SportsScope : UCLA Soccer Team to Host Santa Clara Sunday

The UCLA men’s soccer team (8-0), ranked second nationally, will play host to No. 4 Santa Clara (7-0) at 2 p.m. Sunday at the North Soccer Field.

The Bruins have shut out their last six opponents and have outscored foes, 27-1. Santa Clara, with its highest national ranking ever, has four shutouts and has outscored opponents, 27-4.

Last week, UCLA defeated New Mexico, 2-0, before an Albuquerque crowd of 8,000. Senior goalkeeper Anton Nistl, who has seven shutouts this season to lead the nation, recorded his 32nd career shutout, extending his school record. Cobi Jones, among the nation’s scoring leaders with 18 points, scored one goal and made it eight straight games in which he has had either a goal or an assist.

UCLA is off to its best start since 1980, and Nistl is having a sensational season. He has not allowed a goal in his last 544 minutes, and his goals-against average of 0.13 is the best among West Coast goalies and puts him among the nation’s leaders. In his UCLA career, he has been in the net for 46 victories, two less than the school record held by Tim Harris.

The Broncos, coached by former UCLA assistant Steve Sampson, defeated UCLA, 1-0, last year, but the Bruins lead the series, 8-3-2.

The Santa Monica College men’s soccer team (0-2) will play today at 3 p.m. at Orange Coast, defending Orange Empire Conference champion. The Corsairs have been idle for two weeks.

The third-ranked UCLA water polo team (4-4) will play host to No. 1 California at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center.

Two-time All-American Alex Rousseau and Mark Maretzki, both seniors, lead the Bruins in scoring, each with 14 goals. Sophomore goalkeeper Danny Hackett has 67 saves in seven games.

The third annual Bruin Invitational will be held Oct. 14-15 at the Sunset Canyon Center. Teams include the Harvard Super Club, Loyola Marymount, UC San Diego, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Air Force. Games start at 9 a.m. Oct. 14 and 10 a.m. Oct. 15.

The No. 4 Pepperdine water polo team, coming off a second-place finish at the Air Force tournament, will play at No. 9 UC San Diego at 6 p.m. Friday. Earlier, the Waves (9-3) defeated UCSD, 15-7, in the UC Irvine tournament.

At the Air Force tournament, Pepperdine lost to No. 2 Irvine, 15-12, but then defeated UC Santa Barbara, 17-9; Army, 17-4, and Air Force, 15-6.

Senior Sasa Poljak tops the Waves with goals, followed by sophomore Geoff Clark with 32 and senior Rafael Gandarillas with 25. Sophomore goalie Wells Guthrie has 98 saves in 10 games.

The Santa Monica College water polo team (3-3 as the week started) will open Western State Conference competition when it plays host to Los Angeles Valley at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Santa Monica High School.

Last week the Corsairs defeated San Bernardino Valley, 15-13, but lost to Long Beach City, 15-5.

The Santa Monica College football team, (2-0) overall, which defeated Los Angeles Harbor, 40-13, last week in its Western State Conference opener, will continue its conference schedule at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Ventura College (2-0).

SMC tailback Charles McKinzie had 15 carries for a career-high 151 yards and scored two touchdowns against Harbor. Linebacker Randy Cole and defensive tackle Rodney Scott were named the Corsairs’ defensive players of the game. Cole had five unassisted tackles with 18 assists and two sacks, and he forced a fumble and deflected a pass. Scott was in on 11 tackles and forced a fumble and recovered it.

Ventura is coming off a 36-0 rout of Compton and shut out Porterville, 30-0, in its debut. The Pirates are led on offense by tailback Ryan Rapoza, who is averaging 6.2 yards a carry, and on defense by nose tackle Eeron Wilson, linebacker Lee Jaitt and defensive back Kyron Johnson.

SMC is ranked 12th in the state and 10th in Southern California, and the Pirates are ranked 15th in Southern California. The Ventura defense has been holding opponents to just 154 yards a game in total offense; the Corsairs have been giving up an average of 187.5.

The second-ranked UCLA women’s volleyball team (7-1 overall, 2-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference) will play Friday at No. 20 Washington (6-5, 2-2) and Saturday at Washington State (6-10, 1-3).

Last week the Bruins extended their home winning streak to 22 matches by defeating No. 10 Arizona in four games and Arizona State in three.

UCLA senior middle blocker Daiva Tomkus was named Pac-10 player of the week after she had 23 kills, 17 blocks, nine digs and one service ace against the Arizona schools. Junior outside hitter Samantha Shaver added 21 kills, 10 digs and three combined blocks.

The Pepperdine women’s volleyball team, two-time defending West Coast Conference champion, will open its conference schedule this week on the road. The Waves (5-5) will play tonight at Santa Clara, Friday night at St. Mary’s and Saturday night at the University of San Francisco.

Last week Pepperdine upset No. 13 UC Santa Barbara, winning in three games at Malibu.

Outside hitter Cari Delson leads the Waves with a .347 hitting percentage and has 128 kills, outside hitter Tami Seidenberg has a team-high 141 kills and freshman middle blocker Debbie Merandi tops the team with 29 total blocks.

The West Los Angeles College women’s volleyball team (5-6 overall, 0-3 in the Western State Conference at the start of the week) will play a conference match at 7 tonight at Moorpark.

Last week WLAC finished second in the Cypress tournament, defeating Cypress, Mount San Jacinto and Chaffey but losing to Fullerton in the championship match.

The Santa Monica College women’s volleyball team (1-4 overall, 1-2 in the Western State Conference as the week began) will play a WSC match at 7 p.m. Friday at Ventura.

Last week the Corsairs lost conference matches to Moorpark and Cuesta and finished seventh in the 25-team Rancho Santiago tournament. In tourney pool play, SMC won two games each from Dixie of Utah and Mesa of Arizona, split two with American River and lost two to Grossmont. In the championship round, the Corsairs lost to Cerritos, 15-4, and were eliminated.

The UCLA women’s golf team, which won the Brigham Young invitational last week, and Bruin senior Jean Zedlitz won the individual competition with a four-over-par 220 for 54 holes. UCLA is competing this week at the University of Oregon invitational.

Other Bruin scores and finishes at BYU were: junior Debbi Koyama and freshman Elizabeth Bowman, 229, fourth-place tie; freshman Carrie Leary, 234, 10th, and sophomore Christy Erb, 235, 11th.

The Pepperdine men’s golf team will begin its season in the Coca-Cola tournament, which will be held Friday through Sunday at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.

Coach Kurt Schuette’s top returning players include senior Kevin Eden and juniors John Geiberger and Brad Payne.

The UCLA women’s cross country team, coming off a third-place finish at the San Diego State invitational, will compete Saturday in the UC Riverside invitational.

At San Diego State, Bruin sophomore Jennifer finished 13th in 18:12.4 and freshman teammate Kira Jorgensen was 19th in 18:18.7.