SportsScope : UCLA and Pepperdine Clash in NCAA Water Polo Tournament

The UCLA water polo team, seeded third in the NCAA Tournament, will meet sixth-seeded Pepperdine in the first round of tourney play at 6 p.m. Friday at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

In Friday’s other matches, top-seeded California faces eighth-seeded Brown at 3 p.m., second-seeded USC goes against seventh-seeded Navy at 4:30, and fourth-seeded Stanford plays fifth-seeded UC Irvine at 7:30.

Saturday’s second round starts at 1 p.m. and ends with a fourth match at 7:30. Sunday matches start at 1 p.m. and the final is at 7:30.

The Bruins, 24-8 overall and 3-3 in the Pacific 10 Conference, have won their last three matches with Pepperdine, 18-15 and 8-2, for second place in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. The Waves won the first meeting in the Cal State Long Beach tournament in October.

The Bruins are led by junior All-American Fernando Carsalade, named Pac-10 player of the year this week, and sophomore all-conference selection Alexis Rousseau, their leading scorer with 68 goals. Carsalade, second in team scoring with 62 goals, has set a school single-season record this year with 98 steals.

UCLA goalie Mike VanderWaerdt has 122 saves and 0.53 goals-against average.

Pepperdine is paced by junior Sasa Poljak, named the PCAA co-player of the year with Irvine’s Greg Wilson, and junior Rafael Gandarillas and senior Aaron Chasen, who were named to the all-conference second team. Gandarillas leads the Waves with 76 goals, Poljak has scored 74 and Chasen 65.

The UCLA men’s soccer team, 14-6-1 overall, will play host to San Diego State (18-5) in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament at 1 p.m. Sunday at the North Soccer Field.

The Bruins, top seeded in the Far West Regional and a 1-0 winner over Fresno State in the first round of the NCAAs, advanced to the third round when Nevada Las Vegas had to forfeit to the Bruins for using an ineligible player.

San Diego won its first two matches in the Midwest Regional, defeating St. Louis, 2-1, and Southern Methodist, 4-3, on penalty kicks.

In early November, the Bruins defeated the Aztecs, 3-1, at San Diego. UCLA, trailing 1-0 at halftime, came back on two goals by junior Nick Skvarna and one by Steve Black.

Junior Kyle Whittemore tops San Diego State with 17 goals and 4 assists, followed by freshman Eric Wynalda with 10 goals and 11 assists and senior Curt Lewis with 8 goals and 5 assists.

Sophomore Bill Thompson leads the Bruins with 7 goals and 7 assists, and senior teammate Jeff Hooker has 7 goals and 5 assists.

The Pepperdine men’s basketball team will open its 5Oth season when it plays DePaul at 5:30 p.m. Saturday (PST) at Rosemont Horizon near Chicago.

The Waves will play host to UC Irvine at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

Last season the Blue Demons, usually one of the top independents, finished 28-3 and ranked fifth in the final Associated Press poll. They have also made the NCAA Final 16 the last two seasons.

DePaul, which lost top scorer and rebounder Dallas Comegys to the pros after last season, still appeared to have a good shot at going to another NCAA tourney this season. But last week junior point guard Rod Strickland, the team’s second-best scorer, was declared academically ineligible and will not be able to play until mid-December, if then.

The Blue Demons have three other returning starters: senior guard Kevin Edwards, junior forward Terence Greene and senior forward-center Kevin Golden.

But Pepperdine Coach Jim Harrick said that DePaul “takes on a much different look without Rod Strickland.”

Harrick hopes that his team will look much different from last year’s squad, which finished 12-18 overall, his first losing season at the school. His starters should be sophomore Tom Lewis and senior Levy Middlebrooks at forwards, sophomore Dexter Howard at center and sophomore Craig Davis and junior Marty Wilson at guards.

Harrick said he likes “the makeup of our team, even though we are short, thin, inexperienced and lack depth.”

The UCLA women’s basketball team, 18-10 overall last season, will open the season against Stephen F. Austin (25-6) on Friday in the first round of the University of Hawaii’s Rainbow Wahine tournament, which ends Sunday.

Bruin Coach Billie Moore has four starters back: All-Pac-10 guard Dora Dome, guard Jaime Brown, 6-3 forward Sandra Van Embricqs and 6-2 1/2 center Sheri Bouldin. Four candidates are vying to play point guard: junior Teiko Nishi, freshmen Rachelle Roulier and Michelle Miles and 6-0 sophomore forward Michele Wootton.

The Pepperdine women’s basketball team, with five starters from a team that finished 16-11 overall last season, will open its campaign by playing host to UC Santa Barbara at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

The starting five are led by senior forward Earnesta Grace, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder and an All-West Coast Athletic Conference selection as a junior. The others are 6-0 senior forward Cindy Sanders, 6-4 sophomore center Sharon Clark, senior guard Shannon Boyd and junior guard Stephanie Meneze.

Top reserves include sophomore guard Kristy Greenberg, who made the all-conference freshman team, sophomore guard Dionne Buyrgess and 6-0 junior forward April Marion, a transfer from Golden West College.

The UCLA and Pepperdine women’s volleyball teams are awaiting pairings and seeds for the NCAA Tournament, which will be announced Sunday.

The fifth-ranked Bruins, 27-8 overall and 13-4 and in second place in the Pac-10 as the week began, finished the regular season this week. Pepperdine was 19-10 overall at the start of the week and champion of the West Coast Athletic Conference with a 14-0 record. The Waves also closed out the regular season this week.

Last week UCLA split on the road, defeating California in five games but losing to Pac-10 champion Stanford in three games. Against Cal, Daiva Tomkus broke the school single-season record for block assists, getting six to raise her total to 163, four more than Merja Connolly had in 1983. Tomkus also had a career-high 26 digs and 23 kills against the Bears. The Waves ended conference play last week by defeating San Diego and St. Mary’s, each in three games. Senior Julie Evans leads the Waves with a .295 hitting average, 4.84 kills a game, 2.85 digs a game and 392 kills.

The Pepperdine women’s swim team (2-0) won 10 of 16 events in defeating Claremont Mudd, 144-115, last week.

Four of the Waves were double winners: Chris Carrauthers, the 50 freestyle in 25.61 and the 100 butterfly in 11:02.98; Jennifer Gutierrez, the 1,000 free in 11:10.38 and the 200 butterfly in 2:18.28; Jeryll Reed, the 100 backstroke in 1:05.49 and the 200 back in 2:23.27, and diver Bridget Kenehan, the 1-meter with 227.7 points and the 3-meter with 242.1.

The Waves’ next meet is at Cal State Long at noon on Dec. 5.

The 12th annual Beverly Hills-Perrier 10-kilometer run and other events will be held Dec. 6 with the starting line at Beverly Hills High School, 241 S. Moreno Drive.

A 5-K race for waiters will begin at 8:57 a.m., a wheelchair race at 8:59, the 10-K, which has a corporate division, at 9 and a one-mile community run at 10:30.