SPORTSCOPE : UCLA Soccer Team Faces Strong Portland in Regionals Sunday

The UCLA men’s soccer team (17-3-1), ranked 10th nationally, will play No. 15 Portland (18-2-3) in the second round of the NCAA Far West Regionals at 2 p.m. Sunday at El Camino College.

The Bruins survived an overtime and a penalty-kick shoot-out to defeat San Diego State, 2-1, in the first round last week. Mike Lapper scored UCLA’s only goal in regulation on assists from Steve Black and Sam George. The Bruins were awarded their second goal after edging the Aztecs, 3-2, in penalty kicks. The three successful kicks were by George, Will Stedman and Tim Gallegos.

Portland is coming off a 1-0 overtime victory over Washington in the first round. Last year the Pilots defeated UCLA, 2-0, in the regional championship game.

The No. 3 Pepperdine water polo team (23-5 overall, 8-1 in the Big West Conference) will try to clinch the conference championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament when it plays No. 5 Cal State Long Beach (16-8, 7-2) at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

Last week the Waves, who lead Long Beach and No. 2 UC Irvine (23-6, 7-2) by one game in the conference, defeated USC, 12-5, and were edged by Irvine, 10-9. Pepperdine’s Geoffrey Clark and Sasa Poljak each scored three goals in each game.

In earlier matches, Pepperdine defeated Long Beach, 11-9 and 12-6.

The UCLA men’s and women’s golf teams will be hosts for the first Pioneer Electronics/Bruin Desert Tournament on Monday through Wednesday at the Mission Hills Resort in Rancho Mirage.

The women’s field is especially strong with eight of the nation’s top-10 teams, including No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Tulsa, No. 3 San Jose, No. 4 Arizona State, No. 5 Arizona, No. 7 Texas and No. 8 Stanford. Others are No. 13 UCLA, No. 14 USC, No. 17 Oklahoma State, No. 24 Brigham Young and No. 30 Oklahoma.

Top-ranked women include No. 1 Brandie Burton of Arizona State, No. 2 Tina Paternostro of Georgia, No. 3 Martina Koch of Arizona and Tulsa’s Kelly Robbins and Cathy Mockett, tied for fourth. UCLA is led by All-American Jean Zedlitz.

UCLA, with seniors Rob Sullivan and Ken Tanigawa, is favored among the men. Other teams include Pepperdine, Stanford, Pacific, Washington, Oregon, San Diego State, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Long Beach and U.S. International.

The Pepperdine men’s golf team, which finished seventh in last week’s UC Santa Barbara tournament, will play next week in the UCLA tournament at Rancho Mirage. The Wave women, idle since September, are competing in the U.S. International Invitational, which ends Friday at Rancho Bernardo Country Club in San Diego.

At Santa Barbara, the Gauchos edged Stanford, 920-921, in team competition while Pepperdine shot 944. Wave senior Kevin Edgen came in ninth among individuals with a 231 for 54 holes.

The No. 2 UCLA women’s volleyball team (24-1 overall, 17-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference as the week began) will end the regular season when it plays host to No. 20 Louisiana State at 7 p.m. Friday at John Wooden Center.

Last week the Bruins defeated San Diego State and Oregon State, each in four games, and Oregon in three. Senior middle blocker Daiva Tomkus recorded an unassisted block against Oregon State, giving her 98 career solo blocks and breaking the school record of 97 by Merja Connolly (1981-84).

The Pepperdine women’s volleyball team (19-7 overall, 13-0 in the West Coast Conference at the start of the week) will play Loyola Marymount (8-17, 7-6) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Loyola’s Albert Gersten Pavilion and end the regular season at 8 p.m. Tuesday at San Diego State.

Last week the Waves, who have clinched their fourth straight berth in the NCAA tournament, were 2-1 on the road. They lost in three games to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and defeated conference opponents Gonzaga in four games and Portland in three.