UCLA Bids to Return Shot By Rival USC

The USC-UCLA rivalry will resume yet again this week--this time on the hard courts.

The No. 2 Bruin men’s tennis team will look to even the score with No. 10 USC when they play today at UCLA. The Trojans upset UCLA on Feb. 13, 4-3.

“It’s maybe one of the closest rivalries between any of our programs,” UCLA freshman Jean-Noel Grinda said. “We have had two of the best tennis programs in the U.S. for some time. The competition has always been even and it’s a 50-50 match every time we play.”

Court No. 1 again will feature European-born players, USC junior George Bastl and Grinda. Bastl beat Grinda in their first collegiate meeting, 6-2, 6-2, but their ties go back four years.

“I knew George in juniors when we traveled [in Europe] together,” Grinda said. “We played in the same events and played against one another a few times. Playing against him will always be special.”

Bastl, from Villars, Switzerland, made a name for himself in last year’s NCAA tournament, reaching the final in singles and doubles.

Grinda, a freshman from Nice, France, has had an immediate impact at UCLA, compiling a 21-6 record. He is ranked 12th in singles in the Intercollegiate Tennis Assn., and he and doubles partner Matt Breen are ranked 34th. Bastl, with a 16-9 record, is No. 23 in singles.

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With a second-place finish at the Pacific 10 Conference swimming and diving championships in Long Beach, the USC women put themselves in position for a second consecutive national title.

Going in, only four USC swimmers had qualified for the NCAA finals in Minneapolis on March 19-21, thanks to times they had swum earlier in the season.

Saturday, in their final chances, seven others qualified.

Coach Mark Schubert, who sent 12 swimmers to last year’s NCAA meet--a school can have as many as 18 qualifiers--figured he needed nearly a full complement this year after the loss of some key seniors from last year’s team.

But the Trojans will send 11, making a repeat difficult.

“I thought it was a challenging weekend,” Schubert said. “I thought we swam well . . . but we’re going to have to improve a lot on our relays.”

USC surprised many last season by winning the national title and will be the underdog again this year.

All eyes will be on Stanford. The Cardinal, winner of all 12 Pac-10 titles since women’s swimming became a conference sport in 1987, is the favorite.

Stanford beat USC by 190 points in the Pac-10 meet.

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After setting two Pacific Collegiate Swimming Conference records, the Pepperdine women’s swimming and diving team ended its season with a third-place finish at the conference meet.

The Waves got a strong performance from freshman Andreea Trufasu, the conference swimmer of the year. Trufasu won the 50- and 100-meter freestyles and placed second in the 200 freestyle.

Trufasu, Cathy Corone, Adrienne Leonard, and Kathleen McWhorter set conference records in the 400-freestyle relay. Trufasu’s split of 51.65 seconds in the lead leg set an individual mark for the 100 freestyle, and the team’s winning time of 3:30.21 was also a conference low.

Even so, no Pepperdine swimmer qualified for the NCAA meet.

University Beat Notes

The UCLA and Pepperdine men’s volleyball teams remain tops in the nation for the fourth consecutive week. No. 2 Pepperdine has won its last seven matches, three on the road against Pacific, Stanford and UC Santa Barbara. The top-ranked Bruins are undefeated at 15-0. USC (6-9) pulled its biggest upset of the year with a victory over No. 7 Stanford last Saturday.

The UCLA women’s water polo team suffered its first loss of the season. In the championship game of the UC Santa Barbara tournament, California beat UCLA, 9-8, in sudden death. The Bruins (9-1) remain the top-ranked team in the nation, however. USC defeated San Diego State for fifth place, 10-5, and Long Beach State beat Loyola Marymount in the 11th-place game, 10-5.

UCLA will host its first track meet of the season against UC Santa Barbara, Long Beach State and Cal State Los Angeles on Saturday. Seven teams will compete at the Trojan Invitational at USC on Sunday. Joining USC will be California, Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine, San Diego State, Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State Bakersfield.