SportsScope : Bruins Have 12 Contenders in NCAA Swim Tournament

UCLA swimmers Micki Ward and Catherine Capriles will lead a group of 11 swimmers and one Bruin diver, Karla Goltman, in the NCAA women’s championships Friday through Monday at Austin, Tex.

Ward is the Pacific 10 Conference champion in the 200-yard butterfly. At the conference meet, Capriles finished second in the 100 backstroke and 200 individual medley and helped the Bruin 200 medley relay team to third place.

At the Pac-10 meet, Goltman, UCLA’s only All-American from last year, qualified for the NCAAs by finishing second in the one and three meters.

Seventh-ranked UCLA finished third at the conference meet behind second-ranked Stanford and third-ranked California. The Bruins ended the season with a 9-4 record in dual meets and 2-3 in the Pac-10.

The No. 6 UCLA men’s swim team, which took third in last week’s Pac-10 meet, went into the tournament with only one NCAA qualifier, Giovanni Minervini, All-American in the breaststroke, and came out with 13, including diver Todd Watkins in the one- and three-meter events. Other Bruin qualifiers include David Kluth, who won the 50 freestyle in a career best time of 20.16, and freshman Darren Ward, who won the 200 medley in a personal best of 1:48.34 and finished third in the 400 medley in another personal best, 3:53.60.

More UCLA swimmers who will go to the NCAAs on April 7-9 in Indianapolis are Rob Graner in the 50 and 100 freestyles, Mark Dean in the 200 and 400 IMs, Brad Toothaker in the 100 butterfly, Craig Oppel in the 200 free; Mario Fernandez, Andy O’Grady and Bryan Nicosia in the 200 breaststroke, Giuseppe Tiano in the 100 backstroke, Rodrigo Gonzalez in the 200 IM and Minervini in the 100 breaststroke.

Coming off a 5-1 upset in tennis over the top-ranked USC men last week, No. 5 Pepperdine will play host to No. 8 Kentucky at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in Malibu.

Richard Gallien, Pepperdine co-head coach with Allen Fox, said that the win over the Trojans “was a big lift for the entire team. We needed a big match like that to prove to ourselves that we can be a contender for the NCAA title.”

Gallien said the victory “also took a little sting out of the loss we suffered at UCLA (in late February) when we had to play shorthanded due to illness.”

In last week’s Southern California Intercollegiate Tournament, Pepperdine’s Andrew Sznadjer, the nation’s second-ranked singles player, defeated teammate Craig Johnson, 6-4, 6-4, in the semifinals, but Sznadjer was upset in the final by UCLA freshman Jason Netter, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6. Netter is ranked No. 73 in singles.

The UCLA All-American doubles team of Patrick Galbraith and Brian Garrow won the doubles title for the second straight year, defeating USC’s Byron Black and John Carras, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6.

UCLA Coach Glenn Bassett said that Netter “showed that he is one of the country’s top freshman players” and that Galbraith and Garrow “after a slow start are rounding into top form.” He said their victory should give Galbraith and Garrow “the confidence they need to have a banner year.”

The No. 13 Bruins (10-3) will entertain Princeton at 11 a.m. Sunday and Kentucky at 1 p.m. Monday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on campus.

Bassett said he has reinstated Robert Bierens. Bierens was suspended March 1 after he walked off the court in the middle of his singles match against San Jose State.

The No. 20 Pepperdine women’s tennis team, 12-3 after winning two of three matches in last week’s Brigham Young Invitational, will be at home for four straight 1:30 p.m. matches this week and next.

The Waves will play host today to Maryland, Friday to Yale, Tuesday to Utah and Wednesday to Washington.

At the BYU tournament, the Waves defeated No. 9 Duke, 5-4, and Houston, 6-3, and lost to No. 17 BYU, 5-4.

Wave sophomore Ginger Helgeson has a 12-1 record in singles and is ranked 11th nationally, and freshman teammate Janna Kovacevich is 15-0 and ranked No. 26.

The No. 3 UCLA men’s volleyball (23-4 overall and 7-3 in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn.), will play No. 2 Hawaii (15-3, 7-2) in the islands Wednesday and March 25.

Last week the Bruins defeated No. 20 UC Irvine in a non-conference match and gained a conference victory over No. 10 San Diego State. Against the Anteaters, Bill Suwara and Trevor Schirman had 26 and 20 kills. Against the Aztecs, UCLA had 30 blocks, eight by Matt Sonnichsen.

The No. 6 Pepperdine men’s volleyball team (8-8 overall and 4-5 in the WIVA) will entertain top-ranked USC at 7:30 tonight, No. 10 San Diego State at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Ohio State at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

Last week the Waves defeated UC Irvine and Navy. In the WIVA, Pepperdine is vying with Stanford and Cal State Northridge for the final berth in the Western Selection Tournament, a qualifying round for the NCAAs.

Pepperdine Coach Rod Wilde said his Waves “have the physical talent to compete with any team, but our cohesiveness on the court has been lacking.”

The No. 1 UCLA women’s gymnastics team (11-0 overall, 7-0 in the Pac-10) is preparing for the March 26 Pac-10 championships at Arizona State after a big victory over No. 2 Georgia last week. The Bruins defeated the Bulldogs, 189.55 to 189.15, in Georgia.

UCLA sophomore All-American Jill Andrews turned in career-best marks in the beam (9.65), floor exercise (9.7) and all-around (38.65), and Bruin freshman Jennifer Greenhut scored a career-best 9.6 on the beam.

The No. 5 UCLA men’s gymnastics team will be the host for the Pac-10 invitational March 25 and 26 at John Wooden Center. The field includes Stanford, California, Arizona State, Washington, Cal State Fullerton and San Jose State.

Last week the Bruins finished second to No. 3 Oklahoma in a quadrangular meet at Wooden. The scoring: Oklahoma 281.5, UCLA 279.5, Fullerton 272.75 and Navy 269.95.

Fullerton’s Bill Barham scored a career-best 58.1 to win the all-around and was followed by Mark Steves of Oklahoma, 57.1, and UCLA’s David Moriel, 57. Moriel won the rings at 9.85, and Barham was first or tied for first in the other five events.

The No. 1 UCLA women’s softball team (16-2 overall and 2-0 in the Pac-10), which has won 12 of its last 13 games, will play host to Oregon in a double-header at 1 p.m. Sunday and to Oregon State in a double-header at 1 p.m. Monday.

Bruin sophomore Lisa Longaker has pitched her last 42 innings without giving up a run and has an earned-run average of 0.11. Longaker is 7-1 with a save and has struck out 63 batters, given up 29 hits and walked 10.

Senior Stacy Sunny tops the Bruins with a .357 batting average, and junior Janice Parks is second at .353. Parks leads the team with 5 doubles, 2 home runs, 14 runs batted in, 31 total bases, 4 game-winning RBI and 12 walks and has not struck out in 51 times at bat.

The Pepperdine baseball team (11-12 overall) will open West Coast Athletic Conference play at home in a four-game series with Santa Clara on Saturday.

The Waves will play host to the Broncos in a double-header at noon Saturday and single games at 1 p.m. Sunday and 2:30 p.m. Monday. Pepperdine will entertain UC Santa Barbara in a non-conference game at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Pepperdine is 8-4 at home but 3-8 on the road, and Coach Dave Gorrie, whose Waves play their first eight conference games in Malibu, said his team has “a great chance to quickly get ahead of the rest of the pack.”

Junior second baseman Matt Howard leads the Waves with a .360 batting average that includes 8 doubles and 11 RBI. Howard had a hitting streak of 17 games at the start of the season after hitting safely in the last 13 games of 1987.

Gail Devers set a UCLA record of 13.02 in the 100-meter hurdles to lead the Bruins (6-0) to victory over four opponents in a meet last week. The scoring: UCLA 115, Cal State Northridge 50, California 45, Cal State Long Beach 31, Azusa Pacific 11.

Devers broke the record of 13.07 set by Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1985.

In last week’s Betsy Rawls golf invitational at Austin, Tex., the University of Texas women shot a 900 to take first place, and UCLA was fifth with a 939. Valerie Pamard led the Bruins with a 231 for ninth.