SportsScope : No. 5 Pepperdine Water Polo Squad Will Face Tough Teams in Tourney

The Pepperdine water polo team is ranked fifth in the nation this week by college coaches. UCLA is sixth. Only one goal separated them in Pepperdine’s John Wasko Tournament last week.

The Waves (2-0) defeated the Bruins, 14-13, in overtime in the tournament’s championship game. Pepperdine also routed Navy, 13-5.

Pepperdine will compete this weekend in the 10-team UC Irvine Tournament. The Waves will open against No. 4 Cal State Long Beach, defending Big West Conference champion, at 1 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, Pepperdine will meet No. 2 California at 9:20 a.m. and No. 7 USC at 7:50 p.m. The Bruins are also in the tournament. Senior Sasa Poljak scored 10 goals, and sophomore Geoffrey Clark added eight to lead Pepperdine in the two matches. Wave sophomore goalkeeper Wells Guthrie had 25 saves, including 13 against UCLA.

The No. 5 UCLA men’s soccer team (4-0) will play host to St. Mary’s at 2 p.m. Sunday at the North Soccer Field.

Last week, junior Dana Keir scored three goals, all in the second half, to lead the Bruins to a 7-0 romp over UC Irvine. Keir, who has moved from fullback to forward because of injuries to Bill Thompson and Mark Sharp, is becoming as good on offense as he was on defense. He leads UCLA in scoring with four goals. In two previous seasons, he had just two goals.

Coach Sigi Schmid said Keir’s assets as a defender--”being good in the air, his aggressiveness and his strength--make him a good forward.”

The shutout against Irvine was goalie Anton Nistl’s 28th of his career. The school record of 30 was set by former All-American Tim Harris.

Other Bruins who did well against the Anteaters included freshman Chris Henderson with three assists and sophomore Cobi Jones with a goal and an assist.

The UCLA women’s volleyball team (3-1), ranked third nationally, will compete in the Mid-America tournament this weekend in Chicago and play its first home match next week.

In Chicago, the Bruins will face No. 17 Penn State on Friday and either No. 8 Texas or No. 5 Illinois on Saturday. UCLA will play host to the Soviet Union’s junior national team at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the John Wooden Center.

In last week’s Hawaii Tournament, the Bruins defeated No. 18 Colorado State in three games and Texas in four, but lost to No. 1 Hawaii in four.

Bruin middle blockers Elaine Youngs , a sophomore, and Daiva Tomkus, a senior, were named to the all-tournament team. Youngs had 50 kills, 22 digs, three blocks and two service aces, and Tomkus had 25 kills, 24 digs, 22 blocks and six aces. UCLA freshman middle blocker Natalie Williams had 30 kills and 16 blocks.

The Pepperdine women’s volleyball team, 2-3 as the week began, will compete in the Colorado-Coors Invitational this weekend at Boulder. The Waves will open Friday evening against Indiana. Other tournament teams are Colorado and South Carolina.

At home last week, the Waves defeated San Diego State in five games. At the Pacific-Reebok Invitational at Stockton, Pepperdine beat No. 15 Washington in five games, but lost in four games to No. 7 Pacific and in three to Wisconsin.

Senior outside hitter Tami Seidenberg leads the Waves with 69 kills, sophomore outside hitter Cari Delson has 61, and freshman middle blocker Debbie Merandi, 51. Merandi tops the team with a .325 hitting percentage.

The Santa Monica College football team, a 33-3 winner over Chaffey on the road in its opener, has a bye this weekend. The Corsairs will play host to Harbor at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 23.

SMC rolled up 359 yards total offense and held Chaffey to 92 yards. Corsair sophomore linebacker Adonias Lucero was named defensive player of the game; he was in on 22 tackles, including four solos, and recovered a fumble that set up a touchdown.

The Corsairs used two quarterbacks, freshman Jeff Barrett and sophomore Ernie Soto. Barrett completed seven of 16 passes for 103 yards and one touchdown, and Soto was four for eight for 52 yards and one touchdown.

Travis Moore had three pass receptions for 73 yards, and threw a touchdown pass to Charles McKinzie off a fake field goal. Turhon O’Bannon had five catches for 61 yards and two touchdowns. McKinzie and Phillip Frazier led the ground game. McKinzie had 16 carries for 76 yards and Frazier rushed eight times for 60 yards.

The UCLA women’s golf team will open the season Sunday through Tuesday in the Brigham Young Invitational at Provo, Utah. Returning Bruins include senior All-American Jean Zedlitz, 24th in the NCAA tournament last season, and sophomore Christy Erb, who tied for 32nd place.

The UCLA women’s cross-country team, which won last week’s Cal State Fullerton Invitational, will compete in the Aztec Invitational on Saturday at San Diego State.

The Bruins, who had 49 points to 56 for second-place Arizona, had three runners in the top five.