COLLEGE ROUNDUP : UCI Women Set School Record in 6,000 Relay

The UC Irvine women continued their strong showing at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, finishing third in the 6,000-meter relay while setting a school record.

Providence surprised Villanova in the race, beating the Wildcats by 30 yards in 17 minutes 22.33 seconds. Villanova, losing in a relay at Penn for the first time since 1987, was second in 17:30.10. Irvine, also third in a school-record time in Thursday’s distance medley, ran 17:39.52.

Maria Akraka, Reyna Cervantes, Brigid Stirling and Buffy Rabbitt made up the Irvine relay team.

In Big West Conference softball:

Cal State Fullerton 2-2, Hawaii 0-0--Tiffany Boyd (26-5) pitched a two-hitter in the first game, and Ann Van Dortrecht (14-3) pitched a four-hitter in the second for fourth-ranked Fullerton (44-12-1, 20-7-1).

Jay Tiner and Boyd had runs batted in in the first game, and Melissa Hadfield and K.C. Clark had RBIs in the second game for host Fullerton.

In the Big West men’s tennis tournament at Ojai:

UC Irvine tied for second--Fresno State leads with 36 points, and UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara are tied for second with 30 after the first of three days.

Mike Roberts won in No. 1 singles, 6-2, 6-2, Brent Hansen-Dent won, 6-3, 6-1, Brett Stern won, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, and Charles Wheeler won, 6-3, 6-4.

In the Big West women’s tennis tournament at Ojai:

UC Santa Barbara 5, UC Irvine 3--UC Santa Barbara moved into the final against Pacific with the victory. Stacey Cadigan won, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1, for Irvine’s only singles victory.