Along with the possibility of winning UCLA’s 100th NCAA
title, the remaining spring sports have been showered with a bevy
of accolades. The UCLA baseball team had seven players selected to
the 2006 All-Pac-10, Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen said Wednesday.
This is the most All-Pac-10 selections for UCLA since 2001.
Redshirt junior Hector Ambriz, junior Dave Huff and freshman Ryan
Babineau each made the All-Pac-10 First-Team roster. Redshirt
senior Chris Jensen, redshirt junior Paul Oseguera, and freshmen
Brandon Crawford and Jermaine Curtis were all named All-Pac-10
honorable mentions.
SOFTBALL: The UCLA softball team was nationally
recognized as the No. 1 team in the country with three players
named 2006 All-Americans, it was announced Wednesday. Pac-10 Player
of the Year Andrea Duran and sophomore Anjelica Selden were
first-team All-American selections, while senior Caitlin Benyi
earned second-team honors at second base. This is the first
All-America honor for Duran, the second for Selden and third for
Benyi. Duran also is in the running for perhaps the most
prestigious award for all female athletes. She has been nominated
for the 2006 Honda Sports Award for softball. The other nominees
include Cat Osterman of Texas and Sara Fekete and Monica Abbott of
Tennessee. The winner will be decided by nationwide voting among
NCAA member schools and then become a nominee for the
Honda-Broderick Cup, awarded annually to the nation’s
outstanding collegiate woman athlete of the year. UCLA softball
players have won nine Honda Sports Awards for softball since the
inception of the award in 1976. The list includes Debbie Doom
(1984), Lisa Longaker (1988 and 1990), Janice Parks (1989), Lisa
Fernandez (1991, 1992 and 1993), Jennifer Brundage (1995) and
Natasha Watley (2003). The only two softball players to earn the
Honda-Broderick Cup came from UCLA, Fernandez in 1993 and Watley in
2003.
SCATES NAMED TOP COACH: UCLA men’s
volleyball coach Al Scates was named Coach of the Year for 2006,
Spike Volleyball Magazine announced in its summer 2006 issue. Four
players from the Bruins’ 2006 NCAA Championship team were
also named All-Americans. Scates guided the Bruins to their 19th
NCAA title with a 3-0 sweep of Penn State in front of their home
crowd May 6. The Bruins finished the season with a 14-match winning
streak after starting the season only 12-12, capturing the MPSF
Tournament crown en route to the title. Scates has been named Coach
of the Year six times by various volleyball publications and
organizations in his 44 years of coaching in Westwood. UCLA junior
opposite Steve Klosterman was named a second team All-American by
Spike Volleyball Magazine after leading the Bruins in scoring and
earning Most Outstanding Player honors at the NCAA Championship.
Sophomore libero Tony Ker was selected for third team All-America
honors.
FOOTBALL: Two of UCLA’s 2006 football
games are early selections for Fox Sports Net’s Pac-10 game
of the week. UCLA’s season-opener against Utah at the Rose
Bowl on Sept. 2 is scheduled to be televised nationally, as well as
UCLA’s game against Arizona State on Nov. 18. With the Fox
broadcasts, UCLA has six games that are scheduled for national
television.
Compiled by Adam de Jong, Bruin Sports senior
staff.