Bruin Spikers Aiming to Add 12th Title in NCAA Championships

UCLA Coach Al Scates, whose men’s volleyball teams have won 11 NCAA championships since 1970 but lost out to Pepperdine the last two years, will try to add a 12th title in the NCAA championships Friday and Saturday at Pauley Pavilion. Tickets, good for admission both nights, are $7 for adults and $4 for students with identification.

In Friday’s semifinals, USC (28-10) meets Penn State (26-3) at 5:30 p.m., and UCLA (36-3) goes against Ohio State (13-18) at 7:30. On Saturday, the consolation match starts at 5:30 p.m. and the championship match at 7:30.

Top-ranked UCLA won an automatic berth in the championships by capturing the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. title with an 18-0 record. No. 4 USC, which lost to Pepperdine in the 1985 and 1986 NCAA finals, made it to this year’s semifinals by defeating the Waves in five games in the final of the Western Selection Tournament.

No. 2 Penn State took the Eastern Selection Tournament final with a three-game win over George Mason. No. 11 Ohio State, which finished fourth in last year’s national championships, emerged as the Midwestern titlist after wins over Indiana Fort Wayne and Ball State.

This is Scates’ 25th year as UCLA head coach, and his overall record is 671-91, a winning percentage of .880. He is the only college volleyball coach to have three undefeated seasons (1979, 1982 and ‘84) and to win four consecutive national championships (1981-84).

Rebecca Twigg Whitehead, a silver medalist in cycling in the 1984 Olympics, and six-time U.S. national champion Thurlow Rogers are favored in the women’s and men’s divisions of the Subaru Cycling Invitational on Sunday in Beverly Hills.

Opening ceremonies are at 11:30 a.m. at the start-and-finish line in front of the Rodeo Collection on Rodeo Drive. The women’s race begins at 11:55 and will precede a celebrity pedi-cab contest. The men’s race starts at 2:45. The 75-lap course is along Brighton Way, Beverly Drive and little Santa Monica Boulevard.

The races are presented by the Los Angeles Times and sanctioned by the U.S. Cycling Federation.

From 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., food from Beverly Hills restaurants will be sold at 438 N. Beverly Drive. Proceeds benefit Beverly Hills charities, including the Beverly Hills Education Foundation.

The UCLA men’s tennis team, ranked third nationally, will play host to No. 10 Pepperdine in the final regular-season match for each at 1:30 p.m. today at the on-campus Los Angeles Tennis Center. Admission is $4.

UCLA’s has a 20-6 overall record and Pepperdine is 18-5. Both are coming off big wins last weekend.

At the 88th Ojai Valley Tournament, UCLA captured the Pacific 10 Conference team title, and the Waves won their 15th West Coast Athletic Conference championship at Santa Clara.

The Bruins were paced by the doubles team of Brian Garrow and Patrick Galbraith, who defeated USC’s Luke Jensen and Eric Amend, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, in the final. UCLA finished with 10 points to nine for runners-up USC, Cal and Stanford.

In addition to winning the WCAC team championship, Pepperdine also captured the individual singles and doubles crowns. Andrew Sznaidjer, a top freshman from Toronto, won in singles and teamed with junior All-American Robbie Weiss for the doubles title.

In today’s No. 1 singles match, third-ranked Sznaidjer, 15-2 in dual matches this season, will face UCLA All-American sophomore Dan Nahirny (14-7), who handed the Canadian one of his two losses when the Bruins defeated the Waves, 8-1, in January in Malibu. No. 35 Nahirny won that one, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.

UCLA Coach Glenn Bassett said the 8-1 win was misleading because Pepperdine didn’t have Weiss “in their lineup because of injury. But he’s now back and playing in top form in both singles and doubles. It figures to be a tough match today, with either team capable of winning.”

Pepperdine Coach Allen Fox said today’s match “is very important for both teams. The winner will go to the NCAA Championships (at Athens, Ga., May 15-23) with the positive momentum needed to do well there.”

The UCLA women’s tennis team, 20-5 overall and 7-2 in the Pac-10 as the week began, will play its final regular-season match against USC (14-11 and 3-6) at 2 p.m. Saturday at USC.

At Ojai last week, UCLA tied Stanford for second place in the Pac-10 team competition as California finished first. Bruin senior Jane Thomas won the inaugural conference singles crown for women, defeating Cal’s Alissa Finerman, 7-5, 6-0, in the final. UCLA freshman Wendy Ouwendijk won the invitational singles at Ojai, defeating Eleni Rossides in the final, 6-0, 7-6.

The UCLA women’s and men’s track teams, undefeated in dual meets, will play host to their USC counterparts, also unbeaten, Saturday at Drake Stadium. Women’s field events will start at 11 a.m. and the men’s at 1 p.m. Women’s races will begin at 1:30 and the men’s at 2.

The UCLA women are 5-0, USC 4-0. The Bruin men are 8-0, the Trojans 4-0.

UCLA men and women did well at last week’s Mt. San Antonio College Relays.

The top men’s effort was by the 1,600-meter relay team of juniors Anthony Washington and Kevin Young and sophomores Henry Thomas and Danny Everett, which set a school and meet record of 3:01.09 in its win, the third- fastest college time ever posted. The only better times were by Southern Illinois, which ran a 3:00.78 in 1984, and Baylor, 3:00.84 in 1985.

For the Bruin women, junior Gail Devers, who was named Pac-10 performer of the week, won the 200 in a wind-aided 22.55; senior Polly Plumer turned in an NCAA-qualifying 9:16.7 in the 3,000, and the 4 X 400 relay team also qualified for the NCAAs.

Other NCAA-qualifying performances were by Everett in the 400 in 45.45, senior Steve Kerho in the 110 high hurdles in a wind-aided 13.69, sophomore Mike Marsh with a 20.52 in the 200, Kevin Young with a 50.38 in the 400 intermediate hurdles, senior Jim Gaffield with 13:56 in the 5,000, junior Raymond Young with a wind-aided 13.74 in the 110 highs and sophomore pole vaulter Brandon Richards with a 17-6. Briabn Blutreich set a UCLA record for freshmen with a 189-7 in the discus.

The UCLA women’s crew team is host team for the 12th Invitational Miller Cup Competition at 2 p.m. Saturday at the UCLA boathouse on La Ballona Creek, 14001 Fiji Way, Marina del Rey. Admission is free.

Other crews in races for varsity, lightweight and novice eights and fours are Stanford, Loyola Marymount, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego and the University of San Diego.

Norman P. Miller, UCLA vice chancellor emeritus and donor of the cup, will present it to the winning varsity eight.

At last weekend’s Southern California Collegiate Women’s Championships at Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard, UCLA took firsts in four of the five divisions they entered: varsity eights and fours and lightweight and novice fours.

The No. 4 UCLA women’s softball team, 35-7 overall and 2-2 in the Pac-10 at the start of the week, will complete conference play with double-headers at home today at 1 p.m. against Arizona and Saturday at 1 p.m. against Arizona State at the Sunset Canyon diamond. The Bruins also will play host to Cal Poly Pomona at 1 p.m. Monday.

Last week the Bruins split a double-header with top-ranked Cal State Fullerton, handing Titan pitcher Connie Clark her first loss in 24 games, and swept two from Oregon State. In one of the wins at Oregon State, UCLA freshman Lisa Longaker pitched her second no-hitter of the season.

UCLA’s women gymnasts finished third in last week’s NCAA Championships, but Bruin freshman Kim Hamilton was the individual star.

In a tight finish, Georgia took the team championship with a score of 187.90, Utah finished second with a 187.55 and UCLA third with 187. Hamilton won the individual floor exercise with a 9.80, the highest score ever in that event at an NCAA final.