SportScope : Bruins Count On 7 Swimmers, 2 Divers in NCAA National Meet Starting Today

Seven swimmers and two divers will compete for UCLA’s women’s swim team, ranked ninth nationally, in the NCAA championships today through Saturday at Indianapolis.

At the Pacific 10 Conference championships, where UCLA placed third, Bruins Jenny Susser and Karla Goltman won titles, Susser in the 50-yard freestyle and Goltman in one-meter diving.

The UCLA men’s swim team finished second to Stanford in last week’s Pac-10 meet. The Bruins scored 660 points to 935.5 for the Cardinal, which won its eighth consecutive conference title.

Bruin winners were freshman Andrea Cecchi in the 100-yard breaststroke, freshman Brian Kurza in the 50 freestyle and the 400 freestyle relay team of Rob Graner, Kurza, Craig Oppel and Rodrigo Gonzalez.

UCLA has qualified 14 swimmers and divers Scott Upper and Omar Boyd, a freshman, for the NCAA meet, which will be March 30-April 1 at Indianapolis.

The top-ranked UCLA men’s tennis team (13-1 overall) will play host to No. 18 Miami of Florida at 1:30 p.m. Friday and to No. 14 Kentucky at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on campus.

In last week’s Southern California Intercollegiate tournament, UCLA’s Jason Netter reached the semifinals and teammates Mark Quinney, Giora Payes and Paul Scholts advanced to the quarterfinals.

The No. 13 Pepperdine women’s tennis team (8-7 as the week began) will play host to Nevada Las Vegas at 1:30 p.m. Friday and to Loyola Marymount at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

All-American Ginger Helgeson is ranked No. 21 in singles and is 11-4 in dual matches, and All-American Janna Kovacevich is No. 27 and 12-2. Freshman Camilla Ohrman injured an ankle last week and may be out of action this week.

The No. 17 Pepperdine men’s tennis team will be at home for 1:30 p.m. matches Friday against Kansas, Saturday against No. 10 Clemson and Monday against No. 14 Kentucky.

The Waves improved to 6-4 Monday with a 6-3 defeat of visiting North Carolina. Pepperdine’s Grant Saacks is ranked No. 13 in singles and is 6-2 in dual matches.

The UCLA men’s and women’s track teams, which won their first home meets of the season last week, will play host to Kansas State and Iowa on Saturday at Drake Stadium. The women’s field events will start at 11:15 a.m. and the men’s at 1 p.m. Women’s running events will begin at 1:30 p.m. and the men’s at 2.

In their home openers last week, the Bruin men defeated Azusa Pacific and Cal State Northridge, and the Bruin women beat those two schools as well as California. Janeene Vickers was a triple winner for UCLA, capturing the 400-meter run and the 100 and 400 hurdles.

The No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball team will play host to No. 16 Ohio State at 7:30 p.m. Friday at John Wooden Center.

Last week the Bruins defeated UC Irvine and Loyola Marymount, each in three games, and raised their record to 18-3 overall and 12-1 in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn.

Against Irvine, UCLA freshman Brian Boone had a career-high nine kills, and teammates Carl Henkel and Matt Whitaker each had eight. Against Loyola, Oren Scher had 13 kills, and Mike Whitcomb and Anthony Curci each had 12 for the Bruins.

The No. 7 Pepperdine men’s volleyball team (9-8 overall and 3-6 in the WIVA at the start of the week) will play host to No. 6 Cal State Long Beach at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

Last week the Waves lost to top-ranked Stanford in four games but defeated Ball State and Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne, each in three games. Geoff Hart leads Pepperdine in kills with 216, and Brian Merrick has a team-high 52 blocks.

The No. 1 UCLA men’s gymnastics team (28-6) scored 281.1 points to win last week’s John Wooden Center Invitational. The other teams, in order, were California, Stanford, UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Fullerton.

UCLA’s David St. Pierre won five of the six individual events and captured the all-around competition with a career-high mark of 57.75. Bruin freshman Scott was second in the all-around with a career-best 55.9.

The No. 5 UCLA women’s gymnastics team, idle since the March 4 Pac-10 championships, will compete Friday in the Berkeley invitational and Saturday in the San Jose State invitational. Southern Utah State will also compete in both meets, and Cal State Fullerton is the other team at San Jose.

Pepperdine’s baseball team, defending West Coast Athletic Conference champion, will open conference play this weekend with a four-game series at Santa Clara. The Waves (12-8-1) will play the Broncos (16-8) in a single game Friday, a Saturday double-header and a single game Sunday.

The Waves are 8-2-1 since Feb. 22. Second baseman Matt Howard is batting a team-high .381 and first baseman Scott Shockey .377.

UCLA men’s golf team, defending NCAA champion, will compete today through Saturday in the Fresno State-Pepsi tournament.

The Bruins are coming off a 13th-place finish at the Golf Digest Intercollegiate Invitational. Rob Sullivan shot a 226 for 54 holes to lead UCLA.

The Pepperdine men’s golf team finished fifth as USC won in the Southern California Intercollegiate Tournament and was fourth behind first-place Rice at the San Diego State invitational.

Kevin Eden led the Waves in the tournament with a 36-hole score of 153, and Dean Kobane was for Pepperdine at San Diego with a 54-hole score of 220.

The No. 13 UCLA women’s golf team will compete Friday through Sunday in the University of Texas Invitational. The Bruins have been idle since finishing fourth on March 5 at the San Jose State Invitational.

Pepperdine junior guard Dionne Burgess and teammate April Marion, a senior forward, were named to the All-WCAC women’s basketball team by a vote of coaches.

Marion averaged team-high marks of 15.1 points and eight rebounds a game, and Burgess averaged 14 points and 3.1 assists and had a team-high 63 steals.