KRISTIN ELVES/Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona sophomore Marc Kaiser slides into third base last month against Southern Utah at Sancet Field. Kaiser pitched his second complete game yesterday to lead the Wildcats to a 14-2 home victory over UNC Wilmington.

Baseball pounds UNC Wilmington

From Staff and Wire Reports

The UA baseball team claimed the series win over UNC Wilmington yesterday with a 14-2 victory at Sancet Field.

Arizona (19-8) won its 900th game at Sancet Field by way of a season-high 17 hits for the Wildcat offense and sophomore pitcher Marc Kaiser's second complete-game victory of the season.

Kaiser held the Seahawks (12-5) to five hits and one earned run while walking one batter in the winning effort, which upped his season record to 4-1.

Freshman right fielder Jeff Van Houten put the Wildcats in front for good with a two-out grand slam off of Wilmington starter Chris Coughlin (0-1) in the second inning. The homer tied Van Houten for the team lead at six, while also tying the 2002 Arizona team for first all-time in season grand slams with four.

UA seniors Justyn St. Clair and Brad Hassey went 4-for-5 and 2-for-3, respectively, to pace the Wildcat offense in a game that saw every UA starter notch a hit and a run.

UNCW's Russ Simmerman led the Seahawk offense, going 2-for-3 with a run scored.

The baseball team opens Pac-10 play at home against Arizona State Friday at 7 p.m.

Softball slowed again in Kia Classic

From Staff and Wire Reports

The annual speed bump that is the Kia Classic softball tournament once again slowed down No. 2 Arizona this past week in Fullerton, Calif.

The Wildcats (28-4) battled to a 3-2 record in the tournament and were eliminated from the championship bracket of the tournament with a 3-0 loss to No. 8 Arizona State on Saturday.

UA began things with an 8-0 win over Texas Tech on Thursday. Junior shortstop Lovie Jung paced Arizona's offense with a four-RBI performance and sophomore pitcher Jenny Gladding allowed only a single while striking out 10.

On Friday, UA senior Jennie Finch pitched a 12-strikeout no-hitter, earning a 7-0 win against Notre Dame.

The Wildcats were upset later that day by Cal-State Northridge 4-3.

Sophomore first baseman Leneah Manuma led UA with her 15th home run of the season, but it would not be enough as Gladding took the loss in the circle, allowing three runs on seven hits.

Before falling to ASU, Arizona defeated Louisiana-Lafayette 1-0 on Saturday behind a one-hit shutout from Finch.

The All-American extended her NCAA-record winning streak to 56 victories, while striking out 12 in the win. Jung's third home run of the tournament accounted for the game's only run.

The Wildcats will return to action Wednesday when they play host to Simon Fraser University in an exhibition game at 7 p.m.

Men's swim team finishes third

By Jay Middleton

The Arizona men's swimming team got its postseason off to an encouraging start over spring break, placing third at the Pacific 10 Championships.

Leading the Pac-10 once again was Stanford, who claimed its 21st consecutive conference title with the win in Long Beach, Calif.

The Cardinal won nine of 21 total races to secure their place in the standings.

They were led by sophomores Markus Rogan and Michael Bruce, who each won two individual events for Stanford, which ended the regular season as the No. 1 team in the country.

Swimming well for the Wildcats was All-American Roland Schoeman, who ended his Pac-10 career by winning both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly.

Schoeman's victory in the freestyle came at the expense of reigning Olympic gold medalist Anthony Ervin of California, who finished second to Schoeman by seven-tenths of a second.

"Anthony and I have gotten to point where we're good friends," Schoeman said. "When it came down to it, we weren't even focused on each other. We both just wanted to beat the guys from Stanford."

Freshman Aram Kevorkian also had a big meet for Arizona. His times of 15:20.39 minutes in the 1650-yard freestyle and 4:27.09 in the 500-yard freestyle were enough to earn him a qualifying spot in both events for the NCAA championships.

"I'm really excited," said Kevorkian. "I was the last one on the bubble waiting to get in. It feels awesome to finally be going."

The Wildcats journey to Athens, Ga. next week for the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, where they will once again be facing off against their Pac-10 rivals, this time with the national title on the line.

ERIC M. JUKELEVICS/Arizona Daily Wildcat Junior Scott Koenig dives at the Pacific 10 Conference Championships last month at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center. The Wildcat men swept the diving events last week at their NCAA regional competition.

Men's diving sweeps regional championships

By Jay Middleton

Fresh off a Pacific 10 Conference diving title, the Arizona men dominated the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships in Palo Alto, Calif., over the break. Arizona seniors Omar Ojeda and Ruben Vaca combined to give the Wildcats all three titles in the men's portion of the event. Vaca took first place on the platform with a total of 499.85. Ojeda took both the one and three-meter springboard events for the second straight year.

"(The win) feels good," Ojeda said. "I feel like all the work we've been doing in practice is really paying off."

In addition to bragging rights, the men's sweep also secured NCAA berths for Ojeda and Vaca, as well as sophomore Josh Anderson, who placed in the top four in all three events.

This was the second Wildcat men's sweep in less than a month, as Arizona also posted a win in all three events at the Pac-10 championships in Tucson last month.

On the women's side of the event, USC's Blythe Hartley continued her dominance over the Pac-10 with another sweep of her own. Hartley took all three events to secure both her spot in the national NCAA Championships and her status as the Pac-10's top diver.

For the Arizona women, sophomore Claire Febvay was only able to crack the top three on the platform event, but her overall performance was good enough to secure a berth in the NCAA Championships.

Febvay will leave with the rest of the women's team for the NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships this weekend in Austin, Texas. The Men's Championship will follow in Athens, Ga. the following week.

Men's, women's tennis struggle in Pac-10 play

From Staff and Wire Reports

The Arizona men's and women's tennis teams both entered spring break looking to improve on disappointing conference records.

However, both teams hit roadblocks this past weekend. The men's team entered its matches last weekend against Stanford and California with a Pacific 10 record of 0-3, and nothing changed as they were unable to upset either the No. 10 Golden Bears or No. 2 Stanford as they lost 1-6, 0-7 in each match.The UA men's team is now 7-6 overall, 0-5 in Pac-10 play.

The Arizona women fared no better against No. 14 California and the No. 3 Cardinal as they dropped each match, 1-6 and 2-5, respectively. The UA women's two losses drop their season record to 7-6, 1-5 in the Pac-10.The women's team returns to action on Saturday against Illinois and the men have a chance to regroup and try to return to early season form March 29 against Southern California in Los Angeles.