All-Stars provide assist

NEWPORT BEACH — Orange County’s finest seniors gathered on Newport Harbor High’s volleyball court Tuesday to raise money for a 5-year-old battling brain cancer.

It is fitting the most outstanding players selected in the boys’ and girls’ matches at the 32nd Dave Mohs Memorial All-Star event played setter. Corona del Mar’s Connor Bannan and University’s Bojana Tendorvic assist others.

On the back of their T-shirts, Bannan and Tendorvic wore the kid’s first name “Julian.”

Bannan and Tendorvic assisted on many plays for their respective teams, none bigger than participating in an event supporting the Julian Dunn Cancer Fund.

Bannan helped the South boys to a 22-25, 25-18, 15-13 victory against the North, and Tendorvic led the South girls to a sweep.

The real winner to Newport Harbor Coach Dan Glenn was seeing the community come out to help the Dunn family. Julian is the son of Richard Dunn, who worked for the Daily Pilot for 24 years as a sportswriter and editor.

“This has always been an event where we help people,” said Glenn, who got two of his standout former players, Misty May-Treanor and April Ross, to donate items from their professional beach volleyball careers. “We have so much respect and support for the Pilot and [the newspaper has] done so much for us over the years.

“Anything we can do to kind of help out. It’s a great cause.”

The last time Glenn was part of a fundraiser for the Dunn family was last month.

Glenn’s Sailors played Corona del Mar in the Battle of the Bay. Richard Dunn said the two programs raised more than $7,000, money to help defray medical costs after a tangerine-size tumor was removed from his son’s brain last December.

The Sailors and Sea Kings joined forces again to aid the Dunns. This time, the two rivals played on the same side of the court.

The UCLA-bound Bannan fed his regular CdM teammate, middle blocker Dylan Davis (UC Santa Barbara), and Newport Harbor’s hitters, JB Green (USC, for football) and Hamilton Day (BYU). Who else would?

The South featured only one true setter. Bannan never left the court. He even got two other locals, Costa Mesa’s Ryan Thompson (Penn State) and Sage Hill School’s Bayle Smith, involved.

Game 2 is where the South made a run. After being tied at 13-13, the South outscored the North, 12-3, making things interesting.

Both the girls and boys planned to play three games, regardless if one team won the first two games.

The third game in the boys’ match turned out to be the decisive one.

The teams went back and forth until Davis hammered a shot, breaking a 12-12 tie. With Bannan setting, the South stayed on top.

“I was surprised,” Bannan said he was when he earned the boys’ top honor. “I thought there [were] a lot of other guys out there that did really well.”

They all starred for a great cause.