Bruin digest: Baseball coach to remain in Arizona

Arizona baseball coach Andy Lopez apparently
will not be coming to Westwood. Lopez, who was a potential
replacement candidate for long-time baseball coach Gary
Adams once he retires at the end of the season, agreed to
a contract extension last week that will keep him in Tucson through
the end of the 2008 season. “I’ve honored every
contract I’ve ever signed,” the UCLA alumnus told the
Arizona Daily Wildcat. “I signed the contract here with that
intention, and I plan to show good faith and prove it.” Talk
that Lopez might be interested in the UCLA job first began in June
when Adams announced his plans to retire. With the arrival of
athletic director Dan Guerrero “”mdash; a good
friend of Lopez and his former teammate at UCLA “”mdash; Lopez
appeared to be a perfect fit for the Bruins. The third-year Arizona
coach is a member of the UCLA baseball Hall of Fame. He has
previously coached at Florida and Pepperdine, where he won a
national championship in 1992.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Blue Star Magazine
released its list of the top 100 high school seniors, and two UCLA
commits were featured on the list. Six-foot-three forward
Lindsey Pluimer of San Clemente High checked in at
No. 30 on the list while Lauren Pedersen of Brea
High came in at No. 55. Two potential Bruin recruits ““ San
Diego High’s Charde Houston and
Candice Wiggins of La Jolla Country Day ““
both cracked the top 10. Houston was listed at No. 7 and Wiggins at
No. 9.

WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY: The No. 18 UCLA
women’s cross country team finished first in the 6K Stanford
Invitational on Saturday, defeating No. 2 Stanford en route to the
title. UCLA finished the 26-team invitational with 37 points, 19
ahead of second-place Stanford (56). Four UCLA runners placed in
the top 10. Senior Valerie Flores finished third
(21:13), freshman Alison Costello finished fourth
(21:21), sophomore Jenna Timinsky finished seventh
(21:30) and redshirt freshman Ashley Caldwell
finished 10th (21:41).

MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY: UCLA men’s
cross country placed second in the nine-team 4K race at the
Stanford Invitational. Stanford finished first with 15 points,
sweeping the top five finishing positions. UCLA placed two runners
in the top 10, freshman Austin Ramos (sixth,
12:11) and junior Erik Emilsson (seventh,
12:15).

WOMEN’S GOLF: The No. 13 UCLA
women’s golf team finished second in the weekend’s
Mason Rudolph Championship at Vanderbilt. The Bruins held the
tournament lead going into Sunday, but Georgia came from behind to
win by four strokes, finishing with a three-day total of 874.
UCLA’s leading individual finisher was Charlotte
Mayorkas, who finished tied for ninth with a 218.
Hannah Jun finished tied for 12th with a 219.