Cougars

IRVINE ? When the top two college men's volleyball teams in the country meet, a highly competitive match is expected. Twenty-one lead changes after No. 1 Brigham Young and No. 2 UC Irvine took the court, the Anteaters outlasted the Cougars, 30-24, 28-30, 27-30, 36-34, 15-13, Friday night. A portion of the season-high 2,817 fans in attendance stormed the court at the Bren Events Center. It was a sight foreign to junior Matt Webber, who led the Anteaters (14-3, 12-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation)

COSTA MESA ? Vanguard University women's basketball coach Russ Davis compared his team to a finely tuned sports car Monday night and there was very little shifting in the Lions' 96-67 rout of visiting Azusa Pacific. Vanguard, ranked No. 1 in NAIA Division I, accelerated to a 7-0 lead and continued to pull away to complete its regular season 27-0, 20-0 in the Golden State Athletic Conference. The Lions, who open the GSAC Tournament Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at home against an opponent to be determined, made No. 14-ranked APU (22-8, 14-6)

Big game for Lum isn't enough for Orange Coast College, which battles back after a slow start.COSTA MESA -- There's no doubt the Orange Coast College baseball program is on the upswing. Orange Coast won a share of the Orange Empire Conference crown last year for the first time since 1987 and advanced to the four-team state tournament for the first time in 12 seasons. Then the Pirates came out this season and won their first seven games before falling to host Grossmont on Saturday. Coach John Altobelli, in his 14th season at the helm for Orange Coast, believes he has one of the top squads in the state.

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.

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.

Thomas Pearson, Tom Money and Jacob Murphy scored four goals each Tuesday as Corona de Mar defeated host Capistrano Valley, 14-7, in a nonleague season-opener. The Sea Kings outscored the Cougars, 4-1, in the second quarter to build an 8-4 halftime lead, then outscored the hosts, 4-2, in the third before rolling to the win. While Pearson (two assists and one steal), Money (three steals and two assists) and Murphy (four steals and two assists) paced the CdM offense, Gaston Sanford recorded nine goalie saves and three steals for the winners.

Kris Krise tossed a complete-game eight-hitter and walked just two as visiting College of the Canyons escaped with a 3-2 nonconference win over Orange Coast Thursday. Krise forced the Pirates (4-4) into 18 groundball outs, allowing single runs in the first and ninth innings. Orange Coast's right fielder Jeff Piaskowski slammed his first home run of the season -- a two-out solo blast in the ninth -- to cut the Cougars' lead to 3-2, but Krise tallied his lone strikeout two hitters later to end it. OCC starter Josh Gagne struck out three, walked two and allowed three runs in six innings while Keith Mastel went 2 for 4 to lead the Pirates.

Bryce Alderton Much like the dirt field they trampled upon, players from the Corona del Mar High girls soccer team showed a degree of grit Saturday against Capistrano Valley, a South Coast League soccer stronghold, to wrap up pool play in the 16-team Mater Dei tournament at Centennial Park. Goals were hard to come by for either team, but Capo Valley broke through for the game's lone score in the second half -- during the 39th minute -- to send the Sea Kings to their second straight 1-0 setback.

UC Irvine used four pitchers to retire the side in the ninth inning, when visiting Washington State broke a 2-2 tie to claim a 4-2 nonconference baseball victory Sunday. The winning rally began with a two-out double off Michael Koehler, who had retired the first seven hitters he faced after coming on in the sixth. Phil Tripoli replaced Koehler and surrendered an RBI single to pinch-hitter Robert Stahlke. Jay Miller then singled off Chris Nicoll to drive in an insurance run, before UCI's Keith Raulinaitis got the final out. UCI's Chris Klemm scored on Gregg Wallis' fielder's choice to tie it in the eighth.