COLLEGES / ALAN OTA : Former Bruin Swatik Readies for Beach Tour

Former UCLA volleyball player David Swatik is making his beach tournament debut as a professional this month at Ft. Myers, Fla. It is the first step in his stated full-time commitment to the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals’ tour. Swatik, who left the Bruin team three weeks ago and withdrew from classes at UCLA last week, briefly considered transferring. “I decided not to since I would have had to sit out two years because of the rule on transferring within the Pacific 10,” Swatik said. “I got a call from (Pepperdine Coach) Marv Dunphy but I didn’t call him back.” Swatik, 20, has signed with Bill Berger of P. W. Sports, who handles several successful beach players. The 6-foot-4 Swatik will compete with another P. W. Sports client, John Hanley of Pacific Palisades, the 14th-ranked player from the 1992 AVP tour. The 6-foot-3 Hanley, 31, is a former national team member and a winner of 18 open titles in the past 10 years. He is looking forward to playing with Swatik. “David is a natural,” Hanley said. “He represents a new group of players that stress ball-control skills. His natural instincts will take him a long way in the game. It helps that he’s left-handed. With 99% on the tour being righties, it gives a different look. And he can really hit that ball.” Coach Mike Cook of Mira Costa High in Manhattan Beach, where Swatik was named 1990 Southern Section player of the year after leading the Mustangs to an undefeated season, sees a bright future for his former player. “David can come up with something you’ve never seen before,” Cook said. “It sounds like he’s going to win some money, and soon.” Swatik is to be one of the few volleyball players with the distinction of having earned a AAA beach rating out of high school. Last summer, Swatik enjoyed his most successful beach season. He teamed with Canyon Ceman, a Stanford junior All-American setter and Swatik’s teammate at Mira Costa. Competing as amateur entrants, they finished ninth in the Miller Lite U.S. Championships at Hermosa Beach in August. “It was a really good experience,” Swatik said. “It showed me what I had to do at that level. And I liked being one of the youngest players.” Swatik plans on returning to UCLA in the fall to continue his classes in geography and environmental studies. Before last week’s volleyball match between defending NCAA champion Pepperdine and undefeated UCLA, Bruin Coach Al Scates said the Waves would have to go to their top hitter, senior Tom Sorensen, as many as 90 times if they were to defeat UCLA. He was off by only eight attempts, but the Waves managed to win in four games. Sorensen had a career-high 53 kills, which was two short of the NCAA single-match record of 55, set by Stanford’s Dave Goss last year in a five-game win against the Bruins. Having Sorensen, a two-time All-American, take control of a match was not a surprise to Stanford Coach Ruben Nieves, who watched him accomplish a similar feat in Pepperdine’s sweep of the Cardinal in last year’s NCAA final. “He’s a fantastic spiker from any position on the court,” Nieves said. “He can dominate a game like no other player around.” Cal State Long Beach Coach Ray Ratelle, who coached Sorensen at the 1991 World University Games in Sheffield, England, says the next step for Sorensen is playing for the national team. “He’s got the arm swing,” Ratelle said. “He jumps well. He blocks well. At the collegiate level, he’s as good as there is. It’ll be interesting to see how he progresses. He’s getting better all the time.” Notes The No. 2 UCLA men’s volleyball team (10-1, 7-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) will play host to the annual UCLA/Paul Mitchell Volleyball Classic on Friday and Sunday. On Friday, third-ranked Cal State Northridge (11-3, 6-2) will play USC (4-4, 4-4) at 5:30 p.m. UCLA will play No. 4 Hawaii (12-2, 5-2) at 7:30 p.m. Sunday’s consolation match is at 1:30 p.m., and the championship will begin at 4:30 p.m. Prior to the final, UCLA will retire the jersey of former four-time All-American Karch Kiraly. . . . In UCLA’s win over UC Irvine last week, Bruin junior Tim Kelly tied a school record by hitting .900. Freshman Brian Wells established a single-game school record with four service aces. The No. 1 Pepperdine volleyball team (8-2, 6-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) will play host to Ball State on Saturday at 7 p.m. in a nonconference match and will be at Cal State Northridge on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The UCLA women’s basketball team (11-12, 6-8 in Pacific 10 Conference) plays at Washington State (7-17, 3-12) tonight at 7 p.m. and meets Washington (14-10, 9-6) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. In UCLA’s 66-57 loss to USC last week, freshman guard Michelle Palmisano scored a career-high 20 points. The Pepperdine baseball team opens West Coast Conference play this weekend at Santa Clara for a three-game series. The Waves (7-5) are ranked 21st by Collegiate Baseball. Senior right-hander Steve Duda earned his 34th win last week to become Pepperdine’s all-time winningest pitcher in a 5-1 win over Cal State Los Angeles. The sixth-ranked UCLA women’s gymnastics team will compete at Cal State Fullerton in a quadrangular meet with Southern Utah and Illinois State on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and in a triangular meet at Arizona with Illinois on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. The UCLA women’s softball team will play host to UC Santa Barbara in a doubleheader today at 12:30 p.m. and will play at Cal Poly Pomona on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Bruins (10-1) are ranked No. 1. In UCLA’s 5-0 victory over Utah at the Nevada Las Vegas tournament last week, senior Heather Compton pitched a two-hitter and struck out 13. She has a 58-7 career record.