SPORTSCOPE : UCLA Golf Tournament Draws Nation’s Top Teams

Some of the nation’s leading women’s and men’s golf teams will compete in the UCLA Bruin Desert tournament on Monday through Wednesday at Desert Dunes Golf Club in Palm Springs.

The women’s field includes top-ranked Oklahoma State, No. 4 San Jose State, UCLA and USC (tied for No. 10), Tulsa and Arizona (tied for No. 12) and No. 15 Oklahoma. Other teams entered include Brigham Young, Washington, Iowa and Texas Christian.

Men’s teams include No. 9 Brigham Young, No. 11 New Mexico, No. 14 Fresno State and No. 25 UCLA. Other teams entered include Pepperdine, USC, San Jose State, Stanford, Washington, Hawaii, Oregon State and UC Santa Barbara.

At the Stanford women’s invitational last week, the Bruins placed sixth with 621. San Jose State was first with 606. In individual competition, UCLA senior Christy Erb tied for eighth with 150, and Bruin freshman Jenny Park tied for 20th with 155.

The Pepperdine women’s golf team will compete Sunday and Monday in the San Diego State Invitational at Singing Hills Country Club. Kristy Park leads the Waves with an average of 82.17 strokes a round.

The No. 3 UCLA women’s volleyball team (16-4 overall, 8-1 in the Pacific 10 Conference) will play Friday night at Arizona State (11-7, 6-5), Sunday at Arizona (3-17, 0-11) and at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at No. 9 USC.

The Bruins split two matches at their own tournament, defeating Texas Arlington in three games and losing to No. 11 Texas in three. The loss to the Longhorns ended UCLA’s 20-match winning streak in Pauley Pavilion.

Against the Texas teams, UCLA’s Natalie Williams had 46 kills, 15 digs and seven blocks.

The No. 15 Pepperdine women’s volleyball team (17-4, 9-0 in the West Coast Conference) will play Friday night at Portland (13-11, 4-4) and Saturday night at Gonzaga (7-14, 3-5). A sweep assures the Waves of a tie for the WCC title.

Last week, Pepperdine won its 42nd consecutive conference match, beating Loyola Marymount in three games. The Waves were led by Blair Noonan with 15 kills and Cari Delson with 11.

The No. 16 UCLA men’s soccer team (13-3) will play at Cal State Fullerton at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Last week the Bruins shut out Stanford and California by 2-0 scores. The victory over Cal gave UCLA Coach Sigi Schmid a record 195th victory in 12 years at the school. Schmid’s career record is 195-38-29. The previous school record was held by Ed (Jock) Stewart, who was 194-29-12 at UCLA from 1949-1966.

The UCLA men’s and women’s swim teams will play host to the U.S. national teams on Saturday. Men’s races will begin at 11 a.m. at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center on campus. The women’s competition will start at 12:30 p.m. at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center.

Against UC Santa Barbara last week, the UCLA men won, 185-99, and the Bruin women won, 193-104.

The UCLA women’s and men’s cross-country teams will compete Saturday in the 23rd annual Pac-10 championships at Stanford. In last year’s conference meet, the Bruin women and men both placed fifth.

The Pepperdine women’s and men’s cross-country teams will compete Saturday in the West Coast Conference championships at Crystal Springs golf course in Belmont. At last year’s WCC meet, the Wave women were third and the Pepperdine men, seventh.