ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Larissa Carter

Volleyball

The UC Irvine women’s volleyball team evened its Big West Conference record at 2-2 behind the play of Larissa Carter, a sophomore outside hitter from Fountain Valley High School.

Carter had 19 kills and 17 digs in the Anteaters’ victory over Cal State Fullerton Saturday. Both were career highs.

THIS WEEK

Cross-country: Christy Villa continued a string of impressive performances. She finished fourth in the Stanford Invitational with the seventh-fastest time over the 5,000-meter course (17 minutes 1 second). The women’s team finished sixth, in front of seven other Big West teams. The men’s team finished 10th. Both teams are at the UC San Diego Invitational on Saturday.

Men’s soccer: Senior Pat Lee has a team-high five goals this season, giving him 19 in his career. He is fourth on the school’s all-time list with 44 points. Teammate Mike Mucino has 48 career points to rank third. Irvine hosts Portland at 8 p.m. Friday and the University of San Diego at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Women’s soccer: The Anteaters, who played in front of the largest home crowd in the school’s history (660) when they faced UCLA last week, return to Big West Conference play this week, hosting Cal Poly San Luis Obispo at 6 p.m. Friday and UC Santa Barbara at 1 p.m. Sunday. Irvine and San Luis Obispo have twice met in the now-defunct conference tournament title game. Last season, the Anteaters beat the Mustangs, 3-2, in sudden death to win the title.

Women’s volleyball: Freshman Michelle Wong moved into the lineup and had 26 kills, 19 digs and seven blocks last week in two Anteater victories. Irvine is 2-2 in the Big West, matching its conference victory total from last season. The Anteaters play at ninth-ranked Pacific at 7 p.m. Thursday and are at No. 1 Long Beach State at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. They have lost 19 consecutive games against Pacific and 25 in a row against Long Beach.

Water polo: Backup goalie Dan Hipp is so driven to improve that he has teammate Ryan Bailey--a member of the U.S. national team--fire point-blank shots at him during practice. Irvine hosts third-ranked Stanford at 11 a.m. Saturday at Heritage Park.