SPORTSCOPE : UCLA Track Teams to Battle USC and BYU in Last Home Meet

The UCLA women’s and men’s track teams will play host to USC and Brigham Young in the Bruins’ last home meet of the season on Saturday at Drake Stadium. Field events will start at 11:30 a.m. and races at 1:30 p.m. The hammer throw will begin at 10 a.m. at West Los Angeles College.

The Bruins had several winners in invitational events at last week’s UC Irvine meet. They included freshman Joe Bailey in the shot put with a season-best 58 feet, 3 1/4 inches, junior Steve Slocum in the pole vault with a personal-best mark of 17- 3/4, freshman Dawn Dumble in the shot put at 51-7 3/4 and the discus at 168-8 and senior Janeene Vickers in the 400-meter run with a season-best 52.62 seconds.

Eleven Santa Monica College male athletes have qualified for the Southern California community college track preliminary meet on Saturday at Bakersfield College.

They include shot-putter Lewis Capes, high jumper William Bowling and the 4 x 100 meter relay team of Mark Ricks, Anthony Jefferson, Terry Sigler and Mike Ewell.

Others were Jefferson in the 100, Dido Tshimanga in the 400, Jason Reiley in the 800 and the 1,600 relay team of Avim Jones, Tshimanga, Edwand Dixon and Napoleon Banks.

The Southern California finals will be held May 11 at Bakersfield College and the state championships May 17-18 at Sacramento City College.

The top-ranked UCLA women’s softball team (48-3 overall, 14-2 in Pacific 10 Conference play) will try to win its fourth consecutive conference title in Arizona this weekend.

The Bruins will meet second-place Arizona State (42-15, 14-4) in a double-header Saturday at Tempe and play Arizona (49-14, 10-8) in a double-header Sunday at Tucson. UCLA needs to win one of the four games to clinch the Pac-10 title.

Last week UCLA won a double-header at home against California, each game by 1-0. Earlier, Cal had swept a double-header from UCLA at Berkeley, accounting for the Bruins’ only conference losses.

Lisa Fernandez pitched a three-hitter for her 18th victory in the opener against the Bears, and Heather Compton recorded her 15th shutout and 16th victory in the second game. In the second game, UCLA catcher Erica Ziencina broke her right ankle when a Cal runner collided with her at home plate. Ziencina had surgery on the ankle last week.

UCLA outfielder Yvonne Gutierrez is ninth in the nation in batting with a .425 average and tied for 11th in home runs with seven.

The No. 4 Pepperdine baseball team (34-8-1 overall, 20-5 in West Coast Conference play at the start of the week) will play host to Santa Clara (29-20, 16-13) in a four-game series this weekend. There will be a game at 2:30 p.m. Friday, a double-header at noon Saturday and a game at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The Waves will play host to Cal State Long Beach at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

Last week Pepperdine beat UC Santa Barbara, 10-2, and won two of three games against the visiting University of San Francisco. In a 7-5 victory over USF, Pepperdine shortstop Eric Ekdahl broke his right thumb while sliding into second base. He may be employed as a pinch-hitter or runner in the meantime, but he is not expected to be able to play in the field until May 10.

The Pepperdine pitching staff was leading the nation with an earned-run average of 2.71 at week’s end. Second baseman Steve Rodriguez, batting a team-high .432, had his 22-game hitting streak snapped on Sunday against USF.

The No. 3 UCLA women’s golf team won its second Pac-10 title in a row last week, and Bruin freshman Lisa Kiggens won the conference tournament. The Bruins shot 894, beating second-place Arizona by 22 strokes, and Kiggens shot 217 for 54 holes.

Bruins named to the all-conference first team were Kiggens, Debbi Koyama and LaRee Sugg. UCLA’s Elizabeth Bowman made the second team.

The UCLA men’s golf team will compete in the Pac-10 championships Friday through Sunday at Stanford.

The Pepperdine men’s golf team won its third West Coast Conference championship in the past five years. The Waves shot 882 at Portland, defeating second-place USF by 15 strokes.

In individual standings, USF’s Todd Fischer won with a 54-hole total of 216. Pepperdine’s Brad Payne was second with 219 and teammates Todd Andrews and John Geiberger tied for third at 220.

The third annual Santa Monica College Invitational Golf Tournament, which raises funds for the school football program, will be played May 20 at the Knollwood Country Club in Granada Hills. Information: (213) 452-9310 or (213) 452-9311 from 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays.

At the 92nd annual Ojai Valley tournament, the UCLA women’s tennis team won the championship, Bruins’ Stella Sampras and Kimberly Po won the Pac-10 doubles championship and the UCLA men finished second to Stanford.

The women’s invitational doubles winners were UCLA’s Jenny Hilt and Veena Prabhakar of UC Berkeley. UCLA’s Bill Barber won the men’s invitational singles.

The UCLA women will compete in the NCAA championships at Stanford from Wednesday through May 16. The UCLA men will play host to UC Irvine in their last regular-season match at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on campus.

The Santa Monica College men’s tennis team won the Western State Conference championship last week, defeating Glendale, 9-1. The Corsairs finished the season 17-1 overall and 15-1 in conference play.

Jean-Bernard Keen, the Corsairs’ No. 1 singles player, was undefeated in dual matches this season. Other SMC players included Kiarash Salek, Antonio Robertson, Noel Nedli, Drake Jantzen, Jon Faller, Jose Sola and Andrea Genovese.

The Santa Monica College women’s tennis team finished the regular season by beating Glendale, 6-3. The Corsairs were 12-4 overall and finished third in the Western State Conference at 10-4.