SPORTSCOPE : Pepperdine Baseball Team Opens Season at Home Against Westmont

The Pepperdine baseball team, ranked No. 15 by Collegiate Baseball and No. 20 by Baseball America, will open its season by playing host to Westmont at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at Eddy D. Field Stadium.

Coach Andy Lopez’s Waves were 37-23 last year but failed to advance to the NCAA playoffs for the first time since 1984.

Returning veterans include starting pitchers Steve Duda and Steve Montgomery, relief pitcher Derek Wallace, shortstop Eric Ekdahl, first baseman Dan Melendez, second baseman Steve Rodriguez, center fielder Chris Sheff and catcher Scott Vollmer.

Newcomers include pitchers Pat Ahearne and Jerry Aschoff, relief pitcher Sky Lasowitz, infielder Damon Lambi, designated hitter David Main and outfielders Jorge Paz, Ben Simonton and Jason Thompson.

Five former UCLA athletes will be inducted into the university’s Baseball Hall of Fame on Saturday following a 2 p.m. game between this year’s team and alumni in professional baseball.

The program will also include a noon game between alumni teams and a home-run hitting contest.

Those to be inducted are Don Slaught of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jim Auten, Gary Sanserino, Earl Altshuler and Rick Ganulin. Slaught, an academic All-American, hit a school-record .428. Auten, an All-American, saw his school season record of 29 home runs tied last year by Paul Ellis. Sanserino, a third-team All-American, led the Bruins one year with a .354 batting average. Altshuler’s .362 average for a season is the third-highest in Bruin history. Ganulin once hit .352.

The No. 2-ranked UCLA men’s volleyball team will play host to No. 3 Cal State Long Beach in the 14th annual Kilgour Cup at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the John Wooden Center.

Last week the Bruins defeated an alumni team in three games. UCLA, which outblocked the alumni, 44-12, was led by setter Mike Sealy, who had eight blocks and hit .666, and swing hitter Carl Henkel, who had eight kills.

The cup match is a benefit for former UCLA All-American Kirk Kilgour, a quadriplegic since 1976.

The No. 5 Pepperdine men’s volleyball team, 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the DeGroot Division of the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. as the week began, will play host to San Diego State at 7 p.m. Saturday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

The Waves also will entertain Loyola Marymount at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Last week Pepperdine opened conference play with a three-game sweep at UC Irvine. Dijon Douphner and Tom Sorenson each had 16 kills for the Waves, and teammate Duane Cameron added 13.

The UCLA women’s basketball team, 8-7 overall and 2-2 in the Pacific 10 Conference, will play host to Oregon State (10-5, 2-3) at 7 p.m. Friday and to Oregon (7-8, 0-5) at 2 p.m. Sunday at the John Wooden Center.

Bruin guard Rehema Stephens is averaging 27.8 points and 7.9 rebounds and has scored 1,000 points in her two seasons at UCLA, 12th on the school’s career scoring list. UCLA center Natalie Williams, an All-American in volleyball, is averaging 13.5 points and 10.3 rebounds in the six games she has played since the end of the volleyball season.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team, 9-9 overall and 2-2 in the West Coast Conference, will play Friday night at the University of San Francisco (10-8, 2-2) and Saturday night at St. Mary’s (13-5, 2-2).

Last week the Waves defeated Loyola Marymount twice, 88-69 at Firestone Fieldhouse and 79-77 at Loyola’s Gersten Pavilion. In the second game, Pepperdine guard Trina Runge scored the winning basket on a layup with 14 seconds to play. In the two games, forward Shannon Frowiss scored 47 points, took 25 rebounds, shot 70.4% from the field and made 81.8% of her free throws.

The No. 2 UCLA men’s tennis team (1-0) will play host to Cal State Long Beach at 1:30 p.m. Friday and to the University of San Diego at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on campus.

In last week’s first Pac-10 indoor tournament, UCLA’s David Nainkin and teammate Bill Barber won their singles flights. In the team’s first outing, the Bruins routed Nevada Las Vegas, 9-0.

The No. 3 UCLA women (1-0) will play host to Fresno State at 1:30 p.m. Friday and to UNLV at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center on campus. Last week, the Bruins opened the season by defeating Utah, 5-4.

The No. 11-ranked Pepperdine women’s tennis team (2-0 at the start of the week) will play host to Cal State Northridge at 2 p.m. Friday and will play at Loyola Marymount at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. The No. 16 Wave men will play host to Cal State Long Beach at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The Wave men opened the season last week with a 9-0 victory over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the defending NCAA Division II champion. The Pepperdine women last week beat No. 20 Utah, 6-3.

The UCLA men’s gymnastics team opened the season last week by beating San Jose State, 272.25 to 257.35, and the Bruin women (2-1) presented first-year Coach Valorie Kondos with her first two victories in a triangular meet against Arizona and Cal State Fullerton.

Scott Keswick took first place in the all-around with a 55.95 for the Bruin men and also finished first with a 9.8 in the still rings and a 9.7 in the parallel bars. UCLA All-American Brad Hayashi placed first with a 9.6 in floor exercise and a 9.8 in the vault.

Scoring for the triangular was: UCLA 187.05; Arizona, 184.5 and Fullerton 182.4. UCLA was led by All-American Carol Ulrich, who was third in the all-around with a 37.5, first in the beam with a 9.6 and second in floor exercise with a 9.65.

The No. 4 UCLA women’s swim team (5-0 overall, 2-0 in the Pac-10) will play host to Pepperdine (5-2) at noon Saturday at the men’s gymnasium pool.

Last week the Bruins defeated UC Santa Barbara, 187-104, and Pepperdine beat San Jose State, 183-75.

Bruin team leaders have been Sheri Smith and Christy Richardson. Against San Jose State, Wave double winners were Jill Keenan in the 200-meter breast-stroke in 2:36.76 and the 200 individual medley in 2:23.69, Kristina Lewis in the 100 freestyle in 56.37 and the 200 free in 2:01.63, Jennifer Phipps in the 50 free in 25.52 and the 100 butterfly in 1:05.01 and Kirstin Sutter in the 500 free in 5:30.88 and the 100 backstroke in 1:05.41.

The No. 10 UCLA men’s swim team (2-3, 0-2 in the Pac-10) will compete Friday and Saturday at the Dallas Morning News Invitational in Dallas.