USC’s Peterson Wins ITA Tennis Title

Third-seeded Jewel Peterson of USC, who is ranked 26th in the nation, defeated Michelle Gough of Arizona, 6-4, 6-3, to win the singles title at the ITA Southern California Women’s Tennis Championships Monday at UC Irvine.

Pepperdine’s Ipek Senoglu and Paolo Palencia won the doubles title with an 8-4 victory over Arizona’s Lindsay Blau and Michelle Gough. Senoglu and Palencia are the top-ranked doubles team in the country.

The singles finalists and doubles champions from the regional earn spots in the 2001 Rolex National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships, the third leg of the ITA Grand Slam, Feb. 1-4 at Brookhaven Country Club in Dallas.

* Drew Hoskins, a former Times’ Orange County selection from Los Alamitos High, has signed with Texas. Hoskins, who is attending St. Stephen’s Academy in Austin, picked Texas over Pepperdine and USC.

BASEBALL

Villa Park pitcher Dan Reid has signed with UCLA, Spartan baseball Coach Tom Tereschuk said.

The left-hander was 9-0 with a 1.31 earned-run average and 72 strikeouts in 64 innings last season.

* Pitcher Chris George and outfielder Adam Rachlin have signed to play at Kansas, a spokesman at Cypress College said.

George was injured most of last season and Rachlin sat out the baseball season after playing for the Charger basketball team.

BASKETBALL

Irvine Valley men’s basketball player Mike Ahmad, perhaps the most sought-after community college player in the county, has signed to play at Utah State. A 6-foot-9 sophomore, Ahmad averaged 12.5 points and seven rebounds, making 56.8% of his field-goal attempts last season. He is formerly from Glendora High.

* Foothill’s Kristen Mann signed a letter of intent to play women’s basketball at UC Santa Barbara. Mann, a 6-2 forward/guard, averaged 19.9 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists last season.

Mann, twice a Times’ Orange County first-team selection, shot 54.6% from the field and led the Knights into the Southern Section Division II-AA semifinals. Mann chose UCSB over Pepperdine.