NOTEBOOK / GARY KLEIN : Cal State Women’s Volleyball Team in Elite 8 Tournament

The Cal State Los Angeles women’s volleyball team will play North Dakota State in the first round of the NCAA Division II Elite Eight tournament that begins Friday at Portland State.

Cal State L.A., ranked 12th in Division II, advanced to the final eight by winning the Southwest Regional last weekend at Cal Poly Pomona.

Cal State L.A. (24-9) defeated 17th-ranked UC Riverside, 16-14, 17-15, 15-7, in a semifinal match, then defeated fifth-ranked Pomona for the fourth time in five matches this season, 15-10, 7-15, 15-5, 5-15, 15-10.

Nikki Drullard had 23 kills against Pomona and was named outstanding player of the regional.

The Mt. San Antonio College and Pasadena City College football teams will conclude their seasons this Saturday by participating in bowl games.

Mt. SAC, which finished its regular season with an 8-2 record, will play defending state champion Palomar (9-1) in the Orange County Bowl at 7 p.m. at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. The game is the second part of a doubleheader that also features top-ranked Saddleback against No. 2 City College of San Francisco.

Pasadena (8-2) was the only team in the state with at least eight victories that was not invited to a bowl game. So Pasadena administrators organized their own game, calling it the Rose City Classic Bowl. Pasadena will play host to College of the Desert (6-3-1) at 1 p.m.

The San Marino High boys’ cross-country team finished second in the Division III race for the second consecutive season at the State cross-country meet Saturday in Fresno.

Six of San Marino’s top seven runners were sidelined by injury or illness this year, but the team came within five points of top-ranked Newport Harbor, 89-94. La Puente was fourth with 122 points.

Ben Nichols was San Marino’s top finisher, placing 14th in 16 minutes 10 seconds over the 5,000-meter course. Warren Wolf, who an appendix removed during the season, and Lee Zuckerman, who ran despite heart surgery in August and a stress fracture in October, were 17th and 24th, respectively.

The Bishop Amat girls were 10th in Division II. The Maranatha boys and girls were seventh and 10th, respectively, in Division IV.

Times Staff writer Kirby Lee contributed to this notebook.