SPORTSCOPE : Bruin, Wave Tennis Teams to Compete in Kentucky

The top-ranked UCLA men’s tennis team (6-1) and No. 7 Pepperdine (3-0 as the week began) will compete in the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Assn.’s national indoor championships, which start today and end Sunday in Louisville, Ky. The tournament features the top 18 teams in the national rankings.

Pepperdine will meet No. 12 Mississippi State in today’s first round. UCLA, which has a first-round bye, will play the winner of a match between South Carolina, tied for No. 14 with California, and Tennessee, tied for No. 16 with North Carolina, in the second round.

The Bruin men began Pacific 10 Conference play last week and beat Arizona State and Arizona by 6-0 scores.

Pepperdine’s matches last week with UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara were postponed because of rain.

The No. 4 UCLA women (7-0) will play host to UC Santa Barbara at 1:30 p.m. Friday and to No. 3 Texas at 1 p.m. Saturday. Last week, the Bruins opened Pac-10 play with road victories over Arizona State and Arizona by 5-4 scores.

The No. 11 Pepperdine women (4-2 at the start of the week) had matches last week at California and Stanford postponed because of rain. The Waves will play host to Texas at 12:30 p.m. Sunday.

The No. 2 Pepperdine men’s volleyball team (13-0 overall, 5-0 in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn.) will play host to No. 13 UC Santa Barbara (3-7, 1-2) at 5:30 tonight and to No. 3 Stanford (8-1, 6-0) at 7 p.m. Sunday. The Waves will play at No. 7 USC (5-3, 3-2) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Waves, leading the WIVA’s DeGroot Division, and the Cardinal, in first place in the Wilson Division, will be playing Sunday in the annual Mizuno Cup match. Pepperdine is the only team to defeat Stanford this season.

Pepperdine leaders are Tom Sorenson with 248 kills, Alon Grinberg with 75 digs and Ian Clark with 64 blocks.

The No. 4 UCLA men’s volleyball team (5-3, 3-2 in the WIVA) will play host to No. 6 Cal State Northridge (5-5, 0-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday and to No. 13 UC Santa Barbara (3-7, 1-2) at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Pauley Pavilion.

Last week Dan Landry had 11 kills as the Bruins defeated UC Irvine in three games, and Mike Diehl had 14 kills and six digs as UCLA beat California in three.

The top-ranked UCLA women’s softball team (8-0) will compete today through Saturday in the San Diego State tournament.

The Bruins went 6-0 in last week’s University of Arizona tournament, but the championship bracket was canceled because of rain.

UCLA leaders in the tournament were Yvonne Gutierrez, Kathy Evans and Lisa Fernandez. Gutierrez batted .588 with 11 runs batted in and two home runs. Evans batted .500 and stole two bases. Fernandez batted .467 and was 2-0 as a pitcher with 13 strikeouts and one earned run.

The No. 4 Pepperdine baseball team (5-1 as the week began) will play host to Northwestern in a two-game series at 1 p.m. Saturday and at noon Sunday. The Waves will play at Cal State Long Beach at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Pepperdine had to reschedule three games because of rain last week. Chris Sheff leads the Waves with a .381 batting average and has three home runs, three doubles and seven RBIs.

Five players from last season’s West Los Angeles College football team have signed letters of intent with four-year schools. Players and schools: offensive lineman Ronald Lewis and running back Kevin Hicks, Washington State; tight end Ray Penniman, Oregon State; defensive lineman Chris Moore, Southern Illinois, and defensive back Steve McKinnon, Appalachian State.

The UCLA men’s gymnastics team, which finished second at last week’s UC Berkeley invitational, will compete Friday night in the Southwest Cup at Tempe, Ariz. The Bruin women, idle this week, defeated Cal State Fullerton, 190.6-189.5, last week.

At Cal, the Bruins, led by Jason Garman and Scott Keswick, scored a season-high 275.7 to first-place Stanford’s 283.55. Garman was third in the all-around with a career-best 55.4 and tied for second on the high bar with a season-high 9.7.

Against Fullerton, Amy Thorne and Kareema Marrow tied for third in the all-around, each with 38.1. Marrow was first in floor exercise, tying her career-best mark of 9.9, and Paula Rasmussen was first on the beam with a season-high 9.8.

The No. 8 UCLA women’s golf team will open its spring schedule on Monday and Tuesday at the University of Arizona tournament.

The Pepperdine women’s swim team (8-5) will compete today through Saturday in the Pacific Collegiate Swimming Conference Championships at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

The UCLA women’s basketball team (14-7, 7-4 in the Pac-10) will play host to USC (14-7, 7-4 at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Last week, the Bruins beat Cal, 101-87, but lost to Stanford, 92-69. Rehema Stephens scored 29 points against Stanford and 38 against the Bears and now has 1,759 career points, second on the school’s all-time scoring list to Denise Curry, who had 3,198.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team (13-10, 5-5 in the West Coast Conference) will play at 5:15 p.m. Saturday at Loyola Marymount (6-17, 0-10).

Last week the Waves won at the University of San Diego, 70-58, but lost at Santa Clara, 84-69. Pepperdine, in fifth place in the conference, is trying to finish fourth or better in the league standings to earn a berth in the WCC’s first women’s basketball tournament. The tournament winner advances to the NCAA championships.

The UCLA women’s and men’s track teams will open the season Saturday at the Cal State Long Beach Invitational.