SPORTSCOPE : Pepperdine Meets Pomona Pitzer, Stanford Friday in UC Irvine Water Polo Tournament

The fourth-ranked Pepperdine water polo team, a 9-8 winner over UCLA in the championship match of last week’s John Wasko tournament, will play in the UC Irvine Tournament this weekend at the Heritage Park Aquatics Complex in Irvine. The Waves open Friday at 3:30 p.m. against Pomona-Pitzer and at 7 against No. 3 Stanford, two-time defending NCAA champion.

En route to the tourney title, Pepperdine also defeated Air Force, Claremont-Mudd, Navy and UC San Diego.

The Waves received balanced scoring in tournament play. Robbie Boyer, Sasa Poljak and Aaron Chasen each scored 12 goals, and Rafael Gandarillas added nine.

Pepperdine Coach Terry Schroeder said that it was important to defeat UCLA in Malibu “early in the season. UCLA beat us four times last year, including a 12-11 win in the third-place match of the NCAA Tournament.”

UCLA women’s volleyball team, jolted twice on the road last week by second-ranked Hawaii, will open the defense of its Pac-10 Conference crown when it plays host to fourth-ranked Stanford at 7 p.m. Friday at John Wooden Center.

Before going to the islands, the No. 5 Bruins (3-2) won the All-Cal Tournament at UC Irvine, defeating Cal in the final.

UCLA senior middle blocker Stacy Buck leads the team with an average of 6.2 kills a game, a .565 hitting average and two blocks a game. Stanford is paced by All-American Teresa Smith, a St. Bernard High School graduate, who was Pac-10 player of the year last season.

The No. 11 Pepperdine women’s volleyball team, 1-1 as the week began after losing to USC in four games, will be in Texas this weekend, meeting Texas A & M on Friday and No. 8 Texas on Saturday. The Waves also will play at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo next Wednesday.

Pepperdine Coach Nina Matthies said the three matches will all be tough. “Texas advanced to the final four last season, and Cal Poly and Texas A & M are both on the verge of cracking the top 20.”

Pepperdine leaders are Julie Evans, who has 49 kills; Lee Hoven and Tami Seidenberg, each with 9 blocks, and Hoven, who has 26 digs.

UCLA men’s soccer team, 3-1 after splitting two matches in the Nevada Las Vegas/adidas tournament, will be in the Patriot Invitational this weekend at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

The Bruins will play American University on Friday and George Mason on Sunday.

In Las Vegas, UCLA lost for the first time this season, dropping a 2-1 decision to No. 5 Southern Methodist. But the Bruins came back to defeat Air Force, 3-0. Against SMU, Billy Thompson scored the only UCLA goal. Against Air Force, the Bruins received goals from freshmen Fabrizio Luppi and Curtis Partain and junior Nick Skvarna.

American is 1-1-1 this season, including a 4-0 win over Wake Forest. In 1985, UCLA defeated the Eagles, 1-0, after eight overtimes to win the NCAA championship.

George Mason is 5-0-1, including a 3-1 victory over No. 12 Loyola of Maryland.

UCLA men’s and women’s cross-country teams will both compete in invitationals on Saturday, the men traveling to Fresno State and the women to UC Riverside.

In last week’s UCLA all-comers meet, the 5,000-meter women’s race was won by Darcy Arreaola in 17:10.3 and UCLA alumnus Rich Brownsberger took the four-mile men’s run in 19:04.8.

Top performances by UCLA women were sophomore Laurie Chapman’s 17:24.6 for second place, senior Annie Seawright’s 17:40.7 for fourth and senior Katherine Nichols’ 18:00.4 for seventh. Senior Eric Reynolds finished ninth in 19:57.2 to top the Bruin men.

UCLA’s women golfers opened the season by finishing in 11th place at the New Mexico State Invitational. The Bruins were led by sophomore Paige Wery and freshman Debbie Koyama, who each shot 228 for 54 holes.