Pierce Makes Another Final Foray in Volleyball

For the second consecutive year, Pierce College will play in the state men’s final four volleyball tournament.

The Brahmas (17-2), the South Coast Conference champions, will face Golden West (16-5) in a semifinal match tonight at 7:30 at Irvine Valley.

The championship match will be played Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

Pierce, which won state titles in 1986, 1988 and 1992, finished second to Orange Coast last season.

Football

Former Newbury Park High and Arizona lineman Joe Smigiel signed a free-agent contract with the Cleveland Browns.

Soccer

Quartz Hill High forward Mathieu Matalon has signed a letter of intent to play at Teikyo Westmar University, an NAIA Division I school in Le Mars, Iowa.

He was an All-Golden League selection in 1995 as Quartz Hill went 17-3-2, won the league title and earned a berth in the Southern Section Division III playoffs.

Cross-Country

Sophomores John Colvin and Jill Fuess and freshman Lisa Loberg of Cal Lutheran have been named to the 1994 NCAA Division III Academic All-American team.

All three maintained a grade-point average of 3.5 or higher.

Golf

Organizers of the PGA Championship at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades have announced a new ticket package for the event.

Two-day passes have been added for the Aug. 10-13 event. Tickets for the first two rounds are $100 and tickets for the final 36 holes are $130.

A total of 22,000 tickets will be sold. Single-day, four-day and junior passes also are available.

Tickets: 800-PGA-IN-95.

Tennis

Aris Hovsepian of Pierce College was chosen coach of the year in the Western State Conference.

No. 1 singles player Jenia Karimov was chosen player of the year.

Bowling

Eric Forkel of Chatsworth averaged 233 for five games Thursday to take the lead at the end of qualifying in the $250,000 American Bowling Congress Bud Light Masters in Reno.

Forkel, 34, is a Van Nuys High graduate. He rolled games of 258, 268, 223, 198 and 222 for 1,169. He is 93 pins ahead of Mark Williams of Beaumont, Tex.

Softball

El Camino Real, Reseda and Granada Hills drew first-round byes in the City Section 4-A playoffs which begin Tuesday.

El Camino Real, the defending champion, is seeded No. 1 and will play the Carson-Sylmar winner Thursday at El Camino Real. Reseda is seeded second, Granada Hills fourth.

* Contributing: Fernando Dominguez, Steve Elling, Dana Haddad, Michael Lazarus, Bryan Rodgers, Tris Wykes.