Tu Loses First Match as Pro Tennis Player

Northridge teen-ager Meilen Tu was disappointed Tuesday in her debut on the Women’s Tennis Assn. tour, losing 6-3, 6-4, to Meredith McGrath in the first round of the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland.

Tu, 16, who turned professional last week, dropped the first five games in the match and said she was intimidated by McGrath, 23, ranked 25th in the world by the WTA.

After winning championships last summer in the U.S. Open junior and the United States Tennis Assn. National Girls’ 18-and-under tournament, Tu signed a contract with International Management Group of San Francisco and entered the Bank of the West Classic ranked 636th in the world.

Colleges

Candy Roberts, the 1994 Pacific 10 Conference champion in the women’s discus at UCLA, has been hired as an assistant track and field coach at Cal State Northridge.

Roberts, 23, replaces John Frazier who resigned in July.

Cal Lutheran defeated Pomona-Pitzer, 15-0, 15-9, 15-9, to clinch its first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference women’s volleyball championship.

Missy Clements moved into second place on Cal State Northridge’s all-time kill list, but the Matadors’ women’s volleyball team lost to Loyola Marymount, 15-13, 16-14, 15-13, in a nonconference match at Loyola.

Clements had 24 kills, giving her 1,269. Kathleen Dixon holds the record of 1,326, set from 1987-90.