SPORTSSCOPE : Bruins to Take On Waves in Water Polo

The third-ranked UCLA water polo team, 16-5 overall, will be at No. 8 Pepperdine, 11-8 overall and 4-2 in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn., for a non-conference match at noon Saturday.

The Waves will play another Saturday non-conference match at 7:30 p.m. at UC San Diego and will play host to an alumni team at 3 p.m. Sunday.

The Bruins won the championship of their invitational last weekend, taking matches against Claremont, Fresno State, UC San Diego and Cal State Long Beach. Pepperdine won two of three conference matches last weekend, defeating Fresno State and Pacific but losing to league-leading UC Irvine by one goal with one second left in overtime. At the half, the Waves led the Anteaters, 6-1.

Pepperdine Coach Terry Schroeder said the Waves “played our best match of the season against UC Irvine. I think we deserved to win. We cannot afford to hang our heads. It is important that we bounce back on Saturday and play our best.”

The No. 5 UCLA women’s volleyball team, after upsetting top-ranked Pacific on the road but finishing third in its own invitational, will travel for matches Friday against Washington State and Saturday at Washington. The Bruins, 14-4 overall and 5-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference, will play host to USC at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Pauley Pavilion.

When the Bruins defeated Pacific in five games last Wednesday they ended the Tigers’ 34-match winning streak. UCLA was the last team to beat Pacific before its streak.

The teams were hoping for a rematch in last weekend’s UCLA/National Invitational Tournament. But UCLA, after defeating Loyola Marymount, lost to Brigham Young, which then lost to Pacific in the tourney final. The Bruins defeated USC to finish third.

The Bruins were led by senior outside hitter Lori Zeno who had 241 kills for a 4.01 average and a hitting percentage of .373. Zeno and teammate Daiva Tomkus were named to the all-tournament team as were Mariliisa Salmi and Jill Plumb of BYU and Pacific’s Liz Hert and Brooke Herrington. Pacific’s Terry McGrath was named the most valuable player.

In West Coast Athletic Conference women’s volleyball, 16th-ranked Pepperdine and Loyola will play host to the University of San Francisco and Santa Clara this weekend before the local teams play each other next week.

Pepperdine, 8-6 overall and 3-0 in the WCAC, will meet Santa Clara (6-10 and 4-0) at 7:30 p.m. Friday and USF (10-5 and 4-0) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Firestone Fieldhouse. The Lions, 7-12 and 1-2 as the week began, take on USF at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Santa Clara at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Gersten Pavilion. Loyola will play host to Pepperdine at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Gersten.

Last week the Waves defeated Loyola and lost to Brigham Young before they lost to Colorado State and defeated Louisiana State in the Volleyball Monthly tournament at San Luis Obispo. Besides losing to UCLA in the Bruins’ invitational, the Lions also lost in the same tournament to Fresno State and to UC Santa Barbara.

The No. 10 UCLA men’s soccer team, 7-4 at the start of the week, will play host to UC Santa Barbara (7-3-2) at 2 p.m. Sunday at the North Athletic Field on campus.

In last week’s Pac-10 Conference tournament at Stanford, the Bruins defeated California, 2-1, before losing to the Cardinal, 1-0. Against the Bears, UCLA got goals from senior Peter Pelle and sophomore Will Steadman.

Pepperdine’s men golfers finished 20th in the 24-team Southwestern Invitational at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village. Pepperdine’s team total was 915 strokes, compared to 868 for first-place Oklahoma State.

Leaders for the Waves over 54 holes were Mike Zambri and Jim Johnson, each at 228.

Pepperdine Coach Bob Yokoi said that the tournament gave his team a chance to compete against 20 teams that qualified for last season’s NCAA Tournament and that the Waves could qualify for the next NCAAs “if we continue to work hard and play well at the big tournaments.”

The UCLA women’s cross-country team, which took last week off while its B team finished second to Cal State Northridge at the Northridge Invitational, will compete Saturday at the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Invitational. At Northridge, the Bruins finished with 88 points to CSUN’s 28.