UNIVERSITY BEAT: VOLLEYBALL EVENT IS WIDE OPEN.

Byline: Rich Hammond Staff Writer

Blame it on the adjustment to rally scoring or simply a year of amazing parity, but there is not a clear-cut favorite among the four remaining teams in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men's volleyball tournament.

Which means that third-seeded UCLA could very well win two matches this week and cruise into the NCAA Final Four with great momentum - or be sent home in three games by Long Beach State on Thursday in Provo, Utah.

The final MPSF matches present intriguing showdowns. The other semifinal pits two teams, Brigham Young and Hawaii, that most followers believed would meet in the MPSF final, but that was before Hawaii slipped in the final weekend and fell all the way to the fourth seed. The loser of that match will have to hope for an at-large berth to the NCAAs, which is far from certain.

UCLA meets a Long Beach State team that started the season with tremendous promise and a No. 2 national ranking in January but struggled against the conference's top teams and dropped to No. 6 in mid-March. A late-season push, and a tiebreaker advantage over UCLA and Hawaii, vaulted the 49ers to a No. 2 seed.

The Bruins avenged two earlier losses to Stanford by beating the Cardinal in Saturday's first round in five games, and the 49ers swept seventh-seeded Pepperdine. Sophomore Cameron Mount and senior Mark Williams each had 26 kills to lead UCLA over Stanford. The 49ers, led by senior outside hitter Dave McKienzie, split two meetings with the Bruins this season.

The teams will meet Thursday at 4 p.m. on the BYU campus, with BYU-Hawaii following. The winners meet for the conference title and an automatic berth in the Final Four on Saturday in Provo.

--Familiar faces: If BYU and UCLA meet for the MPSF title, the Bruins will have to contend with three local products, middle blockers Chris Gorny (Littlerock High), Matt Olsen (Royal of Simi Valley) and Mac Wilson (Highland of Palmdale).

Wilson, a senior, missed almost half of the year with an ankle injury but has averaged 1.33 blocks per game in his return, second-best on the team. Olsen, a junior, is second with 88 total blocks and Gorny, a freshman, has played just nine games.

--Aloha, Bruins: The UCLA women's water polo team earned the No. 2 seed in the MPSF Championship, which is Thursday through Sunday in Honolulu. Stanford is top seeded and USC is No. 3.

On Friday, the Bruins take on the winner of Thursday's match between No. 7 UC Santa Barbara and No. 10 UC Irvine. UCLA defeated UC Irvine 13-4 last Friday to end its regular season.

USC finished its regular season with victories over UC Irvine (12-3) and UC San Diego (18-1) on Saturday. Aniko Pelle and Sofia Konoukh each scored five goals against UC San Diego. The MPSF semifinals are Saturday and the championship match Sunday.

--High honor: UCLA senior Christina Tolson was named Pac-10 Conference field athlete of the week after she set conference and school records in the hammer throw at the Mt. San Antonio College Relays last weekend.

It was the second weekly conference honor for Tolson, who threw the hammer 214 feet, 6 inches to better her previous record of 208-11. The throw at Mt. SAC was Tolson's career best and the second-best throw of any active American collegiate athlete.

Several USC athletes also made good showings at the Mt. SAC meet. Senior Andre Ammons won his heat in the 400-meter event and did it in a personal best and NCAA provisional qualifying time of 45.97 seconds. Junior Kevin Elliot ran a personal best of 1:48.71 in the 800-meter event, also a provisional qualifying time.

For the Trojans women, senior Brigita Langerholc won the 800 in 2:03.20, the country's best time this season. The Trojans and Bruins are gearing for their 68th annual meet, this year at USC's Katherine B. Loker Stadium on May 5.