Waves Serving Notice
Pepperdine continues to show that it will be a contender for the NCAA women’s golf championship in May.
The Waves celebrated their move up to ninth in the national rankings with a dominating victory Wednesday in the Wildcat Invitational at Tucson.
Powered by top-10 individual finishes by Carolina Llano, Lindsey Wright, Rachel Kyono and Katherine Hull, the Waves were 14 strokes better than second-place USC. Arizona State was third and Tennessee fourth.
USC senior Mikaela Parmlid was one over par for the 54-hole tournament and finished four shots behind medalist Erica Blasberg of Arizona. Llano was fourth overall with her best performance of the season.
“The most impressive thing about this tournament is that we won in convincing fashion without relying heavily on Katherine and Lindsey to carry a majority of the load,” Pepperdine Coach Laurie Gibbs said.
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Four Pepperdine players had double-figure totals in kills, led by Fred Winters’ 24, as the top-ranked Waves dispatched second-ranked Hawaii, 24-30, 30-28, 30-26, 30-28, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s volleyball match Wednesday in Hawaii. Pepperdine (13-1, 11-0) won its 12th consecutive match.
The victory avenged an NCAA title-game loss to the Warriors last May.
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Occidental won its first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men’s basketball championship in 19 years after defeating Cal Lutheran Monday, 76-63.
Senior Gavin Keohane had 23 points and 10 rebounds as the Tigers (24-2, 14-0) completed their first undefeated conference season. Occidental has won a school-record 16 consecutive games and awaits its first-round NCAA Division III tournament opponent when the pairings are announced Sunday.
La Verne won its first SCIAC women’s title since 1990 Wednesday night, defeating Redlands, 60-59. The Leopards (17-8, 12-2) clinched an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
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Cal State L.A. senior Ronald Johnson became the leading scorer in California Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball history Saturday night when he scored 27 points against Sonoma State. Johnson, who has led the CCAA in scoring the last three years, has 1,924 points and passed the mark of 1,899 set by Roger Middleton of Chapman from 1989-92.... Dustin Miller’s 13-strikeout performance against Nevada was the most by a Cal State Fullerton baseball player since Adam Johnson fanned 17 against Pacific in 2000.
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This Week
BASEBALL
* Texas at Cal State Fullerton, 7 p.m. Saturday -- Augie Garrido’s return to Fullerton highlights the three-day, four-team Kia Baseball Bash tournament at Goodwin Field. Garrido, who won three College World Series in 19 years at Fullerton, won his first with the Longhorns last year. UCLA and No. 21 Tulane are also in the tournament, which begins today.
* LSU at Long Beach State, 6:30 p.m. tonight, 1 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday -- No. 13 LSU visits California for the first time. No. 11 Long Beach is 8-4 against top 25 teams from Arizona State, USC and California.
* USC at Stanford, 6 p.m. tonight, 1 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday -- This series between Pac-10 rivals won’t count toward the conference standings.
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
* Pepperdine at Hawaii, 9 p.m. Wednesday, 9 p.m. Friday -- Hawaii is the defending national champion.
SOFTBALL
* California at Cal State Fullerton, 6 p.m. tonight -- No. 7 Fullerton opens a 10-team, three-day tournament against the defending national champion. No. 5 Washington, No. 18 Oregon State and No. 21 Ohio State are also in the field.
SWIMMING AND DIVING
* Women’s Pacific-10 Conference Championships, at Federal Way, Wash., preliminaries, 11 a.m.; finals, 6 p.m. today and Saturday -- USC divers Blythe Hartley and Nicci Fusaro will defend their conference titles.