Top Gymnasts Set for UCLA/Times Invitational Saturday

Five of the nation’s top-10 college men’s gymnastics teams will be featured in the annual UCLA/Los Angeles Times Invitational at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Pauley Pavilion.

The field includes No. 2 UCLA, No. 3 Minnesota, No. 4 Illinois, No. 5 Nebraska, No. 7 Arizona State and New Mexico.

UCLA has won the last six of its invitationals. The Bruins, Arizona State and Nebraska have accounted for eight of the last nine NCAA team championships. Nebraska, defending NCAA champion, has won five titles since 1980, UCLA two and Arizona State one.

Top individuals in the meet include UCLA’s David St. Pierre, David Zeddies of Illinois, Nebraska’s Patrick Kirksey and Arizona State’s Licurgo Diaz Sandi and Jody Newman.

UCLA also will take part Friday night in the UC Santa Barbara Invitational.

UCLA gymnast Tanya Service, who has made a habit of setting records, turned in another last week as the No. 3 Bruins ran their record to 7-0 with a 189.8 to 187.15 defeat of No. 11 Nebraska. Service set a John Wooden Center record in floor exercise with a 9.8 in the victory, UCLA’s 23rd consecutive dual-meet win in the last three seasons.

Ranked first in the state, the Santa Monica College men’s basketball team (25-3 overall, 10-0 in the Western State Conference Southern Division) will try to win its 14th straight game when it plays host to Los Angeles Valley (17-10, 7-3) at 7 p.m. Saturday at SMC.

A game between the No. 8 SMC women’s team (18-6, 6-2) and No. 15 Valley will precede the men’s game at 5. The Corsair women are coming off a 62-60 defeat of Moorpark and a 61-60 loss to Oxnard. The SMC record for consecutive victories in men’s basketball is 14, set by the 1982 and 1988 teams. Last week the Corsair men defeated Moorpark, 62-49, and Oxnard, 83-76. Earlier, SMC defeated Valley, 75-60.

The UCLA women’s basketball team (9-10 overall, 5-4 in the Pacific 10 Conference) will play host to USC (7-12, 3-6) at 7 p.m. Friday at Pauley Pavilion.

The Bruins will be trying to snap a three-game losing streak. Last week they lost to Washington, 79-68; to Oregon State, 81-58, and to Oregon, 75-65. Freshman center Molly Tideback leads the Bruins with an average of 12.7 points a game, and junior forward Sandra Van Embricqs is averaging 12.5 points and a team-high 7 rebounds.

Free tickets to the USC game, compliments of AT & T, are being distributed to nonprofit organizations and groups for disadvantaged youth. Call (213) 206-6744.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team (8-14 overall, 3-5 in the West Coast Athletic Conference) will play host to St. Mary’s (14-8, 7-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday and to the University of San Diego (7-11, 3-5) at 7:30 Saturday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

Last week the Waves defeated San Diego, 75-68, and lost to St. Mary’s 77-63. Senior forward April Marion leads Pepperdine with averages of 14.4 points and 7.8 rebounds.

The No. 17 Pepperdine baseball team, which opened the season with a 9-1 defeat of Westmont, will play host to Cal Poly Pomona at 2:30 p.m. Friday, play at U.S. International at 1 p.m. Saturday and at Cal Poly Pomona at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday and entertain Cal Lutheran at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. Pepperdine’s two games with USC last week were postponed because of rain.

The No. 3 UCLA men’s volleyball team (9-1 overall, 3-0 in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn.) will play at UC Santa Barbara (9-4, 4-1) at 7:30 Friday. Earlier, the Bruins defeated the Gauchos in four games.

Last week UCLA beat USC in three games. UCLA was led by All-American Trevor Schirman, who had 17 kills and 7 blocks, and by Carl Henkel and Mike Whitcomb, who each had 15 kills.

The No. 4 Pepperdine men’s volleyball team (5-4, 1-2 in the WIVA) will play host to San Diego State (4-2, 2-0) at 7:30 tonight at Firestone Fieldhouse.

The Waves snapped a two-match losing streak Monday with a three-game victory over UC Irvine. Last week Pepperdine lost to UCLA in three games and to Cal State Long Beach in a five-game match that lasted three hours. Sophomore outside hitter Geoff Hart leads the Waves with 82 kills and a .391 hitting average.

The UCLA men’s swim team (8-0 overall, 2-0 in the Pac-10) will compete at California (7-1, 2-1) Friday afternoon and at Stanford (5-1, 2-0) Saturday afternoon.

The Bruins are led by four swimmers who were in last year’s Olympics: juniors Mark Dean and Rodrigo Gonzalez, senior Craig Oppel and sophomore Darren Ward.

The No. 9 UCLA women’s swim team (8-1, 3-1 in the Pac-10) will compete at USC (7-5, 0-1) at noon Saturday. Bruins who have qualified for the NCAA meet are Sheri Smith in the 500-yard freestyle and the 400 medley relay team of Sue Portrepka, Jean Badding, Kristin Stoudt and Jenny Susser.

The No. 3 UCLA women’s tennis team (2-0) will entertain UC Irvine at 1:30 p.m. Monday at the Sunset Canyon courts. The match was rained out last week.

The No. 12 Pepperdine men’s tennis team (0-2 as the week began) will play host to U.S. International at 1:30 p.m. Monday.

Grant Saacks of the men’s team and Carrie Crisell, Ginger Helgeson and Janna Kovacevich of the No. 9 women (4-2) will represent the Waves at Rolex National Indoor Intercollegiate championships today through Sunday at Minneapolis.

The men have lost matches to No. 5 Irvine and Arizona, both by 5-4 scores. In last week’s Arizona invitational, the women lost to UC Santa Barbara, 5-4, and defeated Washington, 8-1, and Mississippi State, 9-0.

The top-ranked UCLA women’s softball team (2-0 at the start of the week) will compete Friday through Sunday at the San Diego State tournament.

Last week the Bruins opened the season by taking a double-header from St. Mary’s, 10-0 and 8-0. Winning pitchers were junior Lisa Longaker, who had 12 strikeouts in the first game, and freshman Tiffany Boyd, who threw a one-hit game and struck out 14. Sophomore Shanna Flynn had a triple and three other hits in the first game, scoring four times and batting in three runs. In the second game, sophomore Missy Phillips went 3-for-4 at the plate, including two triples, and had two RBIs.