SPORTSCOPE : Bruin, Pepperdine Women to Play in NCAA Tourney

The UCLA women’s tennis team (21-6) is seeded fourth and Pepperdine (14-11) is No. 11 in the NCAA women’s championships at Gainesville, Fla.

Both teams will play opening matches today. The Bruins will face the winner of Wednesday’s match between No. 15 South Carolina (17-5 as the week began) and No. 20 William and Mary (13-9). Pepperdine will meet No. 8 Arizona State (20-9).

Defending NCAA champion Stanford is the top seed, followed by No. 2 Florida, host team for the tournament, and No. 3 California. The team final will be played Sunday, and individual play in singles and doubles will begin Monday.

Pepperdine sophomore Noelle Porter, an All-American last year, will see her first action of the season in the NCAA team competition. She did not play in a dual match this season because of a shoulder injury. Wave Coach Gilberto Escudero said that Porter has been practicing for two weeks and “has looked awfully good.”

The second-ranked UCLA men’s tennis team (25-3) and No. 5 Pepperdine (24-5) are expected to receive bids to the NCAA championships when pairings and seedings are announced Friday.

The Bruins, who won their second Pacific 10 Conference championship in a row, finished the regular season with six straight victories, including last week’s 5-3 win over Pepperdine and Sunday’s 6-3 defeat of UC Irvine. Pepperdine’s other match last week was a 7-2 win over Chapman.

The NCAAs will begin May 18 with team play. Individual competition will start May 23 at the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort in Indian Wells.

Most of the performers from the UCLA men’s and women’s track teams will compete Saturday at the Occidental College Invitational in Eagle Rock. Some Bruins may be at the Oregon Twilight Meet in Eugene.

The UCLA men are 5-0 in dual meets this season. The Bruin women are 7-0.

At last week’s Cal State Northridge Invitational, UCLA junior Steve Lewis, sidelined for five weeks with a hamstring pull, won a 400-meter race in 47.65. Lewis is defending Pac-10 champion in the 400.

Bruins who stood out at last week’s S & W Invitational at Modesto included senior Mark Dani, sophomore Steve Slocum and freshman Mark Wilson. Dani finished second in the invitational two mile in a personal-best 8:50.14, Slocum was sixth in the invitational pole vault in a personal-best 17-0- 3/4, and Wilson was third in the open high jump at 7-0- 1/4, tying his best mark of the season.

Pepperdine’s baseball team (32-20 overall and 20-10 in the West Coast Conference) will attempt to make up lost ground on league-leading Loyola Marymount (41-13, 24-7) this weekend in a three-game series at the University of San Diego (22-31, 15-17). There will be a single game at 2 p.m. Friday and a double-header at noon Saturday.

The second-place Waves lost two of three road games last week to the conference’s last-place team, the University of San Francisco (14-39, 7-27) and fell 3 1/2 games behind first-place Loyola. The Lions last week swept three from Santa Clara (24-27, 15-18).

Pepperdine will play host to Loyola in a three-game series that starts May 18 and ends conference play for both teams.

Junior right fielder Jalal Leach and senior shortstop Chris Martin continue to be Pepperdine’s top hitters. Leach is batting a team-high .379. Martin, hitting .360, leads the Waves with 60 runs, 58 runs batted in, 13 home runs, a .667 slugging average and 28 stolen bases.

The UCLA men’s and women’s crews are both idle this weekend. Both are preparing for next weekend’s Pacific Coast championships at Lake Natoma near Sacramento.

At last Sunday’s Newport Regatta, the UCLA men took first place in two races and second in a third. The varsity won its second straight Newport championship, the freshman boat won its race, and the junior varsity finished second behind Orange Coast College.

The fifth annual NutraSweet celebrity golf and tennis tournament, a benefit for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, will be held Monday at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades.