No. 1 UCLA Softball Hosts NCAA Regional

After a dominating regular season, the UCLA softball team begins its run at the World Series today, hosting an NCAA regional at Easton Stadium and headlining a busy weekend for Southland universities.

Sporting the Pacific 10 Conference coach, player and pitcher of the year, the top-ranked Bruins (55-6) open the NCAA tournament against Alabama (39-24) at 12:30 p.m.

The Crimson Tide is one of four teams--Cal State Northridge, Missouri and Creighton are the others--in the regional that the Bruins have played this year. UCLA is 7-0 against the region.

“When they line up the pairings, you really hope you have the opportunity to play a team that you’ve already faced,” said Sue Enquist, Pac-10 coach of the year. “I enjoy knowing that I’ve played a team before.”

Stacey Nuvemann leads the nation in home runs (28) and runs batted in (82) and is on pace to set an NCAA record with a 1.059 slugging percentage.

Northridge (29-22), one of four Big West teams in the tournament, plays Missouri (38-19) at 10 a.m.

Big West champion Long Beach State (33-19) faces Oklahoma (38-13) at 2 in Baton Rouge, La. And Big West player of the year Stephenie Little will lead Cal State Fullerton (34-27) against Tennessee (44-25) at Tucson.

In Division III, Chapman (31-8) faces Ithaca (N.Y.) College (29-11) at 5:30 today to open the eight-team NCAA finals at Wisconsin Eau Claire.

Chapman senior Stephanie Carew was selected to the All-American team for the third consecutive season, and sophomore Dawn Lopez was chosen for the first time.

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In women’s tennis, 16 teams begin play today at Gainesville, Fla., with a national champion to be crowned Sunday. Among the teams remaining are Pepperdine (25-4) and USC (20-8). The Waves, led by Angela Lawrence, play South Alabama (16-16) at 11, and the Trojans face Miami (20-9) at 2. USC’s Ditta Huber, ranked No. 5, defeated the No. 1 player in the nation, San Diego’s Zuzana Lesenarova, to lead USC into the third round.

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In baseball, Loyola Marymount hosts Pepperdine in the opener of a best-of-three series for the West Coast Conference title at 3 today. Games 2 and 3 (if necessary) begin at noon Friday.

The Lions (31-25, 18-12 WCC) won the West Division, the No. 10 Waves (42-12, 21-9) won the Coast. Loyola swept the season series, 3-0.

No. 28 Long Beach State (32-21, 19-11 Big West), coming off a sweep of then-No. 1 Cal State Fullerton, hosts No. 1 Miami (39-12) for three games. They meet tonight and Friday at 7, Saturday night at 6.

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Men’s golf begins its postseason today with UCLA, USC, Pepperdine and UC Santa Barbara at the West Regional at Tucson. The top nine teams and the top two individuals not on those teams advance to the NCAA championships June 2-5 at Chaska, Minn.

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The UCLA and USC men’s and women’s track and field teams will compete in the Pac-10 championships Friday and Saturday at Tempe, Ariz., the final tuneup before the NCAA tournament in June.