UCI women nab title

The UC Irvine women’s swimming and diving team claimed the crown,

while the Anteater men’s team finished third at the Big West

Conference championships, completed Saturday at Belmont Plaza in Long

Beach.

The women’s title is the program’s first Big West crown.

Sophomore Aubrie Smallwood won the 200-yard breaststroke with a

time of 2 minutes, 17.45 seconds, just ahead of teammate Lara

Bjargardottir (2:17.79).

Junior Franny Brittle defended her title in the women’s one-meter

diving competition with a conference-record 489.65 points.

Sophomore Dan Simonsen, who won the 100 breaststroke Friday and

the the 200 breaststroke in 2:00.42 Saturday.

Junior Anton Slobounov won the men’s three-meter diving

competition for the third straight year.

Lions on the brink

* BASKETBALL: Kelly Schmidt had a game-high 22 points to lead four

Vanguard University women’s basketball players in double figures as

the host Lions clinched at least a share of their third straight

Golden State Athletic Conference crown with a 79-55 victory over Hope

International Saturday.

The Lions (26-3, 17-2 in the GSAC), ranked No. 2 in the NAIA, can

win the conference title outright with a victory against host Azusa

Pacific in the final regular-season game. Azusa defeated the Lions,

81-80, on a last-second shot in the teams’ first game this season.

Golden State

Athletic Conference

Vanguard 79,

Hope International 55

Hope -- Hernandez 2, Nault 11, Ngo 4, Wulff 6, Doolittle 4,

Bradley 12, Cummins 3, Collins 0, Dilworth 9, Maguire 4.

3-pt. goals -- Ngo 1, Bradley 2, Cummins 1.

Fouled out -- Doolittle.

Vanguard -- Jacobson 13, Schmidt 22, Burns 5, Faulkner 11, Mills

10, Dittenbir 0, Besse 8, Rinke 6, Cook 4.

3-pt. goals -- Mills 3, Faulkner 3, Burns 1.

Pirates reach finals

* TENNIS: Four singles players and two doubles duos from the

Orange Coast College women’s tennis team reached the finals of their

respective flights after victories Saturday in the Southwestern

tournament in Chula Vista, Calif.

Coast’s Michelle Esquivel defeated Mara Petrini from Cerritos,

6-1, 6-1, while teammate Jessica Rice downed Riverside’s Karissa

Lentz, 6-0, 6-1. Julie Haley, a 6-1, 6-0 victor over Mt. San

Jacinto’s Jessica Thomas, and Rachael Sessum, who tallied a 6-0, 6-0

triumph over Imperial Valley’s Katie He, rounded out Coast semifinal

winners.

In other semifinal singles matches Saturday, OCC’s Emily Paulson

and Takamori were eliminated.

Paulson and Sessum lost to a Riverside duo, 6-3, 7-6 (6-4).

Vanguard splits pair

* BASEBALL: The Vanguard University baseball team split a

doubleheader with Golden State Athletic Conference host California

Baptist Saturday.

The Lions rebounded from a 4-3 opening-game loss to take the

second game, 5-2. Following Friday’s 8-7 victory at Vanguard, the

Lions are 2-1 against Cal Baptist in two days.

Vanguard took a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning when Nik Crouch hit

a two-run home run and Andrew Riddle scored on a wild pitch. It was

Crouch’s sixth homer of the season.

The Lancers battled back with two runs in the bottom of the eighth

for the win.

Matt Voorhies and Todd Merz both walked with the bases loaded to

give Vanguard a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning of the second game.

Lancer pitchers gave up six walks in the second game, five coming in

the fourth inning.

After Cal Baptist evened the score, the Lions regained the lead in

the fifth when Crouch doubled home Isaac Salazar.

Vanguard got two insurance runs in the seventh when Travis

Westerfeld hit a bases-loaded single into left field.

Crouch finished the doubleheader 3 for 8 at the plate with three

RBIs.

Golden State

Athletic Conference

Game 1

Cal Baptist 4,

Vanguard 3

Score by Innings

*--*

VU 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 - 3 5 1

CB 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 x - 4 11 0

*--*

Merz, Brown (8) and Westerfeld; Stout, Johnson (8) and Hendris. W

-- Johnson, 1-0. L -- Merz, 1-2. 2B -- Swain (CB), Wright (CB),

Ronquillo (CB). HR -- Crouch (VU).

Game 2

Vanguard 5, Cal Baptist 2

Score by Innings

*--*

VU 0 0 0 2 1 0 2 - 5 5 0

CB 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 - 2 4 0

*--*

Erickson, Frano (7) and Westerfeld; Serrato and Walters. W --

Erkson, 1-1. L -- Serrato, 2-2. Sv -- Franco (1). 2B -- Salazar (VU),

Crouch (VU), Hendricks (CB), Goins (CU).

Lions no-hit in split

* SOFTBALL: Kristen Schmidt of Concordia University (Minn.) struck

out eight and walked two while no-hitting the host Vanguard softball

team in a 1-0 nonconference victory, helping the visitors split a

doubleheader Saturday.

The Lions (2-6) tallied 13 hits in a 7-1 win in the first game.

Ashley Mauro, Lauren Manriquez, Heather Durham, and Melissa Benson

each had two hits.

Mauro doubled in Benson and Bomgren in the Lions’ five-run fourth

inning. Noelle Navarette and Durham added RBI singles in the inning.

Starter Jennifer Olvera struck out five, walked two and allowed

two hits in five scoreless innings to notch the win.

Concordia is now 5-4.

Nonconference

Game 1

Vanguard 7, Concordia 1,

Score by Innings

*--*

Con 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 1 4 3

VU 0 0 1 5 1 0 0 - 7 13 0

*--*

Paitich, Turba (4) and Linell; Olvera, Willis (6), Emmel (7) and

Benson. W -- Olvera. L -- Paitich, 1-3. 2B -- Schwietz (C), Durham

(VU).

Game 2

Concordia 1, Vanguard 0

Score by Innings

*--*

Con 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 3 0

VU 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 0 2

*--*

Schmidt and Linell; Keltner, Rynda (5) and Benson. W -- Schmidt,

4-1. L -- Rynda, 0-3. HR -- Linell (C).

OCC downed twice

* BASEBALL: The Orange Coast College baseball team lost both games

of a nonconference doubleheader Saturday at Cuesta College.

Cuesta won the first game, 3-1, and took a 10-5 second-game triumph to drop OCC to 6-6.

OCC’s Stephen Schneider, Josh Banda and Gary Gattis homered in the

second game.

Nonconference

Game 1

Cuesta 3, Orange Coast 1

Score by Innings

*--*

OCC 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 3 1

CC 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 x - 3 6 0

*--*

Cooper, Brown (7) Rizor (8) and Schmidt; Mendoza and Gentry. W --

Mendoza, 2-0. L -- Cooper, 3-1. 2B -- Finazzo (C).

Game 2

Cuesta 10, Orange Coast 5

Score by Innings

*--*

OCC 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 - 5 11 3

CC 1 0 6 0 2 0 0 1 x - 10 12 2

*--*

Gagne, Johns (3), Hogue (6), Busby (7), Peterson (7) and Banda;

Chapman, Lee (8), Hunter (8) and Cavaletto. W- Chapman, 2-0. L --

Gagne, 1-2. 2B -- Cavaletto (C), Jasper (OCC), Brown (OCC). HR --

Schneider (OCC), Gross (C), Gallo (C), Banda (OCC), Gattis (OCC).

Bench keys VU win

* BASKETBALL: The Vanguard University men’s basketball team built

an eight-point lead in the first half and held on to beat visiting

Hope International, 71-63, in a Golden State Athletic Conference game

Saturday.

The Lions (10-18, 5-14 in the conference) were led by Garrett

Strocsher’s season-high 14 points. Vanguard’s bench outscored Hope’s,

39-7, to help keep the Lions’ faint playoff chance alive.

BYU sweeps ‘Eaters

* VOLLEYBALL: The UC Irvine men’s volleyball team lost its

third-straight match Saturday after No. 7-ranked BYU swept the

‘Eaters, 30-28, 30-24, 30-26, in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation

match in Provo.

Jayson Jablonsky had a match-high 17 kills for UCI (6-11, 4-8 in

the MPSF).

Georgia sweeps UCI

* TENNIS: The UC Irvine men’s tennis team lost, 7-0, to No.

8-ranked Georgia Saturday in a nonconference match at the Dan Magill

Tennis Complex in Athens.

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