SPORTSCOPE : UCLA Men’s Soccer Team Faces San Diego in Playoffs

The second-ranked UCLA men’s soccer team (15-1-3) will play host to the University of San Diego (16-2-5) in the second round of the NCAA playoffs at 1 p.m. Sunday at the North Soccer Field.

UCLA had a bye in the first round because it is one of the top-seeded teams in the tournament. San Diego is coming off a first-round, 4-2 victory over Portland.

In a regular-season match in September, the Bruins and San Diego tied, 3-3, in overtime.

UCLA scoring leaders are Billy Thompson with 41 points on 17 goals and seven assists and Joe-Max Moore with 29 points on 10 goals and nine assists. Freshman goalkeeper Brad Friedel has a goals-against average of 0.67.

This will be the eighth consecutive appearance in the NCAAs for UCLA teams coached by Sigi Schmid. That ties the school record set under former Coach Dennis Storer in the 1970s.

The Bruins are unbeaten at home in 37 consecutive matches. In the NCAAs, UCLA won the national championship in 1985, was second three times and has a record of 26-17.

The top-ranked UCLA women’s volleyball team (26-1 overall and 15-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference as the week began) will end its conference season when it plays Friday at Washington State (13-16, 6-10) and Saturday at Washington (7-15, 5-11).

Last week the Bruins defeated No. 8 UC Santa Barbara in five games and Arizona State and Arizona, each in three. Against Santa Barbara, Marissa Hatchett had a career-high 27 kills, and in the three matches, she had 48 kills, 21 digs, 20 blocks and hit .405. Against the Arizona teams, Natalie Williams had 43 kills, 36 digs and 17 blocks.

The Pepperdine women’s volleyball team (21-5 overall and 11-0 in the West Coast Conference) can clinch the conference title with two victories on a three-game trip this week. The Waves will play tonight at the University of San Francisco (9-18, 2-10), Friday at Santa Clara (5-7, 14-11) and Saturday at St. Mary’s (2-10, 13-16).

The Waves extended their conference winning streak to 30 matches on Saturday by defeating Loyola Marymount in three games. Blair Noonan led Pepperdine with 15 kills.

The No. 5 Pepperdine water polo team (20-8 overall and 8-1 in the Big West Conference), tied for first place in the conference with UC Santa Barbara, will end the regular season when it plays No. 9 Cal State Long Beach (12-15, 4-5) at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

Last week the Waves, winners of six consecutive matches and 14 of 15, beat No. 4 UCLA, 11-10, in sudden-death overtime on a goal by Craig Stenberg. Henry Rabello leads Pepperdine with 77 goals and Geoffrey Clark has 70.

The No. 4 UCLA water polo team (22-7 overall and 2-3 in the Pac-10) played two sudden-death overtimes last week, losing to No. 5 Pepperdine, 11-10, but defeating No. 2 Stanford, 13-12, on a goal by Javier Escobar.

The Bruins will end the regular season when they play host to No. 6 USC at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center.

Stefan Pollmann scored seven goals against Stanford and three against Pepperdine, extending his single-season school record to 109 goals. Bruin goalkeeper Dan Hackett has 155 saves in 441 minutes and a .583 save average.

The UCLA women’s and men’s swim teams will play host to Arizona at 1 p.m. Friday and to Arizona State at 9 a.m. Saturday at the UCLA men’s gymnasium pool.

Last week the Bruin men lost to defending national champion Texas, 134-108. Event winners against Texas included Matjaz Kozelj in the 200-meter butterfly in 1:49.73, Andrea Cecci in the 200 breaststroke in 2:04.95 and the 400 freestyle relay team in 3:03.58.

Kirsten Sutter won three events to lead the Pepperdine women’s swim team to 163-127 season-opening victory over Pomona Pitzer last week. Sutter’s victories were in the 100 butterfly in 1:02.15, the 200 fly in 2:19.45 and the 200 backstroke in 2:23.24.

The Waves will play host to Cal State San Bernardino and UC Irvine in a triangular meet at noon Saturday at Raleigh Runnels Pool.

The No. 9 UCLA women’s golf team, which won last week’s Pioneer Electronics Bruin Desert tournament, will compete today through Sunday at the Golf World Invitational at Hilton Head, S.C.

The Bruin women shot 611 at the last week’s tournament at Rancho Mirage, and UCLA freshman Lisa Kiggens won the individual competition with 148. Other Bruin leaders included Debbi Koyama, tied for second at 152; LaRee Sugg, ninth at 157, and Elizabeth Bowman, tied for 10th at 158.

The UCLA men finished third at Rancho Mirage with 596, behind first-place USC at 583 and Fresno State at 586. Greg Garbero led the Bruin men, tying for fourth with 145.

The Pepperdine men’s team shot 612 and finished 11th at the Bruin Desert tournament. Brad Payne led the Waves with 147 and tied for 10th.

The West Los Angeles College men’s basketball season, which opened the season with two losses in the Barstow tournament, will play an alumni team at 7 p.m. Friday at Culver City’s Veterans Memorial Auditorium. WLAC forward Reece Stovall scored a game-high 31 points, including four three-point shots, in a 94-88 loss to Ft. Irwin. In a 121-106 loss to Chaffey, forward Keith London scored 26 points on 10-of-16 shooting to lead five Oilers who scored in double figures.