SPORTSCOPE : Pepperdine Tankers Will Face Long Beach in NCAA Opener

The Pepperdine and Cal State Long Beach water polo teams will meet for the fourth time this season, this time in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Pepperdine (23-6) is seeded fourth in the tournament and Long Beach (18-8) fifth. Other first-round Friday matches are top-seeded California (24-3) against No. 8 Brown (18-9), No. 2 UC Irvine (24-6) against No. 7 Arkansas-Little Rock (19-2) and No. 3 Stanford (26-7) against No. 6 UC San Diego (20-12).

The tournament continues through Saturday and ends with Sunday’s championship game.

The Waves, Irvine and the 49ers finished in a three-way tie for first place in the Big West Conference, each at 8-2. Last week Pepperdine lost to Long Beach, 15-12. Earlier, the Waves defeated the 49ers, 11-9 and 12-6.

Pepperdine Coach Terry Schroeder said his team’s defense last week against Long Beach “was poor. Long Beach came out and scored the first four goals of the game, and we never really recovered.”

Schroeder said that several teams “have an excellent chance of winning the NCAA title. Whoever plays the best defense this weekend will leave with the national championship.”

Big West Conference coaches named Pepperdine sophomore Geoffrey Clark the conference player of the year and selected Schroeder as the league’s coach of the year. Clark and senior teammate Sasa Poljak were named to the all-conference first team, Pepperdine junior Paul Matarangas made the second team, and Wave senior Rob Sutter received honorable mention.

The UCLA women’s volleyball team, ranked first nationally and 26-1 overall, will end the regular season in the University of the Pacific/Wendy’s tournament on Friday and Saturday at Stockton.

Last week sophomore middle blocker Elaine Youngs was sidelined with a knee injury, but junior Samantha Shaver stepped in for Youngs and led the Bruins to victories over USC and Louisiana State. Shaver had 22 kills and hit .429 in the two matches.

The All-Western State Conference women’s volleyball team includes Santa Monica College sophomore setter-outside hitter Brigette McDonald and West Los Angeles College freshman middle blockers-outside hitters Margaret Williamson and Lorrie Vellutato.

Second-team selections include SMC freshman middle blockers Tanja Elliott and Stacy Pierce. Honorable mention went to Corsair freshmen Julie Foster, a middle blocker, and Heather Perini, an outside hitter.

The UCLA women’s basketball team, 12-16 overall and fourth in the Pacific 10 Conference last year, will open its season when it plays host to Eastern Illinois (16-12) at 7 p.m. Friday at Pauley Pavilion. The Bruins will entertain West Virginia (24-8) at 2 p.m. Sunday.

UCLA lost an exhibition game to the Spanish national team, 63-55, last week. Sophomore center Molly Tideback led the Bruins with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

The Santa Monica College men’s basketball team (3-1 as the week began) will play host to Los Angeles Trade Tech at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Corsair Gymnasium.

The Corsairs finished second at last week’s Compton College tournament, losing the championship game to Compton, 75-72. SMC posted tournament wins over Los Angeles Harbor, 92-89, and Los Angeles City, 88-87.

SMC freshman guard Donald Smith was named to the all-tournament team. Smith scored 60 points in the three games, 29 against Compton, and had 19 rebounds. He shot 56% (19 of 34) from the floor and 55% (five of nine) from three-point range.

The West Los Angeles College men’s basketball team (2-3 at the start of the week) lost twice last week in the Fullerton College tournament. The Oilers were defeated by El Camino, 94-69, and by Grossmont, 108-93. WLAC’s Anthony Gates scored 34 points in the two games and had 10 rebounds against Grossmont.

The Santa Monica College women’s basketball team (2-0) will play host to Los Angeles Trade Tech at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Corsair Gymnasium.

Last week the Corsairs opened the season with road wins over Compton, 72-51, and Antelope Valley, 65-46. Sophomore forward Jackie Nikzad scored 22 points against Compton and had 23 points, including six of eight on three-pointers, and a career-high 14 rebounds against Antelope Valley.

The Palisades girls tennis team (7-0) will play Taft (6-1) in the Los Angeles City 4-A team final at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Racquet Centre in Universal City. In the semifinals, Taft defeated Fairfax and Palisades beat Birmingham.

The Santa Monica College football team ended the season with a 44-13 victory over West Los Angeles College last week. The Corsairs finished with a 5-5 record; WLAC was 0-10.

SMC sophomore tailback Charles McKinzie gained 137 yards on 12 carries and finished the season with 1,161 yards rushing. McKinzie’s season total is second in school history to that of Deon Thomas, who had 1,219 yards last year.

The Pepperdine women’s golf team finished ninth with a total of 995 at the U.S. International tournament last week. Texas Christian was first at 936. Wave senior Peggy Kelly shot 238 for 54 holes to finish ninth among individuals.

A clinic for baseball coaches will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 16 and 17 at Loyola Marymount University’s George Page Stadium. Bill Geivitt, Loyola assistant coach, will direct a staff that includes college head coaches Mike Gillespie of USC, Dave Snow of Cal State Long Beach, Chris Smith of Loyola and Al Ferrer of UC Santa Barbara. The fee is $50. Call (213) 642-2765.