Softball has perfect tuneup for No. 1 UCLA Softball has perfect tuneup for No. 1 UCLA (March 28, 2001)

by Rick Eymer

Sophomore softball pitcher Dana Sorensen reached perfection on Saturday, and made it easy on her Stanford teammates in the process. Not only did she pitch her first career perfect game in the Cardinal's 7-0 victory over Portland State, she struck out 15 of the 21 batters she faced.

A trio of Stanford pitchers made it a daily double, combining on one-hitter in a 5-0 victory in the second game.

Fifth-ranked Stanford (30-2-1) enters Pac-10 play this weekend with its best start in school history. Conference play opens with a bang as No. 1 rated UCLA visits Friday in a 2 p.m. contest.

Sorensen came within one strikeouts of tying her school record. She struck out the side on three occasions, including the final two innings. She improves to 15-1 and hasn't allowed a run in 39 innings.

Jessica Mendoza helped make it a memorable outing for Sorenson by hitting her team-high 11th homer of the season. She also tripled and singled, drove in three runs and scored three times. Cassi Brangham was 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI.

Stanford scored three times in the first inning of the second game to give winning pitcher Maureen LeCocq (11-1) some breathing room. Tori Nyberg and Jamie Forman-Lau combined with LeCocq to finish off Portland State.

Kira Ching went 2-for-4 with three RBI, while Robin Walker and Mendoza each had two hits.

Fencing

Stanford's Iris Zimmerman captured the gold medal in the women's foil competition on the final day of the NCAA Fencing Championships at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside on Sunday.

Zimmerman rolled through the preliminary competition with 23 victories in as many tries to set up a semifinal meeting with teammate Ute Breden, who had an impressive .739 winning percentage in preliminaries. Zimmerman outlasted Breden, 15-12, in the semifinals, and in the finals, posted a convincing 15-3 win over Penn State's Marta Grochal.

In the team competition, the Cardinal finished fourth for the second consecutive year. Stanford scored 139 points, to finish behind only St. John's (180), Penn State (172) and Notre Dame (153). The Cardinal scored 67 points in men's competition and 72 points in women's competition.

In the men's foil, Felix Reichling was a bronze medallist while Florian Reichling finished in 11th place. In the men's epee, Graham Allen took home eighth place while Eric Tribbett was 12th. In the men's sabre competition, Robert Owens took 11th place.

Women's water polo

Top-ranked Stanford (4-0, 15-0) overcame an early deficit to defeat No. 5 San Jose State 9-5 on Saturday night in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match at the Avery Aquatic Center. The Spartans led 3-2 after the first seven minutes of play, but the Cardinal came back with two goals in the second quarter, from freshman Brenda Villa and sophomore Julie Gardner, a Menlo School grad.

Stanford, playing for the first time in 13 days, took the lead for good on Kelly Shouey's counterattack goal in the third quarter.

Stanford sophomore Jackie Frank recorded nine saves.

Men's gymnastics

Stanford finished fourth in the team competition of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships, hosted by Cal at Haas Pavilion. The Cardinal scored a 203.550 while Oklahoma won the competition with a 217.725. Cal (213.925) finished second and Nebraska (205.325) took third.

Junior David Durante placed fifth in the all around competition with a score of 50.550. Freshman Dan Gill was sixth in the all around with a 50.500.

In the individual competition, Cade Raggio was the Cardinal's top finisher with a fourth place mark on the horizontal bar (8.450) and a sixth-place finish on the parallel bars (8.400). Matt McLean finished one spot better than Raggio on the parallel bars with an 8.450. McLean also notched a pair of sixth-place finishes on the floor (8.350) and the vault (8.900).

Women's lacrosse

Stanford extended its winning streak to four games with an 11-6 victory over host Lafayette College on Sunday.

Stanford (8-1) took a 7-0 lead in the first 22 minutes of the match. Senior Katharine Barnes put the Cardinal on top in the first two minutes.

Sophomore Liz Lanese recorded three goals, while junior Liz Britt and freshman Noor Dawood each added two goals.

Stanford goalie Rachael Neumann picked up the win in net by recording 13 saves.

Women's crew

Stanford swept all four races from visiting Santa Clara on Sunday at Redwood Shores.

The Cardinal's varsity squads both turned in convincing victories. In the varsity eights, the Stanford "A" squad finished first in 6:53, followed by the Cardinal "B" team in 7:29 and Santa Clara in 8:08. The Cardinal's varsity fours defeated Santa Clara 7:49-8:47.

The Cardinal returns to action when it hosts Sacramento State on Saturday at 9 a.m. at Redwood Shores. 