Pepperdine Loses Bradley, Former City Player of Year

For the second time in two weeks, the Pepperdine basketball team lost a top recruit, as Kevin Bradley asked the school to release him from his letter of intent.

Bradley, the Division 4-A player of the year at Crenshaw in 1997, said because former Pepperdine coach Lorenzo Romar left for Saint Louis, he will go back to junior college and look to play in a bigger conference in the 2000-01 season. He will play at Compton College next season.

“I was going to go to Pepperdine because of Romar and [assistant Darwin] Cook,” said Bradley, who has been at Irvine Valley College the past two years, using a medical redshirt last season after fracturing his foot. “Since they left, I feel I’m better than Pepperdine.”

Josh Fisher, a recruit from Mercer Island High in Washington, was given his release last week.

Phone calls to Pepperdine Coach Jan van Breda Kolff and Athletic Director John Watson went unanswered.

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The No. 7-ranked UCLA women’s tennis team was upset by No. 26 South Alabama, 5-2, in the second round of the NCAA tournament at the L.A. Tennis Center.

No. 13 USC defeated No. 24 San Diego, 5-1, and No. 8 Pepperdine defeated Louisiana State, 5-1, to advance to next weekend’s NCAA championships at Gainesville, Fla.

The No. 15 USC men’s tennis team lost to regional host Fresno State, 4-1, in the second round.

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After putting together a 55-6 season, the top-ranked UCLA softball team will host an NCAA regional when the tournament begins Thursday, playing Alabama at 12:30.

Big West winner Long Beach State (33-19) will play Oklahoma at Baton Rouge, La. Cal State Fullerton (34-27) will play Tennessee at Seattle, and Cal State Northridge (29-22) will play Missouri in UCLA’s regional.

Chapman won its fourth Division III softball West Regional in five years, defeating St. Thomas of Minnesota, 5-0, at Orange.

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The Loyola Marymount baseball team defeated Santa Clara, 12-3, to win the West Coast Conference West Division title at Page Stadium. The Lions will play Coast Division winner and 11th-ranked Pepperdine Friday and Saturday for the conference crown.

The UCLA baseball team lost to Stanford, 14-4, to drop to 30-29 overall and 13-11 in the Pacific 10. The Bruins must now wait until next Monday, when NCAA pairings are announced, to see if they will receive an at-large bid.