UCLA Earns Surreal Upset

Of all the things the UCLA women’s gymnastics team has accomplished in recent years, what the Bruins did last week may have been the topper.

UCLA ended perhaps the most impressive winning streak in collegiate sports when it defeated national power Utah, 197.225-196.750, in a nonconference meet Friday at the Hunstman Center in Salt Lake City. The Utes had won 170 consecutive home meets over a 23-year span, an NCAA record in any sport.

Utah had last lost at home in 1979, to Cal State Fullerton and Clarion College. The Bruins posted their victory before 10,834 in a meeting between teams that have combined for 12 NCAA championships.

“No other sport has had a streak like that,” UCLA Coach Valorie Kondos Field said. “When will that ever happen again?”

And, UCLA did it without Kondos Field, who did not make the trip when chronic neck and back pain flared up. Assistant Chris Waller filled in and watched Jamie Dantzscher win the all-around title. Dantzscher won the bars and floor exercise and tied with teammate Jeanette Antolin for the vault title.

“I’m thrilled to death,” Waller said. “When we found out about Valorie not making the trip, I totally saw how the team turned inward, taking on all the roles and doing all the different things that Valorie does for the team. The team was so dependent on each other.”

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It will be a homecoming of sorts for new UC Irvine men’s volleyball Coach John Speraw when the Anteaters play UCLA tonight in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference opener at Pauley Pavilion.

Irvine is off to a great start with five consecutive victories and two tournament titles. UCLA Coach Al Scates is impressed with the Anteaters, who are ranked second in the first American Coaches Volleyball Assn. poll of the season. Speraw played for the Bruins from 1991-95 and served as an assistant coach for the last four years.

“A lot of teams run our offense and defense,” Scates said. “That’s nice but John runs it better than most. They’ve got some experienced players and they’re in midseason form right now.

“John was head-coaching material from the start. He’s done a splendid job.”

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UCLA began the men’s tennis season ranked first in the nation, with defending national champion USC seventh and Pepperdine 18th, according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Assn.

The Bruins, who opened the season Wednesday with a 7-0 victory over Irvine, have all of their top players from last year’s NCAA semifinalist squad. Before the fall season, senior Tobias Clemens was ranked second nationally in singles and the doubles team of Jean-Julien Rojer and Marcin Matkowski was ranked first.

“I’m very excited about our prospects for this season,” UCLA Coach Billy Martin said. “We want to be fighting for a national championship.”

USC has a new coach, Peter Smith, but graduated three key seniors in Andrew Park, Nick Rainey and Ryan Moore. Sophomore Prakash Amritraj -- the NCAA tournament’s most valuable player -- and juniors Daniel Langre and Ruben Torres are back.

Top players from both teams will be competing today through Monday in the third Sherwood Collegiate Cup at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks.

Clemens returns to defend his singles title, along with Amritraj, who won the U.S. Tennis Assn. boys’ 18 Super National Hardcourt Championships title last summer.

Other schools competing in the tournament, which includes a 32-player singles draw and 16-team doubles event, are California, San Diego State and Pepperdine.

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Cal State Bakersfield basketball center Heather Garay scored 36 points and had a school-record 24 rebounds in the Roadrunners’ 82-68 California Collegiate Athletic Assn. victory Saturday over San Francisco State. Garay, a Division II national player of the year candidate, is averaging 24.5 points and 12 rebounds.