SPORTSCOPE : 3rd-Ranked Bruin Soccer Team Will Face Top Teams inUCLA/Met LifeTourney

The UCLA men’s soccer team, ranked third nationally, No. 11 Rutgers, No. 16 San Diego State and Wisconsin-Green Bay will compete this weekend in the fifth annual UCLA/Met Life tournament.

In Friday’s first round at El Camino College, San Diego State (10-3-1) will meet Rutgers (12-1) at 6 p.m. and UCLA (12-1-1) will face Wisconsin-Green Bay (9-6-1) at 8.

On Sunday at UCLA’s North Soccer Field, San Diego State will go against Wisconsin-Green Bay at noon and UCLA will meet Rutgers at 2 p.m.

In previous years, three tournament teams went on to the NCAA final, and of the three UCLA and Duke won NCAA championships in 1985 and 1986. The Bruins won Met Life tournaments in 1985 and 1986 and tied with San Diego State last year.

Last week the Aztecs dealt UCLA its first loss of the season, 3-2, in overtime. The three goals allowed to San Diego State were one more than Bruin goalkeeper Anton Nistl had given up in 12 games.

The Bruins bounced back and defeated Cal State Fullerton, 2-0, on goals by freshman Dan Beaney, his first, and Chris Henderson.

The Santa Monica College men’s soccer team (1-3 overall, 1-0 in the Western State Conference at the start of the week) will play at Allan Hancock at 3 p.m. Friday and play host to Moorpark at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Corsair Field.

Last week SMC came from behind to edge Oxnard, 2-1. Corsair goals were scored by forward Scott Fite and midfielder Dido Tshimanga.

The No. 2 UCLA women’s volleyball team (14-1 overall and 8-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference as the week began) will play Friday at Arizona State (10-11, 3-6) and Saturday at No. 9 Arizona (13-5, 5-4).

On the road last week, the Bruins defeated No. 17 Oregon and Oregon State, each in four games.

Against Oregon, UCLA senior middle blocker Daiva Tomkus had 18 kills, eight digs, nine blocks and hit .486; against Oregon State, she had 24 kills, seven digs, four blocks and hit .600. Against the Oregon teams, freshman middle blocker Natalie Williams had 29 kills and seven blocks and sophomore outside hitter Elaine Youngs had 36 kills, 16 digs and five blocks.

A winner of eight straight matches, the Pepperdine women’s volleyball team (12-5 overall, 7-0 in the West Coast Conference at the start of the week) will play host to the University of San Francisco (1-11, 1-5) at 7:30 p.m. Friday and to Santa Clara (4-14, 1-5) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

Last week the Waves swept Loyola Marymount, handing the Lions their first conference loss, and defeated the University of San Diego in three games. Senior outside hitter Tami Seidenberg had 14 kills against Loyola and 11 against USD. Sophomore outside hitter Carolyn Hueth had 10 kills against the Lions, and freshman middle blocker Debbie Merandi had eight kills and three blocks against USD.

The West Los Angeles College women’s volleyball team (8-9 overall, 3-6 in the Western State Conference at the start of the week) will play at 6 p.m. Friday at Pierce and at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Glendale.

Last week the Oilers defeated College of the Canyons in three games and lost to Bakersfield in five. Against Bakersfield, Margaret Williamson had 16 kills and Vivian Decker 12, and Lorrie Vellatuto had six stuff blocks.

The Santa Monica College women’s volleyball team (4-7 overall, 4-5 in the Western State Conference as the week began) will play host to Cuesta at 7 tonight at Corsair Gymnasium.

Last week SMC lost to Pierce in five games, a match that lasted nearly three hours, and to Santa Barbara City in three games. Against Pierce, freshman outside hitter Marvette Williams had 18 blocks, six stuff blocks and 13 kills, freshman middle blocker Julie Foster had 18 kills and sophomore outside hitter Stephanie Tarvyd had 16 kills.

In the midst of a nine-game winning streak, the No. 3 Pepperdine water polo team (15-3 overall, 4-0 in the Big West Conference) will play host to No. 8 UC Santa Barbara (8-8, 2-3) at 3 p.m. Friday, to No. 6 UCLA at noon Saturday and to top-ranked UC Irvine (15-2, 3-0) at noon Sunday at Raleigh Runnels Pool.

The Waves swept three road matches last weekend, defeating Pacific, 10-7; Stanford, 9-6, and Fresno State, 15-10. Sophomore Bruce Clark scored 12 goals in the three games and leads the Waves with 54. Pepperdine senior Sasa Poljak has 51.

The sixth-ranked UCLA water polo team (8-6) will play host to No. 4 Stanford at 3 p.m. Friday at Sunset Canyon Recreation Center and play at noon Saturday at No. 3 Pepperdine and at 7 p.m. Tuesday at No. 1 UC Irvine.

Last week the Bruins won four matches and lost one and emerged as the top college team in the third annual UCLA invitational tournament. UCLA was edged, 7-6, by the Harvard Water Polo Foundation, a club team of ex-college players. Harvard went 4-0 in the tournament but its victories do not count against the records of the competition’s college teams.

Coming off a 44-41 loss to Glendale, the Santa Monica College football team (3-2 overall, 2-2 in the Western State Conference) will play host to defending national champion Bakersfield (3-0-2, 2-0-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Corsair Field.

SMC Coach Ralph Vidal said that, if the Corsairs don’t beat Bakersfield, “this season will be a disappointment, no matter what our final record is.