SPORTSSCOPE : Unbeaten UCLA Women Spikers Battle for NCAA Championship at Minnesota

The top-ranked UCLA women’s volleyball team has a 34-0 record and could be 36-0 and the NCAA champion after this week.

The Bruins will meet No. 6 Texas (32-5) at 4 p.m. (Pacific Standard Time) today, and No. 3 Hawaii (32-2) will play No. 4 Illinois (30-3) this evening in the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament at the University of Minnesota. The championship game is at 5:30 p.m. (PST) Saturday. UCLA’s match, or matches, will be broadcast by KGIL-AM (1260).

UCLA will have to guard against going through the motions this week. The Bruins have defeated Hawaii and Illinois once and Texas twice, all on the road. Hawaii and the Illini fell in Hawaii’s tournament and Texas in Austin.

At last week’s NCAA West Regional, the Bruins defeated No. 12 Brigham Young and No. 9 Washington, each in three games. Senior Ann Boyer, junior Daiva Tomkus and sophomore Samantha Shaver were named to the all-regional team.

UCLA freshman outside hitter Laurie Jones has had some outstanding matches in the latter part of the season and started in the last three in place of freshman Jenny Evans. Against Washington in the regional, Jones had a career-high 16 kills.

The Pepperdine women’s volleyball team, which won its third West Coast Athletic Conference championship, swept the top awards and dominated the All-WCAC teams.

Wave Coach Nina Matthies, whose team was 13-1 in conference play, was named coach of the year, senior middle blocker Lisa Bevington player of the year and outside hitter Cari Delson freshman of the year.

Other Wave players on the first team are senior middle blocker Stella Berkebile, junior setter Laura Fort and senior outside hitter Tami Seidenberg. Leslie Wohlford, Loyola Marymount senior outside hitter, also made the first team.

The all-freshman team includes Delson and teammate Carolyn Hueth, an outside hitter.

D’Ney Goodfellow-Granger, whose Santa Monica College women’s volleyball team won its second straight Western State Conference championship and placed fifth in the state tournament, was named the conference coach of the year.

WSC players of the year are SMC sophomore Amy Prout and Santa Barbara City College sophomore Kieran O’Leary.

Corsairs Frances Patterson and Lisle Vencill were named all-conference first team, and second-team selections include SMC’s Bridgett McDonald, Jeniece Stimpfig and Stephanie Tarvyd.

Those receiving honorable mention include Corsair Jasmine Willis and Stephanie Ferrer and Vivian Deckard, both of West Los Angeles College.

The UCLA women’s basketball team (3-3) will play Saturday at North Carolina and Tuesday at Tennessee.

Last week the Bruins defeated Pepperdine, 76-68, but lost to Cal State Fullerton, 68-51.

Freshman center Molly Tideback leads the Bruins with an average of 14.5 points in field-goal (46.6%) and free-throw (80.5%) percentages and in blocked shots with 9. Junior forward Sandra VanEmbricqs tops the team with 22 steals, and Tideback is second with 9.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team (3-5) will play host to Southern Utah State at 7:30 p.m. Monday and play at UC Santa Barbara at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Besides last week’s 76-68 loss to UCLA, the Waves lost in their own tournament to USC, 75-74, in overtime and 74-73 to DePaul.

Four Waves have been scoring in double figures: junior guard Dionne Burgess, 16.9 points; senior forward April Marion, 15.4 points and a team-high 9.3 rebounds; freshman center Susan Tousey, 13.5 points, and Sherri Murrell, 12.1 points. Murrell was named to last week’s all-tourney team.

The Santa Monica College women’s basketball team, 7-2 and a winner of its last five games entering the week, will play host to Rancho Santiago College at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Last week SMC defeated Palomar for the second time and routed Rancho Santiago, 68-32, on the road. The victory over Palomar was the 100th career win for SMC Coach Avie Bridges.

Against Rancho Santiago, the Corsairs were led by sophomore forward LaVern Moore who reached game highs with 28 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists and 8 steals.

The Santa Monica College men’s basketball team, 9-2 as the week began, will continue play today in the 10th annual Pasadena Crown City holiday tournament. The tourney’s third-place and championship games will be played Friday evening.

Other teams are Salt Lake Community, defending state champion El Camino, Rio Hondo, Moorpark, Rancho Santiago, Mount San Antonio and Pasadena.

Last week the Corsairs lost their second straight game, committing 29 turnovers and falling to Los Angeles City, 102-96. The Corsairs were led by DeShawn Pullard with 21 points, Von Shuler with 17 and Keith Amerson with 14 points and 13 rebounds.