Cougars

PROVO, Utah — While the altitude wreaked havoc on their serving and, to some degree, their hitting, the No. 2-ranked UC Irvine men's volleyball team was thoroughly brought down to earth by a 30-21, 30-22, 30-27 loss to top-ranked BYU Friday night. An overflow crowd of 5,753 at the Smith Fieldhouse witnessed a dominant Mountain Pacific Sports Federation victory for the Cougars (9-0, 5-0 in conference) and a humbling loss for the Anteaters (10-2, 5-2), who committed 20 service errors, hit a season-low .146 as a team, and were bested in the blocking department, 11-5 1/2 . "We haven't played our best volleyball the last couple weeks, but tonight we were just dead terrible," UCI Coach John Speraw said after the Anteaters' second loss in three matches (both sweeps)

COSTA MESA — The College Park Cougars did not like the taste of defeat in their mouths after losing their first-round game, and a 9-1 win over Victoria Thursday afternoon had a sweet flavor to it at the Costa Mesa Farm Complex. The game started slowly for each team, but as the afternoon sun warmed, so did the Cougars in the boys' third- and fourth-grade gold division game of the Daily Pilot Cup. There is a one-point penalty for a winning margin of five goals or more, according to the Pilot Cup rules, but College Park was happy nevertheless.

Richard Dunn For the past six years, all Golden State Athletic Conference women's basketball championships have been won by Vanguard University and Azusa Pacific, which could only mean one thing for fans this year when to the NAIA powerhouses square off. Hold on to your pompoms. And fresh in Vanguard Coach Russ Davis' mind was last year, following the host Lions' 58-55 edge-of-your-seat GSAC win Saturday night. "They beat us last year in double overtime in our homecoming game and in triple overtime in the GSAC Finals," Davis said of the Cougars, as if he was glad to spit out that bitter APU taste from 2001-02.

Bryce Alderton A hard-throwing pitcher while on offense combined with their own defensive mistakes equaled a frustrating Friday afternoon for Vanguard University baseball players. Junior right-hander Jason Ray struck out 14 -- eight looking -- and allowed four hits in 8 2/3 innings to lead visiting Azusa Pacific University to its ninth win in 11 games following a 6-1 Golden State Athletic Conference victory over the Lions, who committed five errors.

Vanguard goalkeeper William Johnson is only a freshman, but he already has one great college story to tell the girls. Vanguard shutout visiting Azusa Pacific, ranked No. 5 in the NAIA, on Saturday, 1-0, in a Golden State Athletic Conference match. It was a battle of last season's conference co-champions. This time VU was able to avenge its two losses to the Cougars in 2004. "This win meant a lot to the seniors. I had heard all week about how bad they wanted to beat Azusa," a smiling Johnson said.

Tony Altobelli COSTA MESA - It's not even enough time to reheat day-old pizza, but in just 90 seconds the Vanguard University women's basketball fell into a hole it just couldn't get out of. In the opening minute and a half, the Lions committed five turnovers and gave up the first 12 points of the game en route to a 68-49 home loss to Azusa Pacific in both team's Golden State Athletic Conference opener Tuesday night....

LOS ANGELES — Much of the negativity created by the Orange Coast College football team Saturday night was a result of tackling Los Angeles Southwest ballcarriers in the backfield. But beyond holding the host Cougars to minus-32 yards on 21 rushing attempts, there were areas of seepage for the less-than-positive elements of the Pirates’ 26-9 victory that upped their record to 2-0. There were, in fact, 197 penalty yards incurred on 20 OCC infractions, one interception thrown in the end zone and one touchdown pass nullified by a penalty.

Senior Steve McIlwain canned two straight three-pointers to ignite a 13-4 run early in the second half, which helpled the NAIA's No. 6-ranked Azusa Pacific men's basketball team post an 82-69 Golden State Athletic Conference victory over visiting Vanguard University Saturday night. Five different Cougars scored in double figures, led by McIllwain's 15. Three were reserves. The Cougars led by a 35-32 count at halftime, then pushed it to 43-38 with 4:30 spent in the second half when McIllwain buried back-to-back treys to key the 13-4 run, which blew the lead up to 56-42 with 12:18 left.

AZUSA ? As the rain started falling on an overcast day, the hopes of the Vanguard University men's soccer team started washing away. Azusa Pacific's Brandon Stirm helped cause the landslide. He scored on a header with a minute left in the first sudden-death overtime period, lifting the Cougars to a 2-1 victory in the NAIA Region II championship game Saturday at APU. It was a crushing loss for the Lions in their first-ever NAIA Division II championship game. Azusa Pacific (15-3-2)

BASEBALL Azusa Pacific 11, Vanguard 5 AZUSA - The visiting Lions led, 2-0, 3-2 and 5-3, before the Cougars erupted for eight in the eighth inning of the Golden State Athletic Conference game Thursday. Bryce Arroyo was three for four with two runs batted in and one run, while Henry Yates was two for three with one RBI and one run for the Lions (14-12, 5-10 in conference). No. 5-ranked APU is 25-6, 14-2.

UC Irvine's Bren Events Center opened 25 years ago this month. The last five years have created few moments when the venue generates enough excitement from the spectators to clearly constitute a home-court advantage. The men's basketball team's 86-76 win over visiting and Big West-leading Long Beach State on Jan. 22 of 2011 was one such memory, when the students, as well as the generally more sedate older members of the community rose to their feet and emptied their lungs at levels sufficient to move the decibel meter.

IRVINE - First it was the uniforms, then two-thirds of the lineup. But after the top-ranked UC Irvine men's volleyball team fell for a second straight night to No. 2-ranked BYU, it is change on a fundamental level that is forthcoming for the Anteaters. Following up a sweep on Friday, the Cougars (4-1, 2-0 in conference), prevailed, 25-22, 25-19, 15-25, 20-25, 15-9, to thoroughly establish themselves as the top team in the nation, as well as the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.

IRVINE - UC Irvine men's volleyball Coach John Speraw theorized that being elevated one spot this week to the No. 1 national ranking may have gone to his players' heads. No. 2-ranked BYU, apparently miffed at losing its top spot, definitely took it to the host Anteaters' chin on Saturday with a 25-20, 25-21, 28-26 sweep that should give UCI what Speraw called some much-needed humility. "I think it was good for us," Speraw said of the loss, in front of a charged-up crowd of 2,741 that was just starting to bring the noise in a dramatic third game.

COSTA MESA - Sometimes, the one thing you haven't tried, the one thing that is least likely to work, can be the magic bullet. The Orange Coast College women's basketball team came up one shot shy of completing a second-half comeback that was as unlikely as it was astounding Saturday night. But in the end, Coach Mike Thornton and his Pirates were left wondering if a 66-65 loss to College of the Canyons in the semifinals of the Erin Tomlinson Coast Christmas Classic at OCC may at least serve as a reset button on a mediocre season to this point.

COSTA MESA — The College Park Cougars did not like the taste of defeat in their mouths after losing their first-round game, and a 9-1 win over Victoria Thursday afternoon had a sweet flavor to it at the Costa Mesa Farm Complex. The game started slowly for each team, but as the afternoon sun warmed, so did the Cougars in the boys' third- and fourth-grade gold division game of the Daily Pilot Cup. There is a one-point penalty for a winning margin of five goals or more, according to the Pilot Cup rules, but College Park was happy nevertheless.

COSTA MESA — Coach Russ Davis rattled off the names of five players as if they were on a missing persons report. They were gone from the Vanguard University women's basketball team lineup on Thursday. Four of the players were out with injuries. One left the program during the break. Davis surely misses the five players. The Lions are hurting, and in a Golden State Athletic Conference home game, they were exposed. That is not usually the case whenever Vanguard is the host.

PULLMAN, Wash. — Senior outside hitter Larissa Nordyke had a team-best 11 kills and added six digs, but the Anteaters were defeated, 25-23, 25-15, 25-19, by host Washington State to open the season Friday in the Nike Cougar Invitational. Senior outside hitter Kari Pestolesi had six kills and 11 digs, but hit just .036. Nordyke hit .121. Sophomore opposite Taylor Smith had six kills and hit .385 for UCI, for which sophomore Marissa Alvarez had 12 assists and seven digs and freshman Mary Carls chipped in 10 assists and six digs.

MISSION VIEJO — The night before one of the biggest meets for the Corona del Mar High boys’ swim team, Coach Barry O’Dea decided to split up his top 400-yard freestyle relay team. O’Dea figured the Sea Kings would need a second and a third-place finish to beat Capistrano Valley in the final event in the Cougars’ pool Thursday. Everything fell into place. O’Dea mapped out the meet perfectly and the Sea Kings executed it for an 86-84 win in a nonleague double-dual meet, that included Loyola of Los Angeles.