SPORTSCOPE : No. 1 UCLA Women to Host Volleyball Tourney

The top-ranked UCLA women’s volleyball team (21-1 overall, 13-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference) is the host team for this weekend’s first Pac-10/Big West Conference Challenge tournament at Pauley Pavilion.

On Friday, USC will meet No. 3 Hawaii at 5 p.m., and UCLA will face No. 15 Cal State Long Beach at 7. On Saturday, USC will play Long Beach at 5 p.m., and the Bruins will meet Hawaii at 7.

UCLA will play host to No. 8 UC Santa Barbara in a nonconference match at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Pauley.

Last week the Bruins won their 48th and 49th consecutive Pac-10 matches, defeating No. 20 Oregon State in four games and Oregon in three. UCLA has won 18 consecutive matches this season.

Against Oregon, Jenny Evans had a .467 hitting average. Natalie Williams leads the Bruins with 348 kills, and Marissa Hatchett has a team-high 155 blocks.

The Pepperdine women’s volleyball team (18-5 overall, 9-0 in the West Coast Conference), ranked ninth by Volleyball Monthly and No. 11 by the American Volleyball Coaches Assn., will play Loyola Marymount (14-12, 7-2) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Loyola’s Gersten Pavilion and play a nonconference match at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Last week the Waves took a one-game lead over Gonzaga (19-6, 9-2), defeating the Bulldogs in four games.

Pepperdine leaders include Cari Delson with 279 kills, Debbie Merandi with a .343 hitting average, Carolyn Hueth with 253 digs and Lesli Asplund with 107 blocks.

The No. 3 UCLA water polo team (21-5 overall, 1-2 in the Pac-10) will play host to top-ranked California (23-1, 3-0) at 3 p.m. Friday at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center. Earlier, UCLA lost to the Bears, 7-5, at Berkeley.

Last week the Bruins lost to No. 4 UC Santa Barbara, 13-11, in the consolation final of the Cal State Long Beach Invitational. In other tournament games, UCLA defeated No. 11 Long Beach, 11-5, and Loyola Marymount, 23-3, but lost in the semifinals to No. 2 Stanford, 8-7, in overtime.

At the Long Beach tournament, Stefan Pollmann scored 13 goals, extending his single-season school record to 96 goals.

The Pepperdine water polo team (16-8 overall, 5-1 in the Big West Conference) will play host to Fresno State (14-15, 2-4) at 3 p.m. Friday, to University of the Pacific (14-11, 3-4) at 1 p.m. Saturday and to UC Irvine (11-12, 1-4) at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The Waves are tied for fourth in the national rankings with UC Santa Barbara (18-7, 5-1) and for first place in the conference with the Gauchos.

At last week’s Cal State Long Beach invitational, the Waves finished fifth. Pepperdine defeated Long Beach, 12-6; lost to UC Santa Barbara, 14-11, and beat UC Irvine, 12-11, and Long Beach for the second time, 9-5.

Henry Rabello leads Pepperdine with 63 goals and Geoffrey Clark has 60. The Waves have won 10 of their last 11 matches.

The No. 3 UCLA men’s soccer team (14-1-3 as the week began) will play host to San Diego State (11-6-2) at 2 p.m. Sunday on the North Soccer Field on campus.

Last week the Bruins defeated Cal State Fullerton, 4-1, on goals by Billy Thompson, Zak Ibsen, Ray Fernandez and Sean Henderson. Thompson leads UCLA with 36 points on 15 goals and six assists, and Joe-Max Moore is next with 26 points on nine goals and eight assists.

San Diego State is coming off a 1-0 upset win over No. 6 Santa Clara.

The UCLA men’s basketball team will play its annual intra-squad game at 7:30 tonight at Pauley Pavilion, and the Pepperdine men’s basketball team will play host to High Five America in an exhibition game at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team will play an intra-squad game at 7 p.m. Saturday at Brea Olinda High School, and the Wave men’s volleyball team will scrimmage UC Santa Barbara at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Westlake High.

The UCLA men’s and women’s cross-country teams, which both finished fifth at last week’s Pac-10 championships at Stanford, will be idle this week, preparing for the NCAA District 8 championships Nov. 10 in Fresno.

At Stanford, Oregon won the conference women’s and men’s races, the men for the third consecutive year. Top finishers for the Bruins were Nicole Nugent, 12th over the 5,000-meter course in 17:36, and Jeff Korn, 19th in 25:23 at 8,000 meters.

The Pepperdine women’s cross-country team finished third and the Wave men were seventh at the West Coast Conference championships in San Mateo. Like UCLA, the Pepperdine teams will be training for the District 8 championships Nov. 10 in Fresno.

In San Mateo, St. Mary’s won the women’s race and Portland took the men’s title for the 12th consecutive year. Top Pepperdine women on the five-kilometer course were Shelly Gravel, 11th in 20:44; Jennifer White, 12th, also in 20:44, and Jenny McGuire, 13th in 20:46. John Romero led the Pepperdine men, finishing 18th over 10 kilometers in 36:51.

The fourth-ranked UCLA women’s swim team, which opened the season with a 176-105 victory over Cal State Long Beach, and the UCLA men’s team will play host to the Mission Viejo Nadadores at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center.

Against Long Beach, diver Lisa Fosdick was a double winner on the one- and three-meter boards, Christy Richardson took firsts with a 24:63 in the 50-meter freestyle and a 52.52 in the 100 free, and Kristy Heydanek won the 100 backstroke in 59.49.

The No. 4 UCLA women’s golf team and the Bruin men will be the host teams for the Pioneer Electronic Bruin Desert tournament on Monday through Wednesday at the Mission Hills Resort in Rancho Mirage.

The women’s field includes No. 3 Stanford, No. 5 USC, No. 7 Tulsa and No. 10 Texas. Among the men’s teams will be No. 6 USC and No. 15 Fresno State and Pepperdine.

Arizona’s women won last week’s Stanford Invitational with 885, and UCLA was sixth at 916. Lisa Kiggins led the Bruins with 220 and tied for fifth place.