SpoprtsScope : UCLA Men’s Tennis Team Will Shoot for Their 16th National Championship

The UCLA men’s tennis team will be shooting for its 16th national championship and Coach Glenn Bassett will be seeking his eighth title when the team begins play Saturday in the NCAA championships at the University of Georgia.

The second-seeded Bruins, who won the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division title with a 9-1 record and finished the season at 25-3, will play the winner of Friday’s match between Utah and West Virginia.

In other Saturday matches involving Pac-10 teams, top-seeded Stanford will play the winner of the Miami of Florida-Mississippi match, fourth-seeded UC Berkeley will face the winner of the Oklahoma State-Tennessee match, and USC will go against Georgia.

UCLA is led by Brian Garrow, ranked fourth in the nation in singles and the only player in the 1980s to reach the NCAA singles and doubles finals in the same year. Last year, Garrow and Pat Galbraith won the doubles title, and Garrow lost the singles championship to Pepperdine’s Robbie Weiss. The Bruins also have Buff Farrow, who is ranked 11th in singles and who lost to Garrow in last year’s semifinals.

Pepperdine, which finished the year with a 13-13 record, was not selected for NCAA team competition. But Wave senior Grant Saacks will play in the individual singles competition that begins Wednesday.

The Pepperdine and USC baseball teams, ranked among the nation’s top 20 by Collegiate Baseball and Baseball America and both headed for the NCAA tournament, will make up a pair of games this week that were postponed by rain in February.

The Waves, West Coast Athletic Conference champions and 40-16-1 overall, will play host to the Trojans (40-22) at 1 p.m. today at Eddy D. Field Stadium. The teams will meet again at 7 p.m. Friday at USC’s Dedeaux Field.

Pepperdine lost twice last week to Stanford, 1-0 and 2-1, despite strong pitching from Britt Craven and Wayne Helm.

Pairings and seedings for the NCAA tournament will be announced Monday. Eight regionals will be played May 25-29, and the College World Series will be played June 2-10 at Omaha.

Pepperdine senior center fielder Rick Hirtensteiner, named WCAC Player of the Year, was selected to the District 8 Academic All-American team sponsored by GTE and chosen by the College Sports Information Directors Assn.

Wave team awards were presented to junior outfielder Richard Barnwell, most improved; senior second baseman Matt Howard, best on defense; junior pitcher Kipp Landis, most inspirational; senior first baseman Scott Shockey, unsung hero; junior Britt Craven, best pitcher, and Hirtensteiner, most valuable.

The UCLA men’s and women’s track teams will compete in the Pac-10 championships on Saturday and Sunday at Stanford.

Eight Santa Monica College athletes will compete in the state junior college track and field championships Saturday at Fresno.

Corsairs and their events are Joyce Morgovenz at 800 meters, high jumpers Rene Dabney and Tanya Valentino, the 1,600-meter relay team of David Ross, Adelbert Baylis, Sidney Morris and Aaron Echols, the 4-by-100 relay team of Echols, Baylis, Morris and Derrick Davis, and Davis at 400 meters.

Pepperdine women tennis players Ginger Helgeson, Janna Kovacevich and Noelle Porter were named All-Americans after the Waves advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA team tournament last week.

The 11th-seeded Waves won their opener against No. 7 Miami of Florida but were eliminated by No. 2 Florida, 5-4, in the quarterfinals.

Helgeson and Kovacevich were All-Americans last year, but this year was the first time that three Pepperdine players received that honor in one season.

Santa Monica College tennis players Jane Kwon and Karen Imber were named to the All-Western State Conference team in singles by a vote of conference coaches. Kwon played No. 2 singles for the Corsairs, and Imber, undefeated in dual matches, played at No. 4.

Imber and partner Michele Flamer were named to the conference second team in doubles, and selected on the second team in singles were Caroline Naggar and Nancy Kolod. Adrienne von Teuber, SMC’s top singles player, received honorable mention.