Tarango to face his boss in USTA 40 Hard Court semis

   Jeff Tarango might want to go easy on Peter Smith on Saturday.
   After all, Smith is Tarango's boss.
   The top-seeded Tarango, an assistant coach for the USC men, will meet the fourth-seeded Smith, the Trojans' head coach, in the semifinals of the USTA National Men's and Women's Hard Court Championships in La Jolla. USC has won the last three NCAA team titles.
   Tarango, a former Stanford All-American from Manhattan Beach who reached the top 50 in the world in singles, eliminated unseeded John Saviano of Los Altos Hills 6-4, 6-1 Thursday. Smith, from Los Alamitos, defeated ninth-seeded Andy Stewart of Huntington Beach 6-3, 6-3.
   Saturday's other semifinal features two players from the San Francisco Bay Area. Second-seeded Owen Motevassel of Sunnyvale will take on third-seeded Jeff Greenwald of Corte Madera.
   In the women's singles semifinals, unseeded Dina McBride of Woodland Hills stunned No. 1 seed Gretchen Magers of San Diego 6-4, 6-1, and second-seeded Jennifer Dawson of Carlsbad blitzed fourth-seeded Kim-Trang Nguyen of Santa Ana 6-0, 6-0. Magers, a five-time titlist and the defending champion, reached No. 13 in the world in the 1980s.
   Top-seeded Magers and Ros Nideffer of Poway, meanwhile, will face second-seeded Alissa Finerman of Santa Monica and Erika Smith of Oakland in the women's doubles final Saturday.
   Third-seeded Brian Cory of Salinas and Rick Kepler of Aptos advanced to the men's doubles semifinals, and second-seeded Kepler and Smith moved into the mixed doubles semis.