San Diego Roundup : No. 1 Denver to Play USIU in Hockey

The University of Denver, the top-ranked ice hockey team in the nation, will play U.S. International on Friday and Saturday nights at the Mira Mesa House of Ice. Each game will start at 7:30.

Denver, under Coach Ralph Backstrum, has a 15-4 record and recently swept a two-match series at Minnesota. Coach Brad Buetow’s USIU squad is 7-7, coming off two losses at Minnesota.

Center Dallas Guame leads Denver with 15 goals and 23 assists, and winger Dwight Mathiasen has 16 goals and 20 assists. USIU is paced by right winger Gordy Stewart, with 8 goals and 10 assists, and center Jeff Dobek, with 8 goals and 8 assists.

Under Buetow, its new coach, USIU has already equalled its win total of last season, when it went 7-23-2. The Gulls are 4-2 and in second place in the Great West Hockey Conference.

San Diego County junior golfers will wind up the season with the annual Tournament of Junior Champions on Monday at Balboa Park. The tournament is open to boys and girls, under 17, who belong to the San Diego County Junior Golfers Assn.

The 1986 junior golf schedule starts Dec. 27 with the 32nd annual Mike Vescok Junior Invitational at Sail Ho course, located at Naval Training Center. The Vescok tournament also is on Dec. 30 and 31.

The second annual Girls’ Holiday Soccer Tournament, featuring 35 high school varsity and junior teams, opens Thursday and continues Dec. 27 and 28 at San Pasqual High School.

Among the teams entered are Torrey Pines, which has won all four years of the San Diego Section 3-A soccer championship, and Vista, which lost to Torrey Pines in the 3-A final last year. Grossmont, the tournament’s defending open division champion, and Granite Hills, the defending limited division champion, also are entered.

Amy Smith, who graduated from Francis Parker School in 1984, has been named to the NCAA Division III All-America second team based on her performance for Colorado College this season.

Smith, a sophomore setter, led Colorado in service aces. Colorado was the fourth-ranked Division III team.