SPORTSCOPE : Bruin Gymnasts Compete in Invitational Saturday

The Paul Mitchell/UCLA Gymnastics Invitational, a benefit for charity sponsored by The Times, will be at 7 p.m. Saturday at Pauley Pavilion.

The meet features 10 of the nation’s top 25 men’s and women’s teams, including several of America’s best individual performers.

The women’s teams include No. 9 UCLA, No. 18 Washington, No. 21 New Mexico and No. 23 Cal State Fullerton. Among the men’s squads are No. 4 Minnesota, No. 11 New Mexico, No. 13 Arizona State, No. 14 UCLA, No. 16 Illinois and No. 21 UC Santa Barbara. The Minnesota and Santa Barbara women’s teams also will compete.

Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for youths 15 and younger. Information: (310) UCLA-101.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team (14-10 overall, 6-5 in the West Coast Conference) will attempt to qualify for the first WCC women’s tournament when it plays host to Portland (13-12, 9-3) at 5:15 p.m. Friday and to Gonzaga (7-18, 4-8) at 5:15 p.m. Saturday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

The Waves are tied for fourth place in the WCC with St. Mary’s and are seeking to finish fourth and earn the final berth in the tournament. The tournament winner will earn a berth to the NCAA playoffs.

Pepperdine is coming off a 79-35 victory over Loyola Marymount. Barbara Tanner led the Waves with 20 points and Aimee McDaniel added 16.

The UCLA women’s basketball team (14-8, 7-5 in the Pacific 10 Conference) will play tonight at Washington State (11-11, 4-9) and Saturday night at Washington (15-8, 7-6).

The Bruins are coming off a 73-71 loss to USC. At Pauley Pavilion earlier this season, UCLA beat Washington State, 80-75, and snapped an 11-game losing streak to Washington by routing the Huskies, 91-60.

The top-ranked UCLA women’s softball team (16-0) will play a doubleheader at No. 13 Cal State Long Beach (9-6) at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Bruins have defeated the 49ers three times this season.

UCLA won the San Diego State tournament last week. Bruins Yvonne Gutierrez, Lisa Fernandez, Joanne Alchin and Kathi Evans were named to the all-tournament team.

Gutierrez leads UCLA with a .511 batting average, 22 runs batted in, six doubles, four home runs, 10 walks and four stolen bases. Fernandez leads the team with seven pitching victories, 59 strikeouts, a 0.14 earned-run average, five shutouts and three triples and is second with a .438 batting average.

The No. 6 Pepperdine baseball team (8-3 as the week began) will open West Coast Conference play with a three-game series this weekend at the University of San Francisco (2-9).

The teams will play a game on Friday and doubleheader on Saturday.

Last week the Waves beat Cal State Dominguez Hills, 7-6, and swept a doubleheader from Northwestern, 19-8 and 8-5.

Matt Nuez is batting a team-high .371 and Chris Sheff is batting .361 and leads the Waves with four home runs and 12 RBIs.

The No. 2 Pepperdine men’s volleyball team (14-1, 6-1 in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. at the start of the week) will play Friday night at Hawaii (6-6, 4-2).

Last week, No. 3 Stanford broke the Waves’ 14-match winning streak by defeating Pepperdine in five games. Tom Sorenson led the Waves with 45 kills.

The No. 5 UCLA men’s volleyball team (5-4, 3-3 in the WIVA) will play at UC Santa Barbara (4-8, 2-3) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

On Wednesday at 8 p.m., UCLA will play host to No. 6 USC (6-4, 4-2). At halftime, the jersey of former Bruin All-American Sinjin Smith will be retired.

Last week, the Bruins lost in four games to Cal State Northridge. Dan Landry led UCLA with 20 kills and seven digs and Jeff Nygaard added 15 kills.

The UCLA and USC men’s swim teams will hold an invitational today through Saturday at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach. Top-ranked Stanford and California are expected to send swimmers to the meet, which gives competitors their final opportunity to qualify for the NCAA meet.

Eight women and seven men from the UCLA swim teams will attempt to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials that begin Sunday and end March 6 in Indianapolis.

Bruin women are Kristin Stoudt, Becky Shelton, Becky Bruch, Suzi Burt, Kristy Heydanek, Natalie Norberg, Megan Oesting and Mary Petry. UCLA men are Byron Davis, Dan Kutler, Brian Kurza, Scott Hubbard, Eric Schnittger, Dan O’Keefe and Greg Schaffer.

The top-ranked UCLA men’s tennis team (8-2, 2-0 in the Pac-10) will play host to San Jose State at noon Saturday.

Last week the Bruins finished fifth at the Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Assn. indoor team meet.

The No. 4 UCLA women (9-0, 2-0 in the Pac-10) will compete today through Sunday in the ITCA indoor team championships at Madison, Wis. The Bruins will open today against No. 16 Mississippi.