Women’s Volleyball Tournament Begins Today

Five of the top 10 Division I women’s teams in the nation, and 9 of the top 20, will compete in the UCLA National Invitational volleyball tournament starting today at Pauley Pavilion.

Today’s pool-play round, with matches between 4 and 8:30 p.m. at 90-minute intervals match No. 7-ranked Brigham Young (15-2) against Cal State Northridge (16-1), the top-ranked team in Division II; No. 2 University of the Pacific (11-1) against No. 17 Oregon (8-6), and No. 11 UC Santa Barbara (10-4) against BYU.

Other top 20 teams from the volleyball coaches’ poll in the tournament are No. 4 Hawaii (10-1), No. 6 UCLA (11-5), No. 10 Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (11-4), No. 15 Pepperdine (9-3) and No. 19 Texas Arlington. Also in the field are Cal State Long Beach (5-7), USC (1-10), Fresno State (4-7), California (10-6), Wyoming (7-4) and Northern Illinois (6-8).

Pacific, the defending NCAA champion, is led by sophomore star Elaina Oden, considered by many to be the top college player in the country. Junior Mary Miller, with an impressive .471 hitting percentage in three matches last week, has also been playing well for the Tigers.

The championship match will be played Saturday.

Volleyball Notes Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is the defending tournament champion. . . . The tournament will have four coaches who have combined for 11 of the last 12 national championships: UCLA’s Andy Banachowski, 1974, ‘75, ‘84; USC’s Chuck Erbe, ‘76, ‘77, ‘80, ‘81; Hawaii’s Dave Shoji, ‘79, ’82 and ‘83, and Pacific’s John Dunning, ’85. . . . Saturday’s championship match is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m., after the third-, fifth- and ninth-place games at 5:30. . . . In conjunction with the tournament, UCLA and the Pacific 10 Conference will co-sponsor a free clinic from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the Wooden Center on Proposition 48 grade requirements and recruiting rules. David Price, assistant commissioner of the Pac-10, will deliver the lecture and then conduct a question-and-answer session. . . . Prime Ticket will televise a tape of Saturday’s title match Sunday at 4 p.m. . . . Tammy Webb of Arizona State, a senior from Ocean View High School of Huntington Beach, leads the Pac-10 in hitting at .371 through Sunday’s action and in digs at 4.24 a match, the only woman to top two categories. USC has Nancy Hillman second in digs at 4 a match and Trisonya Thompson second in blocks at 1.58 a match. Ann Boyer of UCLA is No. 2 in assists with a 12.65 average.