UCLA Softballers Try Weak Beavers, Dangerous Ducks

The top-ranked UCLA women’s softball team (35-4 overall, 12-2 in the Pacific-10) will play at Oregon State (7-24, 1-15) on Friday and meet fifth-ranked Oregon (46-13, 11-5) at Eugene on Saturday.

Both are double-headers and are key conference games as the regular season comes to a close next weekend. The winner of the Pac-10 conference, as well as the Big Eight, Big Ten, Big West, Gateway and Mid-America conferences, receives automatic bids into the NCAA College World Series, which will be played in Sunnyvale, Calif., on May 24-28.

Last weekend UCLA defeated U.S. International, 8-0 and 12-0, behind pitchers Samantha Ford, a senior, and junior Lisa Lonaker. Third baseman Janice Parks had an impressive weekend, hitting five for six with five RBIs, two triples and a double. Parks leads the team with 49 hits, seven doubles, six triples and 27 RBIs. UCLA is hitting .290 compared to its opponents’ .120.

The NCAA men’s volleyball championship will be played at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion on Friday and Saturday, with Stanford meeting Ball State at 5:30 p.m. Friday while UCLA plays Penn State at 7:30.

The losers will meet for third place at 5 p.m. Saturday, followed by the championship at 7:30.

Stanford (24-5), making its first tournament appearance, advanced to the final four by winning last weekend’s Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. selection tournament. The Cardinal defeated defending national champion USC in four games and Hawaii in five.

Ball State (17-12), in its 10th tournament appearance, won the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. title.

Penn State, under first-year Coach Tom Peterson, will be making its sixth final-four appearance in the 1980s. The Nittany Lions (16-10) defeated George Mason in five games to win the East title.

Twelve-time champion UCLA, 27-5 this season and 34-3 in NCAA tournament matches, tied with Stanford for the WIVA title and won a coin flip for the conference’s automatic berth into the tournament. The Bruins are undefeated (17-0) in NCAA tournament matches in Pauley Pavilion.

Pepperdine’s baseball team will host Loyola Marymount for a four-game series this weekend with the West Coast Athletic Conference title on the line. The series begins Friday with a single game at 2:30 p.m. Following a noon doubleheader Saturday will be a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Pepperdine Waves (37-13-1 and 17-3 in WCAC) are currently ranked No. 15 by Collegiate Baseball and have an 11-game winning streak, while the Loyola Marymount Lions (35-19 and 17-2), ranked No. 14, leads the conference. Pepperdine can clinch its sixth WCAC crown and the league’s automatic NCAA Tournament berth by defeating the Lions three times this weekend. If the Waves and Lions split the four-game series, Loyola Marymount would be forced to play a makeup game at San Francisco May 14 where a win would secure the conference title.

The Pepperdine men’s tennis team will meet UCLA at the Los Angeles Tennis center courts Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. The Bruins, 24-3 in dual match play, are returning from the Pac-10 Individual Championships at Ojai where Patrick Galbraith won the singles competition and the team of Billy Barber and Mark Quinney won in doubles.

Galbraith defeated teammate Buff Farrow 6-2, 6-1, for the singles title and Barber and Quinney defeated Galbraith and Brian Garrow 7-6, 6-4 for the doubles crown. Garrow and Galbraith are ranked No. 1 nationally and are defending NCAA champions.

The UCLA men’s track team, coming off a 93-68 victory over USC on Saturday, will compete in the Brigham Young Invitational at Provo, Utah, on Monday. The non-scoring affair will match BYU, UCLA and selected athletes from Utah universities.

Hamstring injuries continue to hamper the Bruins, with sprinters Michael Marsh and Steve Lewis questionable for the Provo meet and hurdler Derek Knight and pole vaulter Chris O’Connor sidelined for at least another week.

“We’re concerned with the injuries,” commented Bruin Coach Bob Larsen. “But the team in general is doing very well.”

Selected members of the UCLA women’s team, which defeated USC, 101 1/2-28 1/2, will compete at the BYU Invitational and Cal State Northridge Relays on Saturday.

The Pepperdine men’s golf team won its second West Coast Athletic Conference championship in three seasons last week at Heron Lakes Golf Course in Portland. The Waves, led by sophomore Dean Kobane who shot a one-under par 215, recorded a 54-hole team score of 892 to outdistance San Francisco by 18.

The UCLA men’s crew, ranked No. 2 on the West Coast, will take this weekend off in preparation for the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships on May 13-14 at Lake Natoma near Sacramento. Last Sunday the Bruins won the Norman Watson Cup at the Newport Regatta for the second straight year, defeating Irvine by six seconds.

Santa Monica College sophomore basketball players Keith Amerson and Troy Batiste have signed letters of intent, Amerson with Kansas State and Batiste with San Jose State. Amerson and Byron Daye of Chabot College were named Co-Players of the Year by the California Community College Basketball Coaches Assn.