UC Irvine’s Villa Is Third in Regional Race

UC Irvine’s Christy Villa finished third at the NCAA Western Regional cross-country race Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno, covering the 5,000-meter course in 16 minutes 54 seconds to qualify for the NCAA Championships on Nov. 23 in Lawrence, Kan.

Amy Skieresz of Arizona won in 16:26 to lead the Wildcats to the team title with 78 points. Stanford’s Julia Stamps was second in 16:33 and the Cardinal was second with 80 points.

Lisa Gillis (17:57) was 30th and Jamie Vaicaro (18:11) was 40th for Irvine, which finished seventh with 188 points.

Terry Vega (18:32) led Cal State Fullerton, which was 18th with 488 points.

In the men’s race, Irvine finished 14th and Fullerton 15th. Robert Frichtel (33:18) and Mike Murray (33:20) led Irvine and Eric Loudon (33:36) led Fullerton on the 10,000-meter course.

Arizona’s Abdi Abdirahman won in 30:06 and Stanford won the team title.

In nonconference men’s basketball:

Concordia 81, Dominican 56--Concordia (2-0) shot 56% from the field, led by Joel Burgess, Harald Hofmann and Brian Vander Wal, each with 16 points. Vander Wal also had a game-high 12 rebounds and six assists.

In nonconference women’s basketball:

San Diego 62, UC Irvine 39--UC Irvine (0-1) shot 22% from the field and was outscored, 40-17, in the second half.

At the Cal Poly Pomona women’s basketball tournament:

Cal Poly Pomona 83, Southern California College 77--Kristi Wright had 24 points, making six of eight three-pointers, and freshman center Kelly Boeke, an all-tournament selection, had 12 points and 12 rebounds for SCC (0-2).

Cal State Dominguez Hills 64, Concordia 57--All-tournament selection Jaime Gast scored 13 points and had five steals for Concordia (0-2).

In the NCAA Division III West Regional men’s soccer playoffs:

Pacific University 2, Chapman 1--Rusty Sandusky, who assisted on Chris Burke’s first-half goal, scored in the 80th minute to break a 1-1 tie for host Pacific (15-5-1). Brad Carter scored off Mike Sterner’s assist in the 34th minute to tie it, 1-1, for Chapman (12-8-1).

At the ITA women’s tennis regional at UC Irvine:

Huber, Popescu reach finals--USC’s Ditta Huber defeated teammate Jacqui Boyd, 6-1, 7-5, in one singles semifinal and UCLA’s Cristina Popescu defeated teammate Amanda Basica, 6-2, 5-7, 6-2, in the other semifinal. Huber and Popescu play in the final at 9 a.m. today.

In Big West Conference women’s volleyball:

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 3, UC Irvine 0--Trisha Jenssen, from Dana Hills High, had 10 kills, including the 1,000th of her career to lead San Luis Obispo, 15-6, 15-1, 15-8. The Mustangs are 18-9, 8-8.

Jacqui Cosgrove led Irvine (9-22, 4-12 in conference) with six kills.

UC Santa Barbara 3, Cal State Fullerton 0--Megan Sabo had 12 kills in the 15-10, 15-7, 15-5 loss for Cal State Fullerton (9-18, 3-13).

Roberta Gehlke had 15 kills to lead Santa Barbara (24-5, 13-3).

In Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s water polo:

UC Irvine 11, Pacific 4--Ryan Bailey scored three goals and Kevin Brantley also had three, including a two-pointer, for host Irvine (16-6, 5-2).