Shadowlands

Looking back, 5 years ago this week.

Costa Mesa’s Division 3 girls team, the Girls in Green, fare best

among area teams by clinching the championship with a 4-1 win over

Huntington Beach (Region 147) in the first annual Brian McMillian

Labor Day Invitational, which sees 26 AYSO Plus level teams compete.

Tiffany Grondahl scores from just inside the 18-yard box for Costa

Mesa’s first goal before Huntington Beach ties the game, 1-1. Sharon

Day gives Costa Mesa the lead for good in the second quarter as

Grondahl adds a pair of insurance goals in the final quarter, one on

a pass from Chelsea Soria for the hatrick. Goalkeeper Emily Abbott

keeps most Huntington Beach shots out of the net. The Girls in Green

go 3-0-1 to win the championship, beating Huntington Beach in the

semifinals, 2-0, as Soria scores both goals, one on a header from a

cross pass from Sarah Ronquillo. The defense is led by Andi Arris,

Kim Law, Juanita McGauley, Meghan Duffy and Jennifer Chavis.

Charlie “Tex” Bleiker announces he will step down following the

season as the Newport Harbor boys tennis coach after 24 years. During

his tenure at Newport Harbor, where he also coached the girls team up

until two years ago, Bleiker coaches several individual champions

including Margo Mololly and Mara Colaizzi on the girls side and Brett

Hansen-Dent and Geoff Abrams on the boys side. His girls team wins

the Sea View League championship in 1993, earning a berth in the CIF

Southern Section Division I Finals.

Lindsay Davenport knocks off third-seeded Jana Novotna, 6-2, 4-6,

7-6 (7-5), to reach the semifinals of the United States Open at

Flushing, N.Y. The Newport Beach resident and Palisades Tennis Club

member is down to match point in the third set with Novotna serving

at 5-4, but Novotna’s return hits the net, allowing Davenport to tie

the set, 5-5. Both players hold serve to force a tiebreak, which goes

to 5-5 before Davenport breaks Novotna’s serve. Davenport hits a

cross-court forehand winner to take the match.

Looking back, 10 years ago this week.

Ian Long, a former two-time All-Sea View League offensive lineman

from Newport Harbor High, transfers from Arizona State to Fresno

State after he’s listed as third on the Sun Devil’s depth charts.

Ian’s father, Dallas Long, a former Olympic shot putter, says the

6-foot-6, 310-pound lineman’s eligibility is still in question.

A trio selected to represent the U.S. that includes incoming

Newport Harbor High freshman Geoff Abrams, the top-ranked 14-year-old

tennis player in the U.S. and a Newport Beach resident, reaches the

final of the 16-team, 5-zone World Junior Youth Cup in Yamanakako,

Japan. Keith Brill (Columbia, S.C.) and Bob Bryan (Camarillo) join

Abrams in the trio. Abrams says, “We were selected sixth, so we did

better than expected.” Abrams and Bryan go 4-0 in doubles and both

Abrams and Brill go 3-1 in singles.

Biain Lewis of Corona del Mar is awarded the Most Improved Player

at the Association of Volleyball Professionals awards banquet in

Santa Monica. The former Corona del Mar High and Orange Coast College

standout is the third-leading winner on the year’s AVP pro beach

tour, pocketing more than $115,000 in prize money. Lewis rises to the

No. 9 ranking after being ranked 22nd the previous year. Lewis and

Mike Whitmarsh team up to finish second at the Orange County Open.

Newport Beach’s Robyn Ray, the director of tennis at the Newport

Beach Marriott Hotel Tennis Club, advances to the semifinals of the

U.S.T.A. National Senior Grass Court Championships at the Germantown

Cricket Club in Philadelphia. Ray defeats Dave Bohannan, 6-4, 6-2, in

the quarterfinals.

Pelican Hill Golf Club becomes the first course in Orange County

to link up with 1-800-TEE-TIME, a reservations system founded by

Steve Reilly of Golf Reservations of America, Inc., that allows

centralized tee time reservations at more than 60 courses, up to 30

days in advance.

-- compiled by Bryce Alderton