SPORTSCOPE : UCLA Women Host USC in Finale Tonight

The UCLA women’s basketball team (16-11 overall and 11-6 in the Pacific 10 Conference) will end the regular season when it plays host to USC (8-18, 6-11) at 7 tonight at Pauley Pavilion.

The Bruins, guaranteed of finishing no lower than third in the Pac-10, are hoping for a bid to the NCAA tournament. UCLA hasn’t gone to the tournament since 1985.

Last week UCLA was swept by Washington State, 84-72, and fourth-ranked Washington, 83-68. Sandra VanEmbricqs scored 20 points and had 11 rebounds against Washington State. Against the Huskies, Michele Wootton scored 18 points, and VanEmbricqs and Rehema Stevens each added 17.

The Pepperdine baseball team (11-9 overall and 5-2 in the West Coast Conference as the week began) will host Santa Clara in a three-game conference series this weekend at Eddy D. Field Stadium. A single game will start at 2 p.m. Friday and a double-header at 11 a.m. Saturday. The Waves will entertain UC Irvine in a nonconference game at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Last week Pepperdine won three of four games, losing to UC Santa Barbara, 5-3, in 10 innings but defeating Cal Poly Pomona, 10-9, and taking two from St. Mary’s, 6-0 and 3-2.

Jim Doyle, who is hitting .361, leads six Waves who are batting above .300. Others are Dan Melendez, .353; Mike Truschke, .351; Jalal Leach, .341; Chris Martin, .316, and Steve Rodriguez, .304.

Steve Duda leads the pitchers with a 4-0 record and a 2.50 earned run average, and Britt Craven is 3-1 with a 3.49 ERA.

The Santa Monica College baseball team (14-8 overall and 2-0 in the Western State Conference at the start of the week) will play at Santa Barbara City College at 2 p.m. today, and host Ventura at 2 p.m. Saturday and Los Angeles Valley at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

The Corsairs opened conference play by defeating Pierce, 6-3, in 10 innings and Bakersfield, 7-1.

In the Pierce game, outfielder Travis Woods made a game-saving catch in the eighth inning but slashed his leg as he slid into the fence. He had nine stitches in his leg and was expected to miss a couple of games.

Against Bakersfield, freshman Scott Elliott scattered five hits and got the opponents to hit into four double plays and a triple play to pick up the victory. Kenny Wood had two hits, four runs batted in and stole home.

Three of the top 10 men’s gymnastics teams in the nation will compete in the second annual John Wooden Center invitational meet at 2 p.m. Saturday at the center.

The field includes No. 4 Cal State Fullerton No. 5 UCLA, No. 7 Stanford and No. 23 UC Santa Barbara. This will be the Bruins’ last home meet of the season.

UCLA senior Chris Waller, who has won the all-around in three of five meets, is ranked fourth nationally in the all-around, fifth on high bar and parallel bars and is tied for eighth on pommel horse. Fullerton junior Bill Barham is ranked 11th in the all-around and second in floor exercise.

The No. 7 UCLA women’s gymnastics team (10-2) will compete Saturday at No. 4 Georgia (16-2), defending NCAA champion. Last year Georgia beat the Bruins for the national title by 5/100 (.05) of a point.

Last week UCLA defeated Washington, 190.8 to 185.45. Bruin senior Jill Andrews won the all-around for the fifth time in seven meets and scored a season-high 9.85 in floor exercise. UCLA freshman Carol Ulrich had season-best marks in the all-around (38.70 for second), the vault (9.80 for second), bars (9.55 for third), beam (9.65 for first) and floor (9.70, tied for second).

The No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball team (13-2 overall and 8-2 in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn.) will host Brigham Young at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Ball State at noon Sunday at the Wooden Center. UCLA will play Wednesday night at UC Irvine.

Last week All-American Bryan Ivie had 34 kills to lead No. 4 USC to a four-game win over the Bruins, who were led by Oren Sher with 16 kills and Trevor Schirman with seven blocks.

The Pepperdine men’s volleyball team (7-5 overall, 4-4 in the WIVA as the week began) will play a conference match at Cal State Northridge at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and entertain George Mason University in a nonconference match at 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

Last Saturday the Waves lost to Penn State in three games.

The Santa Monica College men’s volleyball team (4-3 at the start of the week) will play at Westmont College at 7 p.m. Friday.

Last week the Corsairs extended their winning streak to three by defeating Golden West in three games and El Camino in four. SMC sophomore Dennis Rivas had 19 kills, and teammate Tim Vincent had 21 kills against El Camino.

The No. 2 UCLA women’s tennis team (12-1 as the week began) will play at No. 9 Pepperdine at 1:30 p.m. Friday and at No. 5 USC at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Last week the Bruins lost to top-ranked Stanford, 5-2, in the finals of the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Assn./Rolex indoor team championships at Madison, Wis. In other tournament matches, UCLA defeated No. 3 Florida, 5-2; No. 7 California, 7-2, and No. 8 Duke, 6-1.

The No. 5 Pepperdine men’s tennis team (12-2), which has won six straight matches, will play three straight home matches at 1:30 p.m. this week and next. The Waves will host Michigan today, Trinity on Tuesday and Kansas on Wednesday.

Over the weekend and Monday, Pepperdine won four matches without a defeat in a tournament at Corpus Christi, Tex. The Waves defeated Southwest Louisiana, 6-0; Harvard, 7-2; Notre Dame, 5-4, and South Carolina, 6-3.

The No. 8 UCLA men’s tennis team (14-2) is competing in the Southern California Intercollegiate tournament, which ends Sunday at the Valley Hunt Club in Pasadena.

Last week the Bruins shut out nonconference opponents Cal State Hayward and UC Riverside, extending its shutout string this season to six.

In singles, sophomore Bill Barber has won nine straight times in dual matches and is 15-4 overall and 12-1 in dual matches. The Bruin freshman doubles team of Fritz Bissell and Mark Knowles are 15-1 overall after winning their 10th consecutive match in dual play.

The No. 9 Pepperdine women’s tennis team (8-6) will host No. 2 UCLA at 1:30 p.m. Friday and Trinity at 1 p.m. Sunday.

In the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Assn. tournament in Wisconsin, the Waves defeated Wisconsin, 5-2, but lost to No. 3 Florida, 5-1, and to No. 6 Arizona State, 6-2.

The Santa Monica College men’s tennis team (6-2, overall, 2-2 in the Western State Conference at the start of the week) will play host to Ventura at 2 p.m. today.

In last week’s 6-2 loss to Moorpark, Mike Dismukes won at No. 2 singles and teammate Antonio Robertson won at No. 4. Dismukes and Robertson also won their doubles match.

The Santa Monica College women’s tennis team will play this afternoon at Ventura and next Tuesday at Glendale College.

The UCLA men’s and women’s track teams will play host to Azusa Pacific and Cal State Northridge on Saturday at Drake Stadium. In field events, the women will start at 11:30 a.m. and the men at 1:15. The first women’s running event is at 1:30 p.m. and the first men’s race at 2 p.m. The hammer throw will be held at 10 a.m. at West Los Angeles College.

Bruin shot-putters Brian Blutreich and Tracie Millett will compete in the NCAA indoor championships this weekend in Indianapolis.

Last week the UCLA men won a triangular meet with 110 points to 41 for Cal State Los Angeles and 30 for Cal State Poly San Luis Obispo. Blutreich qualified for the NCAA outdoor meet with a 60-10 in the shot put and a 192-10 in the discus, and John Knight qualified with a 212-8 in the hammer.

The Santa Monica College men’s and women’s track teams will compete in a Western State Conference quadrangular with Bakersfield, Oxnard and Santa Barbara City at 2 p.m. Friday at Santa Barbara City College.

The top-ranked UCLA women’s softball team (25-4) will play host to Hawaii in a double-header on Wednesday.

Last week the Bruins won the Spuds McKenzie tournament in Las Vegas. In seven games, UCLA freshman Lisa Fernandez, a pitcher-third baseman, had 10 hits and scored seven runs. She also pitched a no-hit game and a one-hitter.

The Santa Monica College men’s swim team (3-0 overall, 2-0 in the WSC) and the Corsair women (2-1, 1-1) will compete at 2:30 p.m. Friday at Bakersfield College.

Against Cuesta last week the SMC men, who haven’t been beaten in a conference dual meet in five years, won, 53-40, and the Corsair women lost, 68-59.

Double winners for the Corsair men were Chris Hall in the 100-yard and 200 freestyles, Greg Behar in the 200 backstroke and the 200 individual medley and Lorin Chaffin in the 1,000 freestyle and the 200 butterfly. For the Corsair women, Cecilia Henricksen took firsts in the 50 and 100 butterflys and the 200 individual medley, Lisa Battig won the 100 IM and the 100 breast-stroke, and Jeanie Chick was first in the 200 and 500 freestyles. Chick’s twin, Julie, came in second to her in both races.

The No. 8 UCLA women’s golf team finished sixth at 951 in the San Jose State Invitational. Arizona State won with 933. UCLA’s Jean Zedlitz was 11th among individuals with 232.

The No. 18 UCLA men’s golf team, which finished fourth with 866 in the John A. Burns tournament in Hawaii, will play today through Saturday in the Golf Digest Invitational in Houston. Oklahoma State won with 839. Bruin Ken Tanigawa tied for 10th place among individuals with a two-under par 214.

The men’s golf team representing Santa Monica and West Los Angeles colleges finished second with 391 to first-place Saddleback (387) and Cypress (408) in a three-way competition last week. Mike Perryman led the local team with a 74.

Pepperdine’s Shannon Frowiss and Loyola Marymount’s Kristen Bruich were named to the All-West Coast Conference basketball team. Honorable mention went to Dionne Burgess, Kristy Greenberg and Sherri Murrell of Pepperdine and Loyola’s Lynn Flanagan and Tricia Gibson.