 8 USC (6-5 and 1-3) at noon Saturday at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center on campus.

The UCLA women’s basketball team, 11-8 overall and 4-3 in Pac-10 play, will be on the road this weekend for conference games with Oregon (10-8 and 3-5) Friday night and with Oregon State (8-10 and 3-5) Saturday night.

Bruin forward Sandra VanEmbricqs has played well in the last four games, averaging 18.3 points and 8.8 rebounds a game.

Oregon is led by Stefanie Kasperski, who leads the nation in blocked shots with 4.4 a game. Oregon is paced by Chelle Flamoe, who is averaging 21 points and shooting 62.4% from the field.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team, 9-10 overall and 2-4 in West Coast Athletic Conference games, will be at home for conference games with Santa Clara at 7:30 p.m. Friday and with San Francisco at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Firestone Fieldhouse. Santa Clara is 7-10 and 1-4, USF is 6-11 and 3-2.

Last week the Waves lost road games to Portland, 67-59, and to Gonzaga, 63-59, but Pepperdine players Dionne Burgess and Earnesta Grace had good outings. In the two games, Burgess scored 37 points on 16-of-23 shooting and Grace had 35 points, 16 rebounds, 6 blocked shots and 4 steals.