UCLA Softball Team Will Depend on Fernandez’s Arm Even More

The UCLA women’s softball team, which has been at the pinnacle of the sport for more than a decade, heads into the NCAA tournament this week slightly off-balance.

The top-ranked Bruins (44-3), seeking their eighth NCAA championship in 12 years, will be without Heather Compton, a senior pitcher.

Compton (13-2), the team’s second-best pitcher behind Lisa Fernandez (27-1), was kicked off the team after she squabbled with co-coach Sue Enquist when Enquist pulled Compton from a game at California on May 1.

Compton complained about being pulled with the bases loaded and none out while the Bruins had a two-run lead during the first inning. Compton said that she tossed Enquist the ball “probably too hard” and was told during a team meeting after the game that she was being dismissed from the team.

“She did not have the ability to accept her role on the team, and it finally came down to irreconcilable differences and we asked her to turn in her uniform,” Enquist said.

Compton acknowledged that more than one incident was involved.

“I just don’t really get along with our head coach (Sharron Backus),” Compton said. “She has never liked me since I got here.”

In softball, in which pitching dominates, the Bruins’ Compton, Fernandez and DeDe Weiman have led UCLA to two NCAA championships in the past three seasons.

When coaches announced at the beginning of the season that Weiman would sit out as a redshirt, it didn’t seem to be too much of a problem.

After all, Fernandez is a two-time Honda Award winner as the best player in the sport, and Compton was a 1991 first team all-American selection.

But Compton began the season with a loss in UCLA’s home opener against Cal State Northridge. The personality conflict apparently escalated from there.

“She had a blatant disrespect for her teammates, the coaches and this university, so that it got to the point where we had to remove her from the team,” Enquist said.

Compton denies that she was disrespectful.

“(The coaches) said I was vulgar, but all I can say is that those who know me know the real person I am, and if they want to say those kinds of things, that’s fine with me.

“I have a little more class than to sit here and bad-mouth them. I’m going on with life, and I wish them all the luck in the world. The only bad thing I have to say is that it was bad timing and it was handled in the wrong way.”

UCLA coaches will not ask Weiman to forsake her redshirt year to play in the NCAA tournament under any circumstances, Enquist said.

That means it all comes down to Fernandez. Her backup will be Jennifer Brundage (4-0), a sophomore with an 0.30 earned-run average in 23 innings.

Fernandez, who holds the NCAA record of 42 consecutive victories, has an 0.26 ERA and 273 strikeouts in 187 1/3 innings. This, despite the NCAA’s recent introduction of a new ball that was designed to help batters.

What’s more, Fernandez is hitting a team-leading .507 (69 for 136). She also leads the team in runs batted in (43), doubles (11) and home runs (10).

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The first NCAA West Region women’s golf tournament at the Randolph North Golf Course at Tucson this weekend held a pleasant surprise for Cathy Bright, USC coach.

The Trojans, ranked 14th nationally, placed ahead of four teams ranked in the top 11. USC took second place behind Arizona State to qualify for the NCAA championships May 25-29 at the University of Georgia Golf Course.

Bright said that her team was underrated. “It’s not as if we won things, but I knew we were improving because the people we were beating were good,” Bright said. “I’m very pleasantly surprised, but I’m not shocked.”

The Trojans were led by Jill McGill and Heidi Voorhees, who each shot 212 and finished tied for third place.

Seventh-ranked UCLA got in a traffic accident en route to the second round Friday, but no one was hurt and the team played well enough to stay in the thick of the race. The Bruins placed sixth, also qualifying for the NCAA tournament.

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What began as a happy homecoming for 15-year veteran Pepperdine men’s tennis coach Allen Fox, who returned after taking a leave of absence in 1992, ended in disappointment.

Pepperdine was ranked No. 4 in the preseason, but Howard Joffe, an NCAA semifinalist in 1992, sat out the last six weeks of the regular season because of a back injury, and Ashley Naumann turned professional last month.

Florida defeated Pepperdine, 5-2, Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Athens, Ga. The loss was one thing, but Naumann’s departure left Fox especially bitter.

“It’s one of the discouraging things about tennis to have somebody do that,” Fox said. “A guy takes a scholarship and then, to not fulfill your commitment for a couple thousand dollars is pretty weak. The guys on the team would like to string him up from the nearest lamppost.”

Notes

The Pacific 10 Conference track and field championships will be held at California’s Edwards Stadium May 21-22. . . . The NCAA West Regional men’s golf championship will be held at the Riverside Country Club at Provo, Utah, beginning Wednesday. The 18 teams competing in the tournament include 14th-ranked UCLA, 29th-ranked Pepperdine and 30th-ranked USC. The top nine teams and two individuals will advance to the NCAA championships June 2-5 at The Champions in Lexington, Ky.

Sue Enquist was one of eight inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday at the James West Alumni Center. She is the fifth woman to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, which has 91 members. The other women (along with the years they were inducted) are: Ann Meyers (1988), Karen Moe-Thornton (1989), Evelyn Ashford (1990) and Terry Condon (1992).