STANFORD ROUNDUP: Traffic jam of golfers this weekend at Stanford

Cardinal men and women both are hosting tournaments

The Stanford Golf Course is going to look like Highway 280 in 5 o'clock traffic this weekend when the Cardinal men and women's teams play host to tournaments.

The Stanford men will make their only home appearance of the season when they welcome 18 teams for the annual U.S. Intercollegiate. At the same time, the Cardinal women will take on 12 other squads in the annual Peg Barnard California Collegiate event.

Both 54-hole tournaments get under way Saturday with shotgun starts.

Missing from the men's field will be Stanford junior Joel Kribel, who will be competing in the Masters beginning Thursday. Kribel qualified by reaching the finals of last year's U.S. Amateur Championships.

The women will play 18 holes Saturday with a shotgun start at 1 p.m., then finish with 36 holes Sunday starting at 8 a.m. The men will play 18 holes over three days, starting with an a 8 a.m. shotgun start Saturday. The field goes off at 1 p.m. Sunday, followed by an 8 a.m. start Monday.

USC is the defending men's champion while San Jose State is back to defend its women's title.

The Stanford women, however, are riding plenty of momentum following their victory last weekend at the PING/ASU Invitational in Tempe, Ariz. Stanford shot a 291 in the final round to wrap up the title with a 54-hole score of 872, eight under par.

The win is second of the season for Stanford, which nearly had the individual champion, as well. Freshman Hilary Homeyer recorded a 54-hole total of 215 to tie Kellee Booth of Arizona State. Booth, however, won a scorecard playoff to capture individual honors.

Sophomore Julie Dunn also had a fine tournament for Stanford, finishing in a tie for fourth at 218. She had the team's lowest single-round score of 3-under-par 69 during the second day.

Women's gymnastics

Stanford missed by the barest of margins of qualifying for the NCAA championships following a third-place finish at the NCAA West Region Championships in Seattle, Wash.

The Cardinal scored 194.625 to finish behind NCAA automatic qualifier Washington (196.150) and wild-card entrant UCLA (195.100), which rallied from fourth to second in its final event. Had Stanford taken second, the Cardinal would have earned one of the seven at-large berths.

Larissa Fontaine's victory in the vault (9.950) paced a fine effort by the Cardinal. She also finished third on the bars (9.900).

Softball

Stanford (25-8) tuned up for Wednesday's nonconference doubleheader against visiting Santa Clara (2 p.m.) by splitting a four-game trip to Oregon. The Cardinal split with Oregon State, losing 3-2 and winning 1-0, then did the same at Oregon, losing 6-1 before winning 4-0. Marcy Crouch picked up both pitching wins with a complete-game two-hitter over Oregon State and a complete-game four-hitter against Oregon.

Water polo

The nationally No. 2-ranked Cardinal (18-3) women edged UC Davis, 9-8; toppled San Jose State, 13-2; and beat host Hawaii in overtime, 10-9, to capture the Aloha Classic in Honolulu. Ellen Estes scored 11 goals and was named to the all-tournament team along with Menlo School grad Suze Gardner, who tallied four goals. Earlier in the week, Gardner scored twice to lead Stanford to a 3-1 win over host USC in a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation match.

--Keith Peters

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