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Amid the turmoil of midterms and papers, the UCLA women’s swim and dive team travels to Federal Way, Wash., for the Pac-12 Championship. The meet will take place over four days and will allow the team another chance to compete against the ironclad programs out west before heading east for the NCAA Championship meets.

The swimming competition will begin Wednesday with the 200-meter medley relay and the 800m freestyle relay, and the diving competition will begin Thursday with the 1m event.

At the Pac-10 competition last year, the Bruins finished fourth overall, and Stanford emerged the victor.

The team will enter the pool ranked nationally in several events. Sophomore Kathryn Murphy is currently ranked 27th in the 50m freestyle swim. Senior Yasi Jahanshahi holds the 11th-place time in the 200 butterfly swim alongside freshman teammate Noelle Tarazona, who is currently in 15th place. The relays are also a highlight for this program: the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle relays sit in 26th, 22nd and 30th among other relay teams in the nation.

The entire dive team earned spots at the NCAA Zone E Championship, which will take place before the swimming NCAA Championship. The team is comprised of freshman Emma Ivory-Ganja, sophomores Paulina Guzman and Haley McNamara, redshirt sophomore Michelle Vale and junior Maggy Boyd.

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MANHATTAN — In twenty New York minutes… little has transpired here at Madison Square Garden.

The arena often referred to as the “Mecca of Basketball” has seen UCLA and St. John’s battle to a 35-30 Red Storm lead at the half.

Both teams had their problems in a sloppy first half. St. John’s shot just 37 percent from the field (11-of-30). UCLA shot 48 percent (12-of-25), but nine turnovers — five from sophomore guard Tyler Lamb — have basically negated the Bruins’ impressive shooting.

Sophomore center Joshua Smith entered the game and immediately threw down two one-handed dunks. He added two more buckets off offensive rebounds for eight points.

Lamb has 10 first-half points to lead UCLA.

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The No. 14 UCLA baseball team opens its season Friday against Maryland at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

We caught up with coach John Savage in anticipation of the opener to preview the season. The Bruins were picked to finish fourth in the Pac-12 conference behind Stanford, Arizona and Arizona State.

On expectations for this season
“We’re looking to go to Omaha. That’s the goal every year. The bar was set in 2010. Last year, it seemed to be a complete grind throughout the year. We ended up winning the league and being a No. 1 seed at home. At the end of the day, we got where we wanted to get and then we get and we lost in the ninth. It was a tough way to finish and then on the following Monday you get the first and third pick. It was a roller coaster but this team has an edge to it, which I like. It has good chemistry, good leadership, this group of juniors have won 86 games in two years. They’re used to winning and the thought of winning without Gerrit and Trevor means a lot to them. They want to prove to everybody that they can do it and I don’t need to push it. We knew guys would be leaving after three years. We don’t have one senior in this class. It just goes to show you that we’ve produced a lot of junior drafts, we’ve had 51 guys drafted in seven years. Our guys believe in each other and I think we’re going to be a pretty good club. We need to get our roles established on the mound. We’re very deep with position players. We knew it was going to be the post-Cole-Bauer era and I think they’re prepared for it.”

On being ranked lower than last season
“It’s a compliment to this group of players that we’re ranked as high as we are without (Cole and Bauer). It’s expectations within the program that gets us going and the competitiveness within our program. We’ve gotten good through competition in practice and in the weight room and in conditioning and in different drills. These guys have a good motor and a positive environment. I’m sure we’ll be behind Stanford and Arizona in the Pac-12 poll and that’s OK with us. We all know that the bottom line is you have to go out and play. The expectations are high within the program and that’s all that matters.”

On offense after struggling last season
“You saw those guys as freshman that had good years and they really struggled as a group offensively last year. We struggled to score runs and the bat was part of the equation. We didn’t handle that very well and we played a lot of tight games. We’re a much better offensive club than we displayed last year. I firmly believe that. I think we have a bunch of good position players. We have a good junior class. We have a good sophomore class. We have a good freshman group of players so I think we’re going to make a U-turn on offense. I really do. I think we’re going to be an offensive team. We’re fast. We’re left-handed and we’re very competitive on the position player side. Our biggest concern is depth on the mound and if our starters can give us quality starts and get to the bullpen in the 7th, 8th and 9th, I think we expect to have a pretty good year.”

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Members from the UCLA women’s track team competed this past weekend in the Don Kirby Elite Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M. and the Husky Classic in Seattle, Wash.

On Friday, the Don Kirby Invitational saw impressive performances by redshirt senior pole vaulter Tori Anthony and freshman thrower Ida Storm.

Anthony cleared 13-10 feet in the pole vault, a mark that earned her a tie for first and ranks her ninth in the NCAA this season. Storm threw 67-2.25 feet in the 20-lb weight throw, landing her in fourth place. That throw moves her into the top 10 nationally this season.

Other highlights from the event include junior Allison Koressel’s third-place pole vault finish with a clearance of 13-4.25 feet and sophomore Alexis Walker’s tie for fourth in the high jump with a clearance of 5-6.

On Saturday, distance runners sophomores Rachel Butler and Paisley Pettway and junior Danielle Low represented the Bruins at the Flotrack Husky Classic.

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PULLMAN, Wash. — UCLA coach Ben Howland and his three leading scorers on the afternoon – Joshua Smith (19 points), Lazeric Jones and David Wear (15 each) – talked to the media about UCLA’s 63-60 road win over Washington State. Before they departed for the team bus they discussed UCLA’s first win outside Southern California, the mid-game switch to zone and the resurgence of Smith.

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PULLMAN, Wash. — UCLA has no answer early for the Cougars’ Brock Motum, who has Washington State up 34-29 at the half.

The 6-foot-10-inch forward, who leads the Cougars in scoring with 16.8 points per game, has hit six-of-10 shots including two 3-pointers to give him 19 first-half points.

UCLA, still looking for a win outside of Southern California, has won 18 straight games here dating back to 1993. But to get a win this year the Bruins will first have to stop Motum, who is hurting the Bruins with his post moves and outside shooting.

Motum also was involved in a testy exchange with UCLA redshirt sophomore center Anthony Stover. Stover ran over Motum for a flagrant foul just seconds after Motum hit a layup over Stover, which ended with a little smack talk by Motum.

Stover got the start in place of an injured Travis Wear. The redshirt sophomore forward and the Bruins’ second-leading scorer is out with a high ankle sprain.

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SEATTLE — Joshua Smith is playing like a man who feels right at home.

Smith has 14 points at the half as UCLA trails Pac-12 co-leader Washington 35-34 here at Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

It’s easily been the best first half Smith has had this year. His slow starts have been a staple of a sluggish sophomore season, but he clearly hasn’t carried those memories into his return to a school he knows very well, having grown up in nearby Kent, Wash.

Smith was called upon time and time again to overwhelm Washington’s overmatched post players. 7-footer Aziz N’Diaye drew two quick fouls guarding Smith, and Shawn Kemp Jr. had little luck of his own.

Darnell Gant has 10 points for the Huskies, who remain in this game despite 10 first-half turnovers.

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UCLA is flexing its muscles against a weak Utah team here at the Sports Arena and goes into the halftime locker room leading 36-21.

Playing in their first game at the Sports Arena since Dec. 23 , the Bruins return to downtown has been a triumphant one marked by solid defensive play. The team lacked defensive cohesion when it lost back to back games to Oregon State and Oregon last weekend.

But UCLA fans should be cautiously optimistic about this double-digit halftime lead. The Bruins took a 13-point halftime advantage to the locker room against Oregon on Saturday and allowed the Ducks to come back into the game via an 11-0 run to open the second half.

Sophomore center Joshua Smith bounced back from poor performances in Oregon and is leading UCLA in scoring with nine points and two rebounds. Redshirt sophomore forward David Wear has seven while senior Jerime Anderson and sophomore Tyler Lamb each have five.

Guard Chris Hines leads the Utes in scoring with eight.

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EUGENE, Ore. — The UCLA basketball team must have taken coach Ben Howland seriously when he talked about improving their defense after Thursday’s loss to Oregon State.

After one half of play, UCLA is holding Oregon to 22.6 percent shooting and leads 37-24 at Matthew Knight Arena.

Redshirt sophomore forwards Travis and David Wear each have eight points to lead the Bruins. Sophomore center Joshua Smith is scoreless and has one rebound.

UCLA is dominating Oregon down low, outscoring the Ducks 18 to eight in the paint.

Oregon is led by Devoe Joseph and E.J. Singler who each have six points at the break.

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EUGENE, Ore. — UCLA coach Ben Howland wasn’t pleased with his team’s defensive effort in Thursday’s 87-84 loss to Oregon State, big surprise.

“Our defense was really poor,” the defensive disciplinarian said Friday on a teleconference with reporters. “We did not do a good job of staying in our stance. We scored enough points to win, we just did not get stops. We’ve got to do a much better job defensively.”

Howland’s Bruins shot for more than 55 percent from the field, free throw line and 3-point range but allowed the Beavers to do them one better, scoring at will and getting to the line countless times.

According to Howland, now in his ninth year of preaching a hard-nosed, defensive-minded style of play, it boils down to effort.

“It’s disappointing because our stance off the ball, our help, just our sense of urgency and intensity wasn’t where it needs to be,” Howland said. “We felt like we’ve been getting better defensively so to turn around and not have the kind of defensive showing that we had had in the last two weeks was disappointing.”

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