Bruin SportsWire: Men’s soccer makes NCAA Tournament

There were too many things happening Monday to do our normal weekly review of Sunday, so here’s a look at what’s happening across Morgan Center at UCLA:

Baseball:

>> This week: Coach John Savage signed seven players to national letters of intent, including three high school All-Americans: infielder Clark Amezquita of La Mirada Servite High School (he’s ranked as the No. 69 prep prospect in the nation by Baseball America); first baseman/right fielder Clark Murphy of Fallbrook (Calif.) Union High School (No. 86) and right-handed pitcher Gerrit Cole of Orange Lutheran High School (No. 9).

>> Of note: UCLA is picked as a probable for the 2008 College World Series, and in the annual fall Blue-Gold Series that concluded Sunday at Jackie Robinson Stadium, junior slugger Cody Decker hit a two-run, walk-off homer to lead the Gold Team to a 3-1 series win. Freshman outfielder Brett Krill was the hitting star for the Gold at 8-15 (.533) for the series; Decker was 5-12 (.417) with two home runs. Senior outfielder Brady Dolan was 7-13 (.538) for the Blue Team, followed by sophomore first baseman Casey Haerther (7-15, .467) and sophomore outfielder Blair Dunlap (5-11, .455).

Cross-country:

>> This week: The season concluded with three Bruin individuals competing in Monday’s NCAA Cross-Country Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. Senior Austin Ramos finished 32nd, earning All-American honors. Senior Kyle Shackleton finished 96th and brother Drew Shackleton (a junior) was 104th.

Football:

>> This week: After a bye, UCLA (5-5) plays 8-2 Oregon on Saturday at the Rose Bowl. The Ducks are without star quarterback Dennis Dixon, but have a potent rushing attack led by Jonathan Stewart.

>> Of note: Through its first five games of the home season, UCLA has averaged a school record 77,167 fans at the Rose Bowl. The Bruins will set an all-time single-season record for average home game attendance if 56,423 show up Saturday. The school record — and the only other time that UCLA has averaged more than 70,000 in home attendance in its history — was in 1998, when UCLA averaged 73,709 for its five home contests.

Men’s soccer:

>> Last week: UCLA and San Diego State played to a 1-1 draw, costing UCLA a clear second-place finish in the conference and a winning record in the regular season.

>> This week: Despite an 8-8-3 overall record, UCLA was invited into the NCAA Tournament for the 25th consecutive season. The Bruins will open NCAA play with a home game against Mountain Pacific Sports Federation champion New Mexico (12-4-2) at 7 p.m. Saturday at Drake Stadium. The winner will play seventh-seed Santa Clara on Nov. 28 in Santa Clara. UCLA lost a 2-1 overtime game to Santa Clara on Sept. 22.

>> Of note: Although UCLA was only 4-4-2 in the Pac-10 this season, but tied for second with Stanford and San Diego State, the Bruins had an amazing 11 players receive All-Pac-10 honors of some kind. Junior midfielders Tony Beltran and Jason Leopoldo (pictured), sophomore midfielder Chance Myers and senior defender Mike Zaher earned first-team honors, while sophomore midfielder Kyle Nakazawa was named to the second team. Sophomore forward David Estrada, senior defenders Greg Folk and Brandon Owens, junior forward Maxwell Griffin, sophomore goalkeeper Brian Perk and junior defender Brad Rusin earned honorable mention nods.

Men’s water polo:

>> Last week: Third-ranked UCLA suffered a surprising loss to Pepperdine at home, 7-6, in six overtimes, despite three goals by Scott Davidson. The Bruins beat Long Beach State on the road  Sunday, 9-7, behind three more goals by Davidson to finish the regular season at 19-6 and 5-3 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

>> This week: UCLA has been ranked among the nation's top four or five teams all season, but it probably will have to win the MPSF Tournament to get into the NCAA Tournament. California is the top seed, followed by USC and Stanford. The Bruins will start play Friday against fifth-seeded UC Irvine, then would play the winner of Cal Long Beach State on Saturday.

Women’s basketball:

>> This week: The Bruins are 2-0, beating Rice, 79-71 at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday behind 14 points from freshman guard Doreena Campbell and 12 each from freshman center Regina Rogers and senior forward Lindsey Pluimer, who also had a game-high 11 rebounds.

The Bruins play Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (2-1) at 7 tonight at Pauley Pavilion. It’s the first meeting between the schools since the 1975-76 season.

Women’s soccer:

>> This week: The No. 1-ranked Bruins (18-1-2) have reached the NCAA round of 16 and will play host to Virginia (13-3-6) at 6 p.m. Friday at Drake Stadium. The Bruins have won 15 matches in a row this season and have a 34-match winning streak at home. They outscored their opponents in the first two rounds, Cal State Fullerton and Oklahoma State, by a combined total of 7-1.

Women’s volleyball:

>> Last week: No. 10 UCLA swept past Washington State in three games Friday night, but then was  swept by No. 5 Washington on Saturday at Pauley Pavilion.

>> This week: UCLA (18-9) finishes its season on the road this week, with a match at 7 tonight at Pepperdine (18-9), and then ends the conference schedule with matches at Arizona State (15-14) on Friday and at Arizona (13-16) on Saturday. The Bruins are tied with Oregon for fifth in the conference at 8-8.

Jason Leopoldo photo courtesy of UCLA