SPORTSCOPE : Women Gird for UCLA/Times Gymnastics Tilt

The UCLA/Los Angeles Times women’s gymnastics invitational will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday at Pauley Pavilion. Teams include UCLA, ranked sixth nationally; No. 9 Cal State Fullerton, No. 25 Penn State and New Mexico.

The four All-Americans in the meet are UCLA’s Kim Hamilton, Jill Andrews and Renee Kelly and Cal State Fullerton’s Lisa Dolan.

Hamilton has won three consecutive NCAA championships in floor exercise and last year was the national champion in the vault. Andrews won the NCAA vault title in 1988 and tied for first place in the nation on the balance beam in 1989.

The No. 3 UCLA men’s volleyball team (10-1 overall and 5-1 in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn.) will host Cal State Northridge at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the John Wooden Center.

Last week the Bruins lost their first match of the season to Cal State Long Beach in four games but came back to defeat Brigham Young in three. Against Long Beach, Mike Whitcomb had 14 kills and six blocks, and Trevor Schirman added 10 kills and eight blocks. Whitcomb had 13 kills and five blocks against BYU, and Bruin sophomore reserve Bjorn Maaseide had 12 kills, five digs and two blocks.

The No. 8 Pepperdine men’s volleyball team (6-2 overall, 4-2 in the WIVA at the start of the week) will play at No. 4 Hawaii (8-4, 4-2) on Sunday and Monday.

Last week the Waves defeated UC Santa Barbara in three games and lost to San Diego State in four. Against Santa Barbara, Geoff Hart had 21 kills, freshman Tom Sorenson had 15, freshman Duane Cameron 14 and George Thompson 13. In the San Diego State match, Sorenson had 20 kills and six blocks and Hart had 17 kills.

UCLA will be the host team for the fourth annual Pacific 10 Conference women’s swimming championships on Friday through Sunday at East Los Angeles College. Preliminary competition will start at 11 a.m. and the finals at 6 p.m. each day.

Favorite Stanford, defending NCAA champion and three-time conference champion, is led by 1988 Olympians Janet Evans and Janel Jorgensen. No. 4 California has All-Americans Kristin Kuhlman and Carol Pelton.

Top swimmers for No. 6 UCLA include All-Americans Kris Stoudt and Sheryl Smith and freshman Christy Richardson.

The rest of the field includes No. 8 Arizona State, No. 10 USC and No. 13 Arizona.

The UCLA men’s swim team (9-4) finished the regular season last week by losing to USC, 69-44. USC won every event except the 400 medley relay and the 200 butterfly. Bruin freshman Matjaz Kozelj, a former member of the Yugoslavian national team, took first in the 200 butterfly in 1:48.99.

The Bruins are preparing for the Pac-10 meet, which will be held March 5-7 at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

The Pepperdine men’s tennis team (5-1 as the week began) is competing in the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Assn.’s national indoor team championships, which end Sunday in Louisville, Ky.

Last week the Waves upset No. 3 UCLA, 5-4, and No. 9 UC Irvine, 6-3.

Pepperdine clinched the victory over UCLA at No. 3 doubles, where Alejo Mancisidor and Ashley Nauman defeated the Bruin team of Bill Behrens and Robbie Wendel, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.

The No. 3 UCLA men’s tennis team (10-1) will also compete in the team indoor championships, which end Sunday in Louisville.

Although they lost to Pepperdine, the Bruins won their first Pac-10 meet, defeating Arizona State, 6-0.

Leading Bruin singles players are freshman Jason Sher, who is 7-0 in dual matches, and freshman Mark Knowles at 8-1. The doubles teams of Bill Barber-Mark Quinney and Knowles-Fritz Bissell are a combined 15-0.

The No. 2 UCLA women’s tennis team (6-0) will play Friday at No. 8 Arizona State (8-1) and Saturday at No. 13 Arizona (3-2). Last week the Bruins defeated U.S. International, 8-1, and San Diego State, 7-2.

The No. 5 Pepperdine women’s tennis team (6-2 as the week began) will play Friday at No. 7 California and Saturday (2-24) at top-ranked Stanford. Last week the Waves split, defeating No. 17 San Diego State, 6-3, and losing to No. 6 USC, 8-1.

The No. 1 UCLA women’s softball team (13-3) will play at 4 p.m. Friday at No. 5 Cal State Long Beach and entertain Cal Poly Pomona at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Sunset Canyon field.

Last week the Bruins won nine of 10 games to win the University of Arizona tournament. UCLA defeated Long Beach, 7-2, in the semifinal and shut out Oregon, 2-0, in the title game.

UCLA freshman pitcher DeDe Weiman won three of four games, including back-to-back no-hitters, and senior pitcher Lisa Longaker won four games, giving her 74 victories in her career and breaking Debbie Doom’s school record of 73.

Bruin senior infielder Shelly Montgomery is batting .381 for the season and was one of four UCLA players named to the all-tournament team. The others were Longaker, infielder Kerry Dienelt and outfielder Shanna Flynn.

The UCLA women’s basketball team (14-9, 9-4 in the Pac-10) will play host to Oregon (16-7, 8-4) at 7 p.m. Friday at Pauley Pavilion and to Oregon State (5-20, 1-11) at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Wooden Center.

Last week third-ranked Stanford snapped UCLA’s four-game win streak with a 91-65 victory after the Bruins had defeated UC Berkeley, 80-66. Rehema Stephens scored a team-high 20 points against UC Berkeley and led the Bruins with 23 points against the Cardinal.

UCLA senior center Sheri Bouldin, who missed eight games with a dislocated shoulder, is expected to return this weekend.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team (13-13 overall and 4-8 in the West Coast Conference) will end its season when it plays tonight at Santa Clara (8-16, 4-8) and Saturday night at the University of San Diego (15-10, 5-7).

Last week the Waves split two with Loyola Marymount, losing, 75-64, at Loyola and winning, 76-64, at home. In the victory over the Lions, senior forward Kristy Greenberg scored a season-best 26 points.