SPORTSSCOPE : Pepperdine Water Polo Team Tunes Up for Nationals

The Pepperdine water polo team, ranked third nationally, has to fine-tune its offense and defense in the final weeks of the season to get ready for the NCAA championships, says Coach Terry Schroeder.

“We want to build positive momentum in preparation for the NCAA championships,” Schroeder said, “and we have some important regular-season games remaining on our schedule.”

The Waves (20-4 overall, 6-0 in the Big West Conference) will play host to No. 14 Fresno State (8-16, 0-5) at 4 p.m. Friday and to No. 10 Pacific (7-11, 2-5) at noon Saturday at Raleigh Runnels Pool.

Last week Pepperdine won three straight matches with ease in a round-robin tournament at home. The Waves defeated No. 20 Loyola Marymount, 19-6; Iona, 19-5, and No. 11 Air Force, 15-7. Bruce Clark scored five goals against Iona and six against Air Force.

Led by new career scoring leader Alex Rousseau, the No. 5 UCLA water polo team (11-10 overall, 0-2 in the Pacific 10 Conference) will play Friday at No. 1 California and Saturday at No. 4 Stanford.

Last week senior All-American Rousseau scored 16 goals as the Bruins split four matches and finished fourth at the Cal State Long Beach Invitational. Cal, the Cardinal and UC Irvine finished one-two-three in the tournament. UCLA lost to Irvine, 14-10, in the third-place game. Before that the Bruins defeated Long Beach, 12-7, and Pacific, 10-7, and lost to Stanford, 10-8.

Rousseau has scored 278 career goals and broke the school mark of 277 by Scott Thornton (1981-84). He has 58 goals this season, and his school single-season record is 81.

The Santa Monica College water polo team (7-9 overall, 3-4 in the Western State Conference at the start of the week) will end its season when it plays host to Cuesta at 6 p.m. Friday at Santa Monica High School.

Last week the Corsairs split conference matches, defeating Pierce, 12-4, and losing to Ventura, 10-8, and lost a non-conference match to Chaffey, 8-7.

The second-ranked UCLA women’s volleyball team (19-1 overall, 13-0 in the Pac-10) will play Friday at No. 7 Stanford (12-6, 8-3) and Saturday at No. 14 California (13-9, 4-7). The Bruins will play host to San Diego State at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Pauley Pavilion.

Last week UCLA extended its conference unbeaten string to 31 matches, defeating Washington State and No. 19 Washington, each in three games. Senior All-American middle blocker Daiva Tomkus got her 97th solo block against Washington, tying the school career record of Merja Connolly (1981-84).

A winner of 11 of its last 12 matches, the Pepperdine women’s volleyball team (15-6 overall, 9-0 in the West Coast Conference) will play its final home matches of the regular season against Gonzaga (15-8, 5-3) at 7:30 tonight and Portland (12-11, 5-3) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Firestone Fieldhouse.

Last week the Waves upset No. 11 UC Santa Barbara for the second time this season, winning in four games on the road. Senior outside hitter Tami Seidenberg had 13 kills, sophomore outside hitter Cari Delson had 12 kills, and freshman middle blocker Debbie Merandi had eight kills and seven blocks.

The Santa Monica College women’s volleyball team (7-8 overall, 7-6 in the Western State Conference as the week began) will play at 7 p.m. Friday at College of the Canyons.

Last week the Corsairs defeated Moorpark on the road in three games and West Los Angeles at home in four. Against Moorpark, Stacy Pierce had 11 kills and four service aces, and Tanja Elliott had 10 kills and five stuff blocks. In the WLAC match, Julie Foster had 11 kills, Pierce had nine kills and Diane Renner had 23 digs.

The West Los Angeles College women’s volleyball team (9-12 overall, 4-9 in the WSC) will play host to Cuesta at 7 tonight and to Ventura at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Westchester High School.

Last week the Oilers beat Glendale in five games and lost to Santa Monica in four. Against Glendale, Laveai Falealili had eight service aces and Margaret Williamson had 19 kills. Against SMC, Falealili had 15 kills.

The No. 3 UCLA men’s soccer team (16-1-1) will finish the regular season this weekend in the South Carolina/Met Life tournament. The Bruins will meet No. 9 South Carolina (13-2-2) on Saturday and Howard on Sunday.

Last week UCLA goalkeeper Anton Nistl extended his school single-season shutout record to 15 matches as the Bruins defeated Westmont, defending NAIA champion, and No. 9 Fresno State, each 2-0. Nistl’s goals-against average of 0.27 tops the nation.

Sophomores Cobi Jones and Sam George scored goals against Westmont, and sophomore Mike Lapper and junior Kirk Ferguson scored against the Bulldogs.

Santa Monica College’s men’s soccer team (3-5 overall, 3-2 in the WSC at the start of the week) will play host to Bakersfield at 3 p.m. Friday at Clover Park in Santa Monica. Last week the Corsairs lost to Glendale, 5-1, and to Moorpark, 2-0.

The Santa Monica College football team (3-4 overall, 2-4 in the WSC) will try to snap a three-game losing streak when it plays at Compton (0-7, 0-6) at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Last week the Corsairs rushed for a season-low 83 net yards and lost to Pierce, 24-13. SMC turned the ball over three times, and SMC quarterbacks were sacked six times.

Pepperdine sophomore Kim McElhinney won the women’s five-kilometer run in 18:49 in the West Coast Conference cross-country championships, and Wave senior Dale Reicheneder finished 10th in the 10-K men’s race in 35:17. For the third straight year, both the Portland men and women won the team titles.

The UCLA women’s cross-country team finished fourth to first-place Washington at the Pac-10 championships at Stanford. Senior Laurie Chapman was seventh in 17:23 to lead the Bruins.