USD Men Break Pepperdine’s 16-Year Hold, Win Their First WCAC Tennis Title

The No. 16-ranked University of San Diego, completely dominating singles and doubles, ended Pepperdine’s string of 16 consecutive titles and clinched its first West Coast Athletic Conference men’s tennis tournament championship Saturday at Pepperdine.

USD players earned all four spots in the singles semifinals and both spots in the doubles final while accumulating 99 points, 36 ahead of second-place Pepperdine.

In today’s singles at USD, Mark Farren will play teammate Dan Mattera in one semifinal, while the No. 1 seeded Jose Luis Noriega will play David Stewart in the other. The winners will advance to the final later today.

The day’s singles highlights included a victory by unseeded J.R. Edwards of USD over No. 2 Grant Saacks of Pepperdine, 6-1, 6-1, and No. 8 Mattera’s victory over No. 3 Tomer Zimmerman of Pepperdine, 6-3, 7-6. Edwards was beaten by No. 6 Farren in the quarterfinals.

In doubles, also at USD, the team of Curtis Dadian and Mattera will play the team of Noriega and Stewart for the championship.

The USD women lead second-place Pepperdine in the women’s WCAC tourney, 68-56, going into today’s semifinal and final rounds at Pepperdine.

Unlike the USD men, the Toreras have allowed Pepperdine to monopolize the four slots in the semis. But USD has three teams in the doubles semifinals.

In the doubles pairings, Pepperdine’s Ginger Helgeson and Camilla Orhman (seeded third) will play No. 1-seeded Jennifer Larkin and Aby Brayton of USD.

The other USD teams to advance to today’s semifinals are Jana Kovacevich/Anna Brunstrom and Jill Greenwood/Sakolwan Kachareon.

The women’s team at Point Loma Nazarene College finished its Golden State Athletic Conference season with a 6-3 victory over Cal-Lutheran.

PLNC (11-9, 4-2 in GSAC play) picked up a singles victory from No. 3 Cindy Lusink, who defeated Elizabeth Bosley, 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1.

SOCCER

The San Diego Nomads open their Western Soccer Alliance season against the Los Angeles Heat tonight at 7 at Balboa Stadium. The Nomads finished third in the professional outdoor league last season.

Marcel Balboa, a member of the U.S. National team and a former player at San Diego State, will lead the Nomads along with Thien Nguyen, who led UC San Diego to a second-place finish in the Division III national championships last season.

COLLEGE BASEBALL

San Diego State pitchers Rob Brown and Erik Platenburg combined to strike out 19 Air Force batters as the Aztecs swept a Western Athletic Conference doubleheader, 3-0 and 3-1.

Brown went the distance (seven innings) in the first one, striking out eight and walking two.

San Diego State picked up all three runs in the second. Brian Lutes got things going, driving in Bill Miller with a single. After Anthony Johnson followed with another single, Casey McKeon chased home both runners with a double down the right-field line.

In the second game, Platenburg struck out 11 and walked only one.

San Diego State improved to 28-18, 10-4 in the WAC. Air Force is 20-20, 7-7.

UC San Diego, ranked No. 8 in Division III, swept a doubleheader from The Master’s College, 8-3, 9-3, to improve to 20-15.

In the first game, Gary Fessia was three for three with a home run. He also stole home off pitcher Roger March and threw out Mark Preston, who tried to score on a fly out, from center field.

In the second game, Henry Jimenez sparked three-run rallies in the third and fifth innings with doubles. He was two for two, as was Matt Bynum.

Pitcher Rick Rupkey improved to 9-3.

Point Loma Nazarene College split a doubleheader with host Southern California College, winning the first game, 2-1, and losing the second, 5-1.

Tony Nobinski went two for three in the first game for PLNC (19-22, 7-12 in the Golden State Athletic Conference).

RUNNING

Armando Valencia set a race record to win the San Diego Track Club’s Fastest Masters 10K on Fiesta Island. Valencia covered the 6.2-mile course in 32:31, breaking Pat Murphy’s record of last year by six seconds. The women’s winner was Mary Leivers in 39:38.

BOWLING

The San Diego State men’s bowling team finished eighth in the National Collegiate Bowling Championships in Las Vegas. Cal State Fullerton defeated Washington State in the final, 414-392, to win the title.