SPORTSCOPE : Unbeaten UCLA and Pepperdine Tennis Teams Clash

The UCLA women’s tennis team (3-0), ranked second nationally, will play host to No. 5 Pepperdine (3-0 as the week began) at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Sunset Canyon courts on campus.

Pepperdine Coach Gualberto Escudero said the match “will be an excellent test for our team. (It) figures to be close. It would be a fantastic win for us, and we are certainly capable of winning.”

The Bruins also will entertain the University of San Diego (1-0) at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Sunset Canyon courts.

Pepperdine All-Americans Ginger Helgeson and Janna Kovacevich will compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Assn. National Indoor Championships, which start Wednesday and end Feb. 11 at Minneapolis.

Last week the Waves defeated UC Santa Barbara, 7-1.

The No. 3 UCLA men’s tennis team (5-0 at the start of the week) will play host to Washington at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on campus.

Last week the Bruins defeated Nevada Las Vegas, 9-0; UC Santa Barbara, 6-0, and No. 17 University of San Diego, 5-4.

Against San Diego, Joe Luis Noriega of the Toreros, ranked second nationally, won at No. 1 singles, and teammates J. R. Edwards and Dan Matera won at No. 2 and No. 4. Bruin singles winners were Dean Cohen at No. 3, Bill Barber at No. 5 and Jason Sher at No. 6. UCLA won the match with victories at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles.

The No. 16 Pepperdine men’s tennis team (1-1 at the start of the week) will play host to U.S. International at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Waves were idle last week.

A winner over Cal State Fullerton in its opener, the UCLA men’s gymnastics team will be host for an invitational meet at 7 p.m. Feb. 10 at Pauley Pavilion.

Teams in the meet include defending NCAA champion Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Arizona State and New Mexico.

Senior All-American Chris Waller led the Bruins to the 278.675-275.85 victory over Fullerton. He took firsts in the pommel horse, parallel bars and high bar, and he had a career-best mark of 9.85 on the high bar.

The UCLA women’s gymnastics team (3-1) will compete Sunday at Nebraska (2-0).

Last week UCLA senior Jill Andrews set Wooden Center records of 38.60 in the all-around and 9.85 on the vault as the Bruins defeated California, 188.65 to 178.35. Bruin freshman Carol Ulrich set career-best marks of 37.60 in the all-around, 9.50 in the vault and 9.20 on bars.

Coming off an upset over top-ranked Stanford, the No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball team (9-1 overall) will play Loyola Marymount in a Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. match at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Loyola’s Gersten Pavilion.

Last week the Bruins defeated the Cardinals in four games in the final of the UC Santa Barbara tournament. In pool play, UCLA lost only to Cal State Northridge and beat Sacramento State, UC Davis, Loyola Marymount, UC Santa Cruz, Manitoba and Hawaii.

UCLA senior All-American Trevor Schirman was named the tournament’s most valuable player, and Bruin junior Carl Henkel was named to the all-tourney team.

The No. 6 Pepperdine men’s volleyball team (2-0 both overall and in the WIVA at the start of the week) will play two road games against No. 8 Penn State, meeting the Nittany Lions on Friday night at University Park and Saturday night at Lancaster, Pa.

The Waves opened conference play with victories over Brigham Young and UC Irvine. Freshman middle blocker Tom Sorenson was leading the Waves as the week began with 37 kills, a .529 hitting average, five service aces and 18 blocks.

The UCLA women’s softball team, two-time defending NCAA champion, will open the season on the road, playing Saturday at U.S. International and Sunday at San Diego State.

Senior pitcher Lisa Longaker, twice an All-American, is one of nine Bruin letter winners, and others include top batters Shann Flynn, a junior, and Yvonne Gutierrez, a sophomore from Culver City.

Top freshmen include pitchers Lisa Fernandez, DeDe Weiman and Heather Compton, younger sister of former Bruin star pitcher Tracey Compton, and shortstop Kristy Howard.

The Pepperdine baseball team, which opened the season Wednesday against Westmont, will play host to top-ranked USC at 2 p.m. Friday at Eddy D. Field Stadium and also play the Trojans at 1 p.m. Saturday at Dedeaux Field.

The Waves, ranked 19th by Baseball America and 20th by Collegiate Baseball, will play at Cal Poly Pomona at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The UCLA women’s basketball team (10-7 overall, 5-2 in the Pacific 10 Conference) will play host to No. 10 Washington at 7 tonight and Washington State at 7 p.m. Saturday at Pauley Pavilion.

Last week the Bruins split on the road, defeating Oregon State, 82-60, and losing to Oregon, 80-66. Sophomore guard Rehema Stephens scored 24 points against Oregon State and 25 against the Ducks.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team (12-8 overall, 3-3 in the West Coast Conference) will play Friday night at the University of San Francisco (14-4, 5-0) and Saturday night at St. Mary’s (13-6, 4-1).

Last week the Waves lost to Gonzaga, 83-76, in overtime and defeated Portland, 84-78. In the two games, sophomore forward Shannon Frowiss scored 50 points and had 20 rebounds, getting a career-high 29 points against Portland.

The UCLA men’s swim team (6-2) split road meets last week, losing to Texas but defeating Southern Methodist, and finished fourth in the SMU-Dallas Morning News meet.

Against Texas, Rodrigo Gonzalez won the 200-meter individual medley in 1:50.19, Matjaz Kozelj captured the 200 butterfly in 1:49.08 and freshman Geoff Cronin won the 200 backstroke in 1:50.69.

Gonzalez had a season-best time of 1:40.12 as he won the 200 freestyle against SMU.

Bruins Mark Dean and Dan Kutler took firsts in the SMU-News meet. Dean swam a 1:48 flat in the 200 butterfly and Kutler posted a 49.16 in the 100 fly.

The No. 9 UCLA women’s swim team (5-1) will compete Saturday at Arizona State (8-2) and Sunday at Arizona (2-3).

The Pepperdine women’s swim team (5-6) will play host to Cal State Bakersfield and Fresno State at 3 p.m. Friday at Raleigh Runnels Pool.

Last week the Waves won a quadrangular meet with Claremont Mudd, Cal State San Bernardino and San Diego. Pepperdine junior Kirsten Sutter was a double winner in the 100 backstroke in 1:04.01 and in the 100 butterfly in 1:02.94.

The Pepperdine men’s golf team shot 301 and finished eighth in the USC-Southwestern Invitational at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village.