Sunday syllabus: the week that was and the week ahead

UCLA’s hopes for its 101st national championship were dashed on Saturday and there was bad news on the baseball diamond as well. But spring football has started and the two no. 1-ranked women’s teams just keep winning. Here's the full report on all the Bruin teams:

Baseball:

>> Last week: No. 23 UCLA started the week well with a 6-2 over San Diego State on Tuesday (Garrett Claypool was the winning pitcher, 1-0) in the first game of a 13-game homestand at Jackie Robinson Stadium. But the Bruins lost both of the first two games of its weekend series with USC, 6-1 on Friday night (Tim Murphy had 10 strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings, but took the loss and is 2-2), and 7-4 on Saturday (Charles Brewer, 3-4, too the loss.

>> This week: The Bruins are now13-12 on the season and 2-3 in the Pac-10. They finish the series with USC today at Jackie Robinson Stadium at 1 p.m. UCLA will play UC Irvine on Tuesday at 6 p.m. and then has a three-game series with UC Riverside over the weekend, all at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Football:

>> Last week: The Bruins started spring practice on Thursday and two juniors, linebacker Reggie Carter and cornerback Alterraun Verner were selected for the Lott Trophy Watch List.

>> This week: Spring ball continues with afternoon practices on Monday and Tuesday, both starting at 3:55 p.m., a day off on Wednesday and sessions on Thursday (3:55 p.m.) and Saturday (11 a.m.). All sessions will be held on Spaulding Field and are open to the public.

Rowing:

>> Last week: UCLA is ranked 13th in the nation and won both varsity four races and was second to Virginia in both eight-oared races in the Pac-10 Challenge on March 29-30. Yesterday at the San Diego Classic, the Bruin varsity eight boats finished second in separate races to Stanford and Washington and the open eight boat won its race.

>> This week: Competition continues at the San Diego Classic today and then the Bruins are off until the Stanford Invitational on April 19-20.

Softball:

>> Last week: Top-ranked UCLA continued its winning ways with three victories at Easton Stadium: 7-6 in eight innings over Washington last Tuesday (Anjelica Selden won, now 16-2), then sophomore Megan Langenfeld (5-0) pitched 3 2/3 innings of relief to help the Bruins score a 3-1 win over no. 7 Stanford Friday and freshman Donna Kerr (13-1) picked up the win in UCLA’s 2-1 victory over no. 21 California on Saturday.

>> This week: UCLA is now 34-3 overall and 6-0 in Pac-10 play and will face Cal once more today at noon to conclude a seven-game homestand. The Bruins head to the desert to face Arizona State in Tempe on Friday and then have back-to-back games with Arizona in Tucson on Saturday and Sunday.

Men’s Basketball:

>> Last week: The Bruins’ hopes for a 12th national championship ended in the national semifinals in a 78-63 loss to Memphis in San Antonio. UCLA finished 35-4, winning the most games in school history, but fell short of its goal. The 2004 recruiting class that included Jordan Farmar, Arron Afflalo, Josh Shipp and Lorenzo Mata-Real (Farmar and Afflalo left early, but Shipp and Mata-Real were on this year's team) had a four-year legacy that included three Final Fours, three Pac-10 regular-season titles, two Pac-10 Tournament titles, three consecutive seasons of winning 30 or more games and an overall record of 115-28 (.804).

Men’s Golf:

>> Last week: The third-ranked Bruins led the Administaff Augusta State Invitational in Evans, Georgia by two shots after the first round on Friday, but heavy rains cancelled the second round and the tournament will be completed on Sunday as 36-hole event. Junior Lucas Lee was leading the field at -3 after Friday’s round.

>> This week: This Blue Team (second squad) will be in Scottsdale, Arizona for Wyoming Cowboy Classic on Monday and Tuesday.

Men’s Tennis:

>> Last week: The no. 4-ranked Bruins had a good weekend, disposing of no. 31 California, 6-1, on Friday and no. 25 Stanford, 6-1, both at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. It was the 11th straight win for UCLA since losing its only match of the season to no. 1 Virginia.

>> This week: The Bruins are now 17-1 on the season and 4-0 in Pac-10 play, with four dual matches left before the Pac-10 Championships. Next weekend, UCLA travels to Arizona on Friday and no. 22 Arizona State on Saturday.

Men’s Track & Field:

>> Last week: UCLA is ranked seventh in the nation and the throwing corps had a strong showing at the Texas Relays in Austin. Boldizsar Kocsor won the hammer throw against a good field on Thursday and discus thrower Greg Garza and shot putter John Caufield finished second in their events.

>> This week: The Bruin team will compete in the Rafer Johnson-Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational at Drake Stadium from Thursday-Saturday.

Men’s Volleyball:

>> Last week: No. 7 UCLA defeated 14th-ranked UC Santa Barbara in four games on Wednesday, but fell to second-ranked Cal State Northridge on Friday evening on Senior Night in Pauley Pavilion in straight sets. All-American libero Tony Ker was honored before the game, but the Bruins could not win a set from the Matadors and fell to fifth place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings.

>> This week: UCLA is now 16-12 on the season and 11-9 in the MPSF. It will complete its regular-season play with matches at Stanford on Friday and Pacific on Saturday. The Bruins are 1-0 against both teams this season, winning in Pauley Pavilion in January.

Women’s Basketball:

>> Last week: Senior Lindsay Pluimer was selected to participate in the WNBA’s Pre-Draft Camp in Tampa this weekend in advance of the WNBA Draft on Wednesday.

Women’s Golf:

>> Last week: The Bruins ranked no. 1 in the country, but are playing in the PING/Arizona State Invitational without freshman star Maria Jose Uribe, who is playing as an amateur in the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Through two of the three rounds, the Bruins are in sixth place, 15 strokes behind tournament leader USC.

>> This week: UCLA finishes up in Tempe tomorrow and then has a week off prior to the Pac-10 Championships in Palos Verdes on April 21-23.

Women’s Gymnastics:

>> Last week: Bruin gymnasts Ariana Berlin, Anna Li, Jordan Schwikert and Tasha Schwikert were named to the Pac-10 All-Conference team. Berlin, Li and Jordan Schwikert received first-team honors in the all-around, while Tasha Schwikert was named to the first team on vault and uneven bars.

>> This week: Ninth-ranked UCLA will compete in the Southeast Regional in Gainesville, Florida on April 12. Third-ranked Florida is the top seed in the regional and UCLA will also compete against Nebraska, North Carolina State, West Virginia and North Carolina. The top two finishers in the regional will advance to the NCAA Championships in Athens, Georgia from April 24-26.

Women’s Tennis:

>> Last week: No. 9 UCLA split a weekend series with higher-ranked opponents, upsetting no. 6 California in Berkeley, 4-3, thanks to freshman Andrea Remynse’s three-set win (including a second-set tiebreaker) over Cal’s Claire Ilcinkas. Yesterday, the Bruins lost to fifth-ranked Stanford, 5-2, in Palo Alto for their first loss in Pac-10 play this season.

>> This week: The Bruins are now 15-5 overall and 4-1 in conference and have three dual matches left in the season, all at home. UCLA will face Arizona on Friday at 1:30 p.m. and Arizona State on Saturday at noon, both at the Los Angeles Tennis Center.

Women’s Track & Field:

>> Last week: A limited team competed at the Texas Relays and Stanford Invitational. Senior Ingrid Kantola had the best performance with a win in the university section of the pole vault on Friday and a fourth-place finish with a season best of 13-5 1/4 in the open pole vault on Saturday.

>> This week: The Rafer Johnson-Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational will be held at Drake Stadium from Thursday through Sunday.

Women’s Water Polo:

>> Last week: No. 1 UCLA continued to mow down its opponents, beating California 10-4 behind three goals from Katie Rulon at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center on Saturday.

>> This week: The Bruins are now 23-0 overall and 9-0 in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play. They’ll take on Pacific today at Sunset Canyon at 1 p.m. and then finish their collegiate dual-match schedule next week with games against San Diego State (1 p.m.) and Sonoma State (3 p.m.) on Saturday, April 12 and Arizona State on Sunday (1 p.m.).

Comments

[Zapper75]

I agree wholeheartedly with BobAZ on yesterday's UCLA Memphis semi final game. and while I do think that it was obvious that Memphis had longer and in a few cases more athletic players, UCLA had the talent to have made yesterday's contest a much closer more competitive game.

#1 He needed to do what Billy Packer was suggesting and use a bigger lineup something he did for about a minute of the 2nd half then took it out to put an overwhelmed Darrin Collison back in. I disagree swith TJ Timers who places much of the blame on the players, because playing against much bigger players had them tired and exhausted by the middle of the 2nd half.
#2 Also Coach Howland needs to adapt his offensive schemes to include more fast break and NBA style offenses(much like Memphis employs), and he certainly has the athletes to do that this year.
Coach Howland deserves high praise for his defensive strategy and half court offensive strategies, He's a class act and the best thing to happen to UCLA basketball since John Wooden left in '75. He's recruited some amazing talent and future NBA stars like Farmar, Afflalo, Love & Westbrook to UCLA. Its obvious though he is still missing an important piece to the offensive strategy. If he doesn't adapt, UCLA will be relegated to peaking in the Final 4 without the ability to win a national championship under the current strategy. UCLA deserves another NCAA basketball championship banner hanging up in John & Nell Wooden Court, one final tribute to the man who built greatest basketball program in NCAA history