SportsScope : Bruin Spikers Ease Into National Tourney on a Coin Flip

The UCLA men’s volleyball team, which beat USC last week to tie Stanford for the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. championship, won a coin flip with the Cardinal this week for the WIVA’s automatic berth in the NCAA championship. The national tournament will be played May 5-6 at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion.

Stanford will compete for another berth with three other WIVA teams at Loyola Marymount. Stanford will play USC at 6 tonight and UC Santa Barbara will meet Hawaii at 8. The winners will play for the tourney berth at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. The other NCAA tournament spots are expected to go to Penn State and Ball State.

UCLA finished the season with a 27-5 record and was 17-3 in the WIVA. This will be the 15th appearance by Coach Al Scates and his Bruins in the tournament.

The unbeaten streaks of the UCLA men’s and women’s track teams will be on the line when they play host to USC on Saturday at Drake Stadium. Field events begin at 11:15 a.m. for women and 1:15 p.m. for men. The first women’s running event is at 1:30 and the first men’s race at 2.

The Bruin men (4-0-1 this season) have not lost in 42 consecutive dual meets but were tied once during the streak. UCLA’s women (6-0) have won 15 straight dual meets.

Several Bruins stood out at last week’s Mt. San Antonio College Relays.

Sophomore Eric Bergreen won the university open shot put with a personal best mark of 57-10 1/2, and freshman David Bultman was second at 57-7 1/4. Bultman was fourth in the discus with a personal best of 185-11.

Other personal records were set by juniors Brian Blutreich, a 61-0 in the invitational hammer; Beat Ammann, 8:56.6 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and Victor Santamaria, 29:35.7 in the 10,000. Pete Thompson equaled a personal best of 194-0 in the discus.

Three UCLA women qualified for the NCAA meet: Tonya Sedwick with 5,618 points in the heptathlon, Laura Chapel with a personal best of 4:18.69 in the 1,500 and Nancy Brown with a personal best of 9:22.6 in the 3,000. Glenda Smith ran the 800 in a personal best of 2:09.42.

A winner of 14 of its last 15 games, Pepperdine’s baseball team will play host to the University of San Francisco in a four-game series this weekend at Eddy D. Field Stadium.

The series will open with a single game at 2:30 p.m. Friday, followed by a double-header at noon Saturday and a single game at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The Waves are 31-13-1 overall and in second place at 13-3 in the West Coast Athletic Conference, a game-and-a-half behind Loyola Marymount (31-18, 14-1). USF is 12-24 and 6-8. The Waves will play host to Loyola in a four-game series next weekend.

Pepperdine Coach Andy Lopez said his team must concentrate on the Dons and not look ahead to the series with the Lions.

Lopez is pleased with the way the Waves have been playing. “Everything seems to be clicking for us. . . . We are hitting the ball consistently, making the plays defensively and getting some excellent pitching performances.”

Ranked second nationally, the UCLA women’s softball team (32-3 overall and 12-2 in the Pacific 10 Conference as the week began) will play a non-conference double-header Saturday at U.S. International.

Last week UCLA’s 13-game winning streak came to an end after the Bruins split two games with No. 6 Arizona. UCLA also swept a double-header from No. 14 Arizona State.

Sophomore outfielder Shanna Flynn was six for 12 at the plate in the four games, raising her batting average to a team-high .390.

The Santa Monica College baseball team, which defeated Valley, Moorpark and Glendale last week, is aiming for fifth place in the Western State Conference and the conference’s final playoff spot in two games this week.

The Corsairs (17-21 overall and 8-10 in the WSC) will play at 2 p.m. today at Oxnard and play host to Cuesta at 2 p.m. Saturday at Marine Park.

Ernie Soto leads the Corsairs with a .438 batting average and leads the conference with five home runs. Chico Garcia, batting .340, has hit a school-record six triples this season. Roger Serrafin has knocked in a team-high 20 runs, and Soto and Garcia have 19 RBIs each.

The Santa Monica College men’s and women’s swim teams are favorites in the Western State Conference meet today through Saturday at Pierce College.

Last week the SMC men and women defeated Pierce, and both teams improved to 8-0 overall and 6-0 in the WSC.

The top-ranked UCLA men’s tennis team and the No. 3 UCLA women will compete in the Pacific 10 Conference individual championships today through Sunday at the annual Ojai tournament.

Last week the Bruin men (24-2 overall, 9-1 in the Pac-10) defeated California, 5-4, but their 16-match winning streak was stopped by Stanford, 5-2. UCLA’s women (18-4, 6-3) lost Monday to Cal, 5-4.

Bruin sophomore Jessica Emmons has moved up to third in the nation in singles rankings.

Four Santa Monica College women tennis players will compete in the Ojai tournament. Jane Kwon and Adrienne von Teuber will play singles, and Micelle Flamer and Karen Imber are a doubles team.

The UCLA men’s crew will defend its championship Saturday in the Newport Beach Regatta. College races start at 8 a.m., and the varsity race is at 9:45.

Other crews are Santa Clara, the University of San Diego, UC Irvine, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, UC Santa Barbara and Loyola Marymount.

Last week the Bruin varsity improved its dual-race record to 4-1 with a five-length victory over USC. The UCLA shell was timed in 5:52 and the Trojan eight in 6:06.

A large group of athletes recently signed letters of intent with Pepperdine and UCLA.

Those who signed with the Waves include basketball point guard Damin Lopez of Glendale, Ariz., and volleyball players Tom Sorenson of Racine, Wis.; Duane Cameron of Marina High in Huntington Beach and Greg Shankle of Mira Costa High in Manhattan Beach.

UCLA’s recruits include gymnast Brad Hayashi of University High in Irvine, soccer players Bradley Friedel of Bay Village, Ohio, Joe-Max Moore of Mission Viejo High and Mark Sharp of El Camino College; swimmers Geoffrey Cronin and Greg Schaffer, both of Bellarmine Prep in San Jose, and hurdler Ross Flowers of Seattle.

Other Bruin newcomers include volleyball player Michael Sealy of Santa Monica High, basketball player Nicole Anderson of La Jolla High, gymnast Paula Rasmussen of Eden Prairie, Minn.; golfer Elizabeth Bowman of Bonita Vista High and women’s softball players Lisa Fernandez of Lakewood High, Kristy Howard of Spring Valley and Dede Welman of Gahr High.