SPORTSCOPE : UCLA Women’s Softball Team Plays UC Santa Barbara to Open Season

The UCLA women’s softball team, three-time defending NCAA champion, will open the season by playing host to UC Santa Barbara in a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Sunset Canyon diamond on campus.

Bruin Coach Sharron Backus returns 12 letter winners, including All-Americans Yvonne Gutierrez and Lisa Fernandez. Gutierrez, a junior outfielder, led the Pacific 10 Conference with a .384 batting average, had a .486 slugging average and 90 total bases. Fernandez, a sophomore utility player and pitcher, hit .310 and led the Bruins with an earned-run average of 0.25.

In her 16th year at UCLA, Backus has a career record of 547-120-3. Her teams have won six of the past eight NCAA titles and finished 62-7 last year.

The fifth-ranked UCLA women’s swim team (6-0 overall, 2-0 in Pac-10 play) will compete Friday at No. 3 California (6-0, 2-0) and Saturday at No. 2 Stanford (4-0, 2-0).

Last week the Bruins defeated Pepperdine, 188-74. UCLA was led by senior Sheri Smith, who won three events. Smith took the 100-meter butterfly in 56.38, the 200 butterfly in 2:02.45 and the 100 freestyle in 52.48.

Double winners for UCLA were junior diver Lisa Fosdick, who took the one- and three-meter events, and senior Melissa Skinner, who won the 200 freestyle in 1:55.21 and the 200 individual medley in 2:09.59.

The 10th-ranked UCLA men’s swim team (2-3, 0-2) is idle this week. Last week they placed fifth with 255 points at the Dallas Morning News Invitational. Top-ranked Texas won the meet with 322 points. Junior diver Chris Dudka won the one- and three-meter events.

The UCLA women’s basketball team (10-7 overall, 5-2 in Pac-10 play) will play Friday night at Washington (13-3, 5-2) and Sunday afternoon at Washington State (11-5, 4-3).

UCLA sophomore center Natalie Williams was named Pac-10 player of the week for her performances in victories over Oregon State and Oregon. In the two games, she had 35 points and 20 rebounds.

Also an All-American volleyball player, Williams, led the Bruins to the 1990 NCAA title in that sport and was named the conference volleyball player of the week three times last year. She is the first athlete in conference history to win the honor in two sports.

Bruin junior guard Rehema Stephens continues to lead the Pac-10 with an average of 27.4 points.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team (9-11 overall, 2-4 in West Coast Conference play) will play host to St. Mary’s (15-5, 4-2) at 5 p.m. Friday and to the University of San Francisco (12-8, 4-2) at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Last week the Waves lost at USF, 71-58, and were beaten at St. Mary’s, 78-62. Junior forward Shannon Frowiss leads Pepperdine with averages of 17.3 points and 8.4 rebounds and with 60% accuracy on field goals. Wave freshman guard Aimee McDaniel is averaging 13.9 points and a team-high 4.1 assists.

The West Los Angeles College men’s basketball team (10-14 overall, 3-6 in Western State Conference play as the week began) will play at Bakersfield at 7 p.m. Saturday and play host to Los Angeles Valley at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Culver City’s Veterans Memorial Auditorium.

Booker Waugh is averaging 23.2 points for WLAC and teammate Keith London is averaging 15.7 points and 11.7 rebounds.

The second-ranked UCLA men’s tennis team and the third-ranked Bruin women, each 3-0 at the start of the week, play at home this week.

The men will play host to Washington at 1:30 p.m. today, to UC Santa Barbara at 1:30 p.m. Friday and to San Diego State at 1:30 p.m. Monday at UCLA’s Los Angeles Tennis Center. The women will entertain UC Irvine at 2 p.m. today at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center.

Last week the Bruin men and women each won two matches by 9-0 scores. The men swept Cal State Long Beach and the University of San Diego, and the women beat Fresno State and Nevada Las Vegas. For the Bruin men, David Nainkin, a freshman from South Africa, is 10-1 in singles.

The 11th-ranked Pepperdine women’s tennis team (4-0 as the week began) will play two matches in Las Vegas this weekend. The Waves will meet Nevada Las Ve gas on Friday afternoon and Nebraska on Saturday morning. Pepperdine will play host to UC Irvine at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. The 16th-ranked Pepperdine men (1-0 at the start of the week) will play host to New Mexico at 1:30 p.m. Friday and to No. 17 Arizona at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

In last week’s Adidas Invitational, Wave sophomore Alejo Mancisidor lost in the singles final to Byron Black of USC, 6-4, 6-4, and the Wave freshman doubles team of Cary Lothringer and Ari Nathan lost in the final to USC’s David Ekerot and Donnie Isaak, 7-6, 6-3.

The Pepperdine women defeated Cal State Northridge, 7-2, and UC Santa Barbara, 8-1, last week.

The UCLA women’s and men’s gymnastics teams will hold a combined meet at 7 p.m. Saturday at the John Wooden Center. The women (5-1) will play host to UC Santa Barbara and Minnesota and the men (2-0) to UCSB.

In last week’s University of Washington tournament, the Bruin women finished first with a score of 187.95. They were followed by Washington (184.15), Seattle Pacific (182.10) and Minnesota (179.35). Bruin sophomore Rhonda Faehn won the all-around with a 38.40, and teammate Natalie Britton, a senior, was third at 37.55.

The UCLA men defeated Cal State Fullerton last week, 273.3-261.8. The Bruins were led by sophomore Brad Hayashi and juniors Scott Keswick and Chainey Umphrey. Hayashi won the all-around with a 54.90, was second in floor exercise at 9.6 and third on the pommel horse at 9.15. Keswick was first in floor exercise at 9.7 and on the parallel bars at 9.8. Umphrey took first on rings at 9.7 and second on the parallel bars at 9.3.