SPORTSCOPE : Bruin Women Volleyballers Traveling to Oregon State, Oregon and Pepperdine

The sixth-ranked UCLA women’s volleyball team, 5-2 overall and 2-0 in the Pac-10 Conference at the start of the week, will be on the road for matches on Friday at Oregon State, on Saturday at No. 17 Oregon and at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday against No. 14 Pepperdine at Firestone Fieldhouse in Malibu.

The Bruins successfully opened the defense of their conference championship at home last week, defeating No. 4 Stanford in four games and Cal in three. UCLA was led by sophomore middle blocker Daiva Tomkus, who had 15 kills, a .440 hitting average, 5 service aces and 4 assists on blocks, and by senior outside hitter Wendy Fletcher, who had 15 kills and a .314 hitting average. Tomkus was named conference player of the week for her efforts.

For the season, senior middle blocker Stacy Buck leads the Bruins with a .350 hitting percentage, nearly 1.4 blocks a game and a total of 29 block assists.

The No. 14 Pepperdine women’s volleyball team, 3-2 overall as the week began, will play host to U. S. International at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and to No. 6 UCLA at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

The Waves won two of three matches last week, defeating No. 11 San Diego State in three matches and Texas A & M in four and losing to No. 9 Texas in three.

In the three matches, senior outside hitter Julie Evans had 65 kills, hit .358, and freshman outside hitter Barbara Blizzard had 45 kills. For the year, Evans is averaging six kills a game and hitting .313.

The No. 15 UCLA men’s soccer team, 5-1-0 after winning twice in the Patriot Invitational at George Mason University, will be in the East for matches today against Yale and Sunday against No. 18 Connecticut.

Though the Bruins defeated American University and George Mason, each by a 2-1 score, they finished second at last week’s tournament because North Carolina, which also won twice, allowed only one goal and was therefore given the invitational title.

Freshman Fabrizio Luppi, a Venice High School graduate, scored a goal in each game, and the other Bruin scores were by sophomore Steve Black and senior Jeff Hooker.

Yale, captained by senior David Kulik, is 2-0 and has shut out both opponents. Connecticut, led by forwards Dan Donigan and Kevin O’Hara, is 5-2-1 and is unbeaten in its last five home matches.

The No. 6 UCLA water polo team, 7-4 overall after splitting six matches and finishing sixth at the UC Irvine Invitational, will be in Providence, R. I., this weekend for the Brown University Invitational.

Sophomore hole man Alexis Rousseau, starting his first matches for the Bruins after competing with the junior national team in Brazil, broke loose for 22 goals at Irvine, including seven in a 13-5 win over Fresno State.

The No. 8 Pepperdine water polo team, 7-5 after losing five of six matches at the Irvine Invitational, will open its defense of the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. championship when it plays host to No. 5 Cal State Long Beach at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Malibu and meets No. 7 UC Santa Barbara at noon Sunday at Santa Barbara.

In the Waves’ second match of last week’s tournament, Pepperdine downed Loyola of Chicago but suffered a costly loss when senior Aaron Chasen suffered a hairline fracture of his right hand and missed the rest of the tourney. Chasen is listed as questionable for this weekend’s matches.

The women’s cross-country team at UCLA, which won last week’s Irvine Invitational, will compete Saturday at the All-Cal Invitational in Riverside.

At Irvine, the Bruins finished first with 53 points, followed by Arizona State with 62, Arizona with 74 and UC Irvine with 79.