SportsScope : Stanford Next on Hit List for Loyola Spikers

Loyola Marymount University’s women’s volleyball team, off its stunning upset of UCLA in the NCAA Tournament’s opening round, will play Stanford at 5 p.m. at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, in the Western Regional. The winner will play Friday against the winner of BYU-Arizona State for the regional title. Loyola, 24-7, beat UCLA after losing the first two games. Stanford is 22-9 and finished second in the Pac-10 behind UCLA.

The Lions go to Provo not only as the most successful volleyball team in school history but the most honored after announcements this week from the West Coast Athletic Conference that senior setter Andrea Fort is WCAC player of the year and Nancy Fortner is coach of the year. Fort is averaging 12 assists per game and has a hitting percentage of .386. She is joined on the WCAC first team by junior hitter Cathy Petrissans. Senior hitter Maryann Dunn earned second-team honors.

Loyola Marymount’s men’s basketball team plays a home stand against Long Beach State on Saturday and Southern California College on Monday. Both begin at 7:30 p.m. in Gersten Pavilion. The Lions are 3-1 coming off their 1-1 performance in the Hawkeye Classic in Iowa. Junior forward Mike Yoest earned all-tournament honors there by setting a tourney scoring record of 57 points in two games, including his career-high 35 against Washington State.

Yoest is averaging 28.7 points on 65% shooting, as well as 8.3 rebounds. Junior forward Mark Armstrong is averaging 15.5 points and 11.5 rebounds and shooting 65%. Point guard Chris Nikchevich is averaging 11.3 points and 11.3 assists while freshman guard Jeff Fryer and senior guard Dennis Vogel are chipping in 12 and 11 points per game.

Long Beach is 3-2 after Monday’s victory over Houston.

Cal State Dominguez Hills, continuing its long basketball home stand, will play host to San Francisco State and Cal Baptist on Monday and Tuesday. Both begin at 7:30 p.m. The Toros are 5-2 and are developing a pattern: When they shoot 50% or better they win (51% average in the victories); when their shooting is sub-par (36% against Southern Utah, 42% against Biola) they lose.

Senior forward William Alexander paces the Toros, averaging 17 points on 58% shooting. Sophomore guard Vico Nomaaea is next with a 12.8 average. Nomaaea was benched for disciplinary reasons Saturday and in his absence junior Barry Johnson scored 16 points. Sophomore Anthony Blackmon leads in rebounding at 8.7 per game. Senior guard John Nojima was the Toros’ leading scorer with 33 points in two weekend games and is shooting 12 for 19 from three-point range. He hit 9 of 12 three-pointers over the weekend.